The Red Wine Supernova singer, 27, has become one of the biggest singers in the world after her fame skyrocketed in 2024 .
Her fame has continued to grow ever since, becoming a mainstream pop star with legions of fans – but it should not have taken this long for an artist like Chappell to reach this level of success.
The artist, whose real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, first began her career in 2015, but despite releasing various singles, she didn’t achieve fame until 2023, when she signed with a label and released her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
Chappell supported Olivia Rodrigo on tour in 2024 with this album and then released the hit song Good Luck Babe! the same year – and her fame exploded.
The song reached one billion streams on Spotify, a huge milestone for the pop icon who previously called the song ‘a b***h to write’ in an interview with Rolling Stone.
On Spotify, her other tracks boast listening figures in the hundreds of millions, and she now boasts a total of 4.5 billion streams on the streaming platform.
Over the past year, she has performed at the Grammy Awards, while also snagging the 2025 award for best new artist, which she dedicated to queer and trans people.
The artist isn’t taking a break anytime soon and is set to release her album The Giver in August 2025 and is set to appear at a variety of festivals in the summer, with rumours she may even be set to appear at Glastonbury.
Her fame has been so intense that the star has been forced to speak out about her fans ‘creepy’ behaviour towards her.
‘For the past 10 years I’ve been going non-stop to build my project and it’s come to the point that I need to draw lines and set boundaries. I want to be an artist for a very very long time,’ she said in a lengthy post in August 2024.
‘I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you s**t.’
The star has had a meteoric rise to fame all while embracing her queer identity and has been praised as one of the saviours of pop music.
Chappell’s lesbianism is key to her identity and is evident in her emotive, moving songs that she has self-penned. The lyrics are filled with sapphic imagery and tell stories of love and loss in lesbian relationships.
Her song Pink Pony Club has become a gay anthem that tells a story of finding a safe space in the LGBTQ+ community and leaving behind the confines of a Christian upbringing.
The smash hit Good Luck Babe! discusses the pain of falling in love with a woman who is in denial about her sexuality and would rather stay in a heterosexual relationship than be honest about her identity.
Her music and fame has spoken to a generation of queer people.
‘As a lesbian, I’ve spent years recommending underground, independent LGBTQ+ artists to my friends and having them recommended to me. Seldom do said artists break out into the mainstream,’ Emily Bashforth told Metro.
‘It feels foreign to have an openly lesbian pop star suddenly be the hottest thing on streaming platforms, as if one of the community’s secrets is being exposed to the masses… but it also feels amazing.
‘In fact, how I was first exposed to Chappell’s music was as lesbian as can be, as a (sort of) ex told me to listen to Red Wine Supernova. Naturally, it made its way onto my Spotify Wrapped that year.
‘While I no longer speak to that girl, the impact of Chappell Roan lives on, as she repeatedly encourages me to be the boldest, bravest, most unapologetic version of myself.’
Asyia Iftikhar told Metro about how Chappel’s music has spoken to her.
‘Very rarely in my life had I listened to a song that I felt I could so intimately relate to (and that coming from a mid-western American, someone ordinarily so removed from my own experience).
‘It makes my heart so happy to see her not only get the acclaim she deserves but have her stand alongside other pop girlies like Sabrina and Olivia in her own right rather than being pigeon-holed into being a ‘niche queer artist’.
‘She’s quickly become one of my favourite artists for her evocative lyrics, awesome use of the guitar and vocal support of important causes like trans rights.’
Danni Scott, Metro’s music reporter, said: ‘Chappell has felt special since she burst through onto the mainstream with Hot To Go. Much of this comes down to how rare it is to see an unapologetically queer woman — a drag artist at that — awarded and celebrated outside of just the LGBTQ+ community.
‘Everything Chappell does is intentionally drenched in references to gay icons who have gone before. The importance of that alone in the current climate is something that should never be overlooked.
‘However, Chappell is so much more than a lesson in LGBTQ+ history. She is someone I never knew I was yearning for and clearly, I’m not alone. Gay icons historically fall into two main categories: straight female allies and flamboyant gay men.
‘Rarely has an exceptionally fem-presenting, openly lesbian artist, singing songs about the queer experience, managed to make such a cultural impact.’
The consensus among fans seems to be the same, it’s shocking that it has taken this long for a lesbian to reach this level of fame.
‘Often our lesbian icons exude a more toned-down, indie digestible queerness releasing melancholic tracks. As a makeup-loving, fem-presenting pansexual, I was desperately screaming for a lesbian artist to make upbeat pop music,’ said Danni.
‘Watching a proud lesbian bragging on one of the US’ biggest shows in drag about making women orgasm better than a ‘country boy’ ever could? It’s hard not to feel emotional.’
‘Chappell is someone we have been sorely missing and it’s a travesty it’s taken us so long to get here. There’s nothing casual about the impact she will continue to have, regardless of where her career goes from here,’ Danni concluded.
Emily added that she hopes this success paves the way for other queer artists.
‘Whether she’s asserting her boundaries to paparazzi or openly singing about the most explicit parts of her relationships, everything about Chappell is a breath of fresh air in a corner of music that’s been oppressed and had its creativity stifled for decades. I like to think she’s paving the way for other queer artists to follow.’
‘Her music has spoken to a generation of lesbians – but it should not have taken this long for a lesbian artist to reach this level of fame.’
It’s obvious that the level of success achieved by Chappell shouldn’t be as groundbreaking as it.
Lesbians have been in the music industry forever, with trailblazers carefully paving the way bit by bit for decades.
It’s a shame it has taken so long, but a performer who is able to embrace all aspects of their identity so wholly on stage and receive this level of success is a major win for the LGBTQ+ community – albeit long overdue.
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