It’s been the year of Chappell Roan. Fresh off a record-breaking festival circuit, Roan secured the Grammy for best new artist Sunday night.
Roan, known for being outspoken, stayed the course with her acceptance speech. After she offered a host of thank-yous, she fulfilled a promise to herself.
“I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” Roan began, reading from a diary.
Having already rotated through a few outfits just halfway through Sunday night’s ceremony, Roan wore a sizable cone hat onstage. It promptly fell off as she began her speech with a giggle.
As she continued, Roan talked about her experience being signed as a minor and how she got dropped from her label with “zero job experience under my belt, and like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance.”
She said it was “so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have help.”
Roan said that if her label prioritized her and other artists’ health, “I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to.”
To wrap up, Roan said, “Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.”
“Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” she concluded.
Her speech got the crowd on their feet and drew loud applause and cheers throughout, with musical peers clearly in support of her words.
Roan’s album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” dominated charts this year and skyrocketed her to fame in a matter of months. She drew massive crowds at music festivals, and her loud and unique style turns heads on every red carpet.
“The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” earned Roan a nomination for album of the year Sunday night. Her single “Good Luck Babe!” is up for record and song of the year.
She was also up for best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album but didn’t win.
