Three years ago, a young Chappell Roan was singing Elton John covers on YouTube. Her hair was long and brown, her clothing muted, her demeanour understated. That girl is worlds away from the sparky musician dancing on stage in 2023; red ringlets springing around her face and wearing elaborate costumes heavy with glitter and fringe. Would Roan’s younger self, that one on YouTube, have believed Elton would be a fan of hers just three years later? “You’ve been called a ‘queer pop superstar in the making’ – I think they called me that too,” the Rocket Man himself quipped. “He’s a fan,” Roan tells me now, with a cheeky, nonchalant smile. “He loves it.”
Roan – real name Kayleigh Rose Amstutz – is a star cut from Elton’s cloth: all campy costumes, energetic performances and huge-sound pop. On her acclaimed debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (she’s from Missouri), you can hear the stars of her childhood like Lady Gaga and Ke$ha, mottled with the sort of Eighties artists behind “big, anthemic” pop songs such as Kate Bush and Cyndi Lauper. She’s a versatile singer, expressing the pain of forbidden love and chaotic relationships through full-throttle, bratty vocals. At her live shows, Roan fosters an environment not unlike a girly sleepover, plus all the sapphic undertones. She chants lyrics and her fans scream them back, even when said lyrics are come-ons as silly as “get it hot like Papa John”. Music rarely sounds this fun.
