Do we like Chappell Roan?
Our score: 8 out of 10. She raised over $400,000 for trans youth causes and has a clean record, with one messy hotel row where she says she wasn't involved.
Chappell Roan was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz and grew up in Willard, Missouri, in a trailer park with her parents and three younger siblings. She signed with Atlantic Records at 17, and Atlantic dropped her in August 2020. She spent the years after that finding the sound and the queer identity that became the Midwest Princess.
The comeback is the part fans love. She moved to Los Angeles, worked odd jobs and kept releasing music independently, then signed with Island and released her debut album in 2023. It peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200, and she won Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys. In her speech she talked about feeling “betrayed by the system and dehumanized” and asked labels if they had artists' backs.
On the harm test she's about as clean as it gets. In October 2025 she launched the Midwest Princess Project, which put over $400,000 from her shows towards trans youth organisations, with $1 from every ticket on that tour going to local groups. She extended the idea to Australia's Laneway Festival, naming Transcend Australia and Transgender Victoria as recipients.
Her politics got messy in 2024, when she said there were problems on both sides and copped heat for not endorsing a candidate. She then said her comments were taken out of context and that she wasn't voting for Trump. Where you land depends on whether you read that as a reasonable stance on both parties or a fumble. Nothing in what I found counts as harm to any group.
In February 2026 she left the talent agency Wasserman after its CEO, Casey Wasserman, was named in Justice Department Epstein files. His emails with Ghislaine Maxwell from 2003 were released, and he has not been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case. She said no artist, agent or employee should be expected to defend or overlook such actions. Leaving a big agency over principle costs something.
The messy one came in March 2026 at Lollapalooza Brasil. Footballer Jorginho Frello alleged on social media that a security guard confronted his family at a São Paulo hotel breakfast, and an online pile-on followed. Roan said the guard wasn't her personal security and that she didn't ask him to approach anyone. She apologised for the family's distress. The guard said he was there for another person, and Jorginho later apologised and called the matter closed. Mother Jones argues the backlash against her was misogynistic.