Chappell Roan's meteoric rise leaves Pittsburgh fans in awe
“Pink Pony Club” fans have been around since the pandemic in Pittsburgh, but the release of “Good Luck, Babe!” in April started an international Femininomenon — and singer Chappell Roan became a household name.
Roan, a 26-year-old singer from Missouri, released her first EP titled “School Nights” in 2017, followed by a series of singles including the popular “Pink Pony Club,” which was released in 2020 leading up to the release of her first album titled “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” in 2023.
Reagan Castleman discovered the singer on TikTok in 2022. She was immediately taken with the single “Naked In Manhattan.”
“I love when I see artists reach their potential and their full peak,” said Castleman, 25, of Carnegie. “I knew that she had the potential … it’s really nice to see appreciation for art that the artist puts out.”
Roan brought her “Midwest Princess” tour to Stage AE in April, along with a sea of pink cowboy hats, boots and sparkles.
Seth Martin became a Roan fan in October 2023, and he said after hearing her album, he knew he “needed” to attend the Pittsburgh show.
“I was begging anyone online: ‘Do you have tickets to the show?’” said Martin, 23, of Crafton, who ended up getting tickets the day of the show. “I had clothes packed in case I found somebody with tickets.”
Stage AE on the North Shore has an indoor music hall with a capacity of 2,400 people. Months later, she was playing to a massive Lollapalooza crowd in Chicago.
Castleman attended the Pittsburgh concert alone, and during the show, she said she met many “cool people” from the Pittsburgh area. She said she also saw Roan’s recent Lollapalooza set, which was “massive.”
During the Chicago-based festival, Roan was reportedly slotted to perform on a smaller side stage. After organizers noticed the large number of fans waiting for her performance, theydecided to swap her stage assignment with fellow pop singer Kesha, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
“It was so crazy,” Castleman said. “It was one of the best daytime sets I’ve ever seen.”
A spokesperson for Lollapalooza told USA Today in a statement that the turnout for Roan’s performance was unprecedented for the music festival. Photos show a sea of people in Chicago’s Grant Park.
“Chappell’s performance was the biggest daytime set we’ve ever seen,” the spokesperson said. “It was a magical moment added to Lolla’s DNA.”
Other sources told CNN that Roan reportedly had “Lollapalooza’s biggest set of all time.” Exact numbers haven’t been released, but Lollapalooza posted a video of Roan performing “HOT TO GO!” on TikTok.
@lollapalooza hot to go @chappell roan ♬ original sound - Lollapalooza
Kiera Vinson has also been a Roan fan. She also attended the Stage AE concert in April despite not really being a concert person.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is the last time I’ll see her in a venue this small,’” they said.
Roan’s rise in popularity is well-deserved, according to Vinson, 24, of the North Side, and Roan has a big following in the Pittsburgh area.
“I love how she use local drag queens,” they said.
At each city where Roan performs, she recruits local drag queens to perform as the opener for her tour.
Roan has been labeled a queer pop icon by the National Organization For Women.
For Melinda Wedde, who has been a Roan fan since summer 2023, Roan provides a sense of community.
“I love how poppy and upbeat and catchy it is,” she said. “I love her whole persona and how fun it is, how she does a theme for every concert and how fans join in.”
Wedde, 39, of McCandless, said she’s proud of Roan’s success, and it’s exciting to witness.
“I’ve been a music fan forever, and I cannot remember seeing anything like this,” she said. “It is unbelievable.”
Boosting queer art
Roan’s album was “cathartic” for Martin to hear because it shows how Roan has become confident in her sexuality, he said. As Roan evolved as a musician, she began to explore her queer identity through her songs and lyrics.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is nearly exactly like my experience being queer in my teenage years,’” Martin said.
Martin said Roan was “gay famous” in the winter, when many of his friends were talking about her music, but now, Roan has become “straight famous.”
“I very much feel that it’s a huge boost to just queer art in general,” he said. “Having a mainstream piece of art to relate to — I just always think it’s wonderful to see.”
Jessica Semler said she’s been hearing about Roan a lot, as she mostly works with and knows queer people in Pittsburgh. Semler, 37, of Etna, said she’s been a fan since Pittsburgh Pride this year.
“I’m a queer woman, and a lot of folks in my age range, for a long time, we weren’t out,” she said, whether it was publicly or even to themselves. “What I really love about this music is it’s tapping into feelings I had experienced in the past that I was never able to express … never felt safe expressing.”
Though she’s only been a Roan fan for a few months, Semler, who serves on Etna Borough Council and works for state Sen. Lindsey Williams, said it’s been “a real joy” to listen to Roan’s music.
“I didn’t really know what being queer could look like, and it took me until my mid-20s,” she said. “I can’t imagine how validating and how much safer I would’ve felt, in myself, with myself … having that type of music.”
Roan has impacted the queer community, according to Semler.
“I think visibility is so profoundly important — I think that’s great for folks who are queer, but I also think the more representation for folks who aren’t in the queer community to see that … having an explicitly queer pop star,” she said. “This is really great.”
Setting boundaries
On Monday, Chappell Roan posted a series of two videos addressing the tensions that have come along with her surge in popularity to her TikTok page. She turned off comments for both posts.
@chappellroan
@chappellroan Do not assume this is directed at someone or a specific encounter. This is just my side of the story and my feelings.
Roan said she believes it’s weird how fans think they know a person just because they listen to the art they made or follow them online.
“”I don’t care that abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous,” she said. “I don’t care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen.
“That doesn’t make it OK; that doesn’t make it normal.”
Addressing examples like fans asking for photos and hugs, as well as people yelling at her on the street, Roan said she’s “allowed to say no to creepy behavior.”
Social media users spoke out on the platform X, voicing their reactions to the videos.
Chappell Roan talks about the mistreatment she’s been receiving from fans:
“I don’t care that abuse and harassment and stalking is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous…That does not make it okay. That does not make it normal.” pic.twitter.com/SoHGVClUiB
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 19, 2024
on a human level - if I became as famous as Chappell Roan as quickly as she did I would become the joker within, like 2 days pic.twitter.com/hkKSaO8HNY
— Tobias "Substack" For Now (@Tobiasfornow) August 19, 2024
The switch up on Chappell Roan all because she simply wants people to respect her boundaries is gross and I hate to say it but I saw this coming months ago when she first started blowing up. Y’all are so heartless and don’t see celebs as people once they hit a specific number https://t.co/STT47VNQql
— candy/mae mae ❤️’s IRIS GOODSPEED (@finaIspace) August 19, 2024
Chappell's been famous for 10 minutes and she's moaning about her fans wanting a picture with her pic.twitter.com/lGuuUVQBUM
— liam (@liamdelswift) August 19, 2024
A reminder since many seem to forget the amount of psychological damage fame had on Gaga. Chappell may not be at the level of fame Gaga was during her peak, but she has every right to draw the hard line for fans so that she can preserve her own sanity. https://t.co/zZKG5orocB pic.twitter.com/daYWku6OBL
— 葉 (@sadkosi) August 20, 2024
chappell roan is popping off on tiktok and I fully agree with her. some of yall are the reason why our favorite celebrities/artist don’t interact with fans anymore. yall take it to the extreme! they’re human beings with a following. just be a normal fan and don’t be weird !
— elissa ???? (@taylordoby) August 19, 2024
Castleman said she believes Roan absolutely has the right to speak out in the way that she did — and set a needed boundary with her newfound fanbase.
“That’s a huge drastic change about how she has to navigate life in the world,” she said. “As fans, you don’t get the right to the artist beyond their art — anything you get extra is really a bonus; it’s not guaranteed or needed.”
Wedde agreed, saying she hopes Roan is well and people give her the privacy she’s asking for.
“Just because you’re famous doesn’t mean people are entitled to your space.”
Martin said wouldn’t know how to cope with going from a small group of people knowing his name to millions of people worldwide in the span of a few months.
“This is a really famous queer person now making queer music — we got to support her; we got to make sure she’s comfortable,” he said. “She still is a human being.”
Megan Swift is a TribLive reporter covering trending news in Western Pennsylvania. A Murrysville native, she joined the Trib full time in 2023 after serving as editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian at Penn State. She previously worked as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the Trib for three summers. She can be reached at mswift@triblive.com.
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