Chappell Roan is having the year of her life. Her songs are taking over TikTok, she’s touring the country to massive, record-breaking crowds and she’s been rising up the Billboard charts all summer long.
But Roan wasn’t pumped out of the pop-music machine as a fully formed star in 2024. Her ascent to stardom has been a steady climb, one thwarted by the pandemic and issues with her label, over 10 years. It just so happens that the last six months of her career have been stratospherically successful.
Ahead of Roan’s performance at the MTV Video Music Awards — once a star-making showcase for icons like Madonna, Britney Spears and Beyoncé — revisit Roan’s journey from Missouri teen musician to one of pop’s most exciting new faces in years.
The rise of Chappell Roan, 2014 — 2015
Chappell Roan hails from Willard, Missouri. And while she never quite felt like she belonged among the Midwestern milieu, it has informed everything about the artist she’s become.
I’ve always wanted to tie my project back here, for some reason,” she says in a 2023 mini-documentary ahead of the release of her first album. I have to honor this place that raised me no matter how I feel about it. It’s just always going to be a part of me.”
She started out performing at school talent shows and local events before pursuing music more seriously as a teenager.
November 2014: Roan’s first self-titled EP, released under her real name, Kayleigh Rose, debuts. She’s 16.
Two fans review her work in a 2015 episode of The Vault,” a Missouri-based music podcast. When they went to their local record store to buy the album, Roan’s mother was there selling some of her CDs. Within a few moments, all of the copies of the album sold out, the hosts say.
They sold out that quick — that should tell you how awesome this girl is,” one of the hosts says.
There are only four songs on her debut EP, but the hosts praise the unique raspiness and almost smoky quality of her voice.
November 5, 2014: Australian pop star Troye Sivan shouts out one of Roan’s original songs, Die Young.”
i’ve had (this) 16 year old girl on repeat for 2 months,” Sivan tweets. you HAVE to listen to this, guys - go send some love.”
Sivan’s support is especially meaningful because he started on YouTube, too, before getting a record deal.
May 2015: Roan is signed to Atlantic Records shortly after she turns 17. This is when she adopts the stage name Chappell Roan — her late grandpa’s name was Chappell.
People would always ask if I had a plan B,” she says in a short documentary in 2017. And he never asked. He just knew I could do it.”
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