New pop superstar Chappell Roan speaks out about “obviously sexual” songs

You’ve undoubtedly heard the catchy hit “HOT TO GO!” and probably hummed the widely known breakup anthem “Good Luck, Babe!” without even knowing who the artist is.

It turns out that both hits are sung by Chappell Roan, a pop singer who is suddenly everywhere – and drawing comparisons to Madonna in her younger years.

Born Kayleigh Amstutz, 26-year-old Chappell Roan (pronounced “CHAP-el ROHN” for the uninitiated) grew up in a conservative Christian household in Missouri.

But the new superstar is not as squeaky clean as Taylor Swift.

Instead, Roan pays tribute to drag queens in her performances, with her elaborate outfits and raunchy stage moves reminiscent of the Material Girls of the 1980s.

“She is the Madonna of our generation,” wrote one X-user.

“My mom is always so happy when I put on ‘Pink Pony Club’ because she says it reminds her of her teenage years dancing to Madonna and that’s how you know Chappell Roan is a pop princess,” wrote another.

“My songs are intentionally overtly sexual because they’re an expression of myself that I couldn’t express growing up in a Christian household, in a Christian town that was very conservative,” Roan told Vulture.

Praised by the likes of Sir Elton John, Roan has become something of a Generation Z LGBTQ icon and has also been compared to pop legends like Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga for her ultra-camp costumes.

On Threads, one fan called Roan “the second coming of Cyndi Lauper,” while an X-user compared her to Lady Gaga, saying it “reminds me SO much of how I felt when I saw Gaga, every single red carpet, every interview, every performance, everything we never knew what to expect.”

“When people say Chappell is the next Lady Gaga, it feels like a very interesting reality where everything was shaped specifically for this moment and for our collaboration,” Roan’s stylist Genesis Webb told Marie Claire.

At the recent Gov Ball, Roan took the stage dressed as the Statue of Liberty (teal wig, body paint, and all) in a giant red apple and paid homage to drag legend Divine at Kentuckiana Pride.

For her appearance for NPR on the network’s series “Tiny Desk,” she wore a bright magenta dress, a sky-high red updo and dramatic, doll-like makeup, and for “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” Roan wore a swan-like ensemble.

But despite Roan’s sexually charged lyrics and the storylines in her songs – which deal with grappling with sexuality, heartbreak and the complexities of “situationships” – she is not trying to “sell sex,” Webb said.

“Yes, she could wear a tight little leotard and always look hot in it, but her style is so much more than that,” Webb told Marie Claire.

“Our main concern is that people are scrolling all day, so we try to give someone a reason to stop. Even if they say ‘yuck’ and laugh or gawk at our outfits, at least they stop and question what they’re looking at. These moments of revelation are so important in art and culture.”

Roan – whose stage name is a tribute to her grandfather Dennis Chappell and his favorite song, “The Strawberry Roan” – released her first EP, “School Nights,” in 2017 while still signed to Atlantic Records. However, the label later dropped her from the roster and she was forced to move back home and work at a drive-thru coffee counter.

While diehard fans of the artist have been following her for years, she only gained widespread recognition with the release of her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which she describes as “pajama party pop,” and her viral single “Good Luck, Babe,” which is currently on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Her performances at summer festivals had to be moved to larger stages that could accommodate more people as her star rose, attracting the attention of fans of all ages — from a toddler lookalike to an elderly gentleman nicknamed “Pink Pony Pawpaw” on TikTok.

With 29 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone and a record deal with Amusement Records, where she works with her collaborator Dan Nigro, Roan can hardly believe her overwhelming success.

At a recent show in North Carolina – where fans who couldn’t get tickets watched their favorite pop artist from a nearby parking garage – she was close to tears as she told the crowd that her “career is growing really fast and it’s really hard to keep up.”

But she told Fallon a few weeks ago that, given the growth of the huge fan base, it feels like I was right all along, she joked.

“It feels like I’ve made it. I mean, I feel like I’ve already made it when I said, ‘Oh my God, people came to my concert,’ a few years ago,” she said. “Everything else was icing on the cake.”