Chappell Roan Said She’d “Be Way More Successful” If She Was “OK With Wearing A Muzzle”
“I did not crumble under the weight of what the expectation of being a pop star is,” Chappell declared.
Chappell Roan — AKA your favorite artist’s favorite artist — was EVERYWHERE in 2024.
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I’ll never forget where I was when I heard “Good Luck, Babe” for the first time. And neither will the Recording Academy, presumably, because first-time nominee Chappell is up for SIX awards at next week’s Grammys.
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She has also had her fair share of talked-about moments; last year she went viral a number of times for her take-no-BS attitude with the press, paparazzi, and the public.
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If you missed it, at the 2024 VMAs Chappell wasn’t afraid to respond in turn when a photographer could be heard shouting “Shut the fuck up” in her direction. Similarly, a clip of her demanding an apology from a photographer on the red carpet for her friend Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour premiere went viral in October.
My personal favorite moment was when she called out the VIP section at Outside Lands festival for not dancing during “HOT TO GO!” As she SHOULD.
She gained notoriety for her widely acclaimed debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (which went triple platinum in my house), and BBC Radio 1 just named her as their Sound of 2025.
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When discussing her no-BS attitude, the interviewer called her “a woman of the people”, and said that such an attitude was needed for her level of success. “It’s so interesting because I don’t agree,” began Chappell.
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“I think that you get really successful if you are really not combative,” she explained. “I think I would be more successful if I was OK wearing a muzzle.”
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“I think I would be way more successful if I said yes to things. I was made to feel [like I] will never get this opportunity again,” she added.
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Chappell then explained that her behavior was more of a survival tactic than anything else. “If I were to override my basic instinct of my heart being like, ‘stop stop stop, you’re not OK’ I would be bigger. I think I’d be on tour still,” she mused, referencing how she ended her tour in October last year to focus on her health.
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And when asked about the longevity of her career, she said that she has decided it isn’t something that is up to her, but her wellbeing is. “I think the longevity of my soul being protected and me not hating myself… is going to stay the longest,” she said.
And as for her reaction to “disrespect,” Chappell herself understands that she broke a mold. “I did not crumble under the weight of what the expectation of being a pop star is,” she declared.
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Bringing up her response to the photographer at last year’s VMAs, Chappell said, “I think that completely shattered what everyone… like, that is not what a pop star is supposed to do.”
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“I’ve been acting that way… whether it’s right or wrong in that situation… but I’ve been responding that way to disrespect my whole life. But now there are cameras on me. I also happen to be a pop star. And those things don’t match. They’re like oil and water,” Chappell concluded.
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