Chappell Roan: What you need to know about the sapphic superstar causing a ticket frenzy for Irish fans
Chappell Roan plays the Olympia in Dublin, but could likely have filled a far larger venue. Picture: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
My social media feeds have been plagued by posts pleading for tickets for months. Not for Taylor Swift’s three-night stint at the Aviva (though, they too, featured) nor Coldplay’s trio of stadium shows at Croke Park. Everyone I know seems to be looking for Chappell Roan tickets.
The ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ hitmaker has become a phenomenon in recent times and it looks unlikely that Irish fans will get to see her in such a relatively compact venue again in the near future.
So, who is Chappell Roan, and why has a show that’s already been upgraded from Dublin’s The Academy causing such a ticket frenzy?
Twenty-six-year-old Kayleigh Rose Amstutz (but don't call her Kayleigh — we'll get to that) grew up in the Ozarks town of Willard, Missouri, population 6,000.
A deeply conservative small town in the US, she has said she attended church multiple times a week and was taught that “being gay was bad and a sin".
These days, she is a passionate advocate for the queer community and identifies as a lesbian. She cites drag culture as having a profound influence on her music and artistry and has been compared to the likes of Lady Gaga and Madonna.
Her path to becoming Gen Z's next superstar started at 17 when she was signed to Atlantic Records and made the move to LA. She told in 2022 that she felt she was "allowed to be who I want to be" in the City of Angels and "that changed everything.”
The complex feelings around embracing queerness and freedom are represented in her 2020 song 'Pink Pony Club', which didn't take off at the time, but is one of her signature tracks today. She was subsequently dropped from her label, and considered giving up on her dream of being a popstar entirely (listen to 'California', it hits different in 2024). Thankfully, she persevered.
In March 2022, she released 'Naked in Manhattan' as an independent artist. The song evokes "the rush of slumber party kissing" and imagines her first sexual/romantic experience with a woman. The low-budget video is shot with thrifted clothes on the streets of New York City. This is the start of the enigma we know as Chappell Roan today.
Just over a year later, she signed with Daniel Nigro's Amusement Records — the producer behind another Gen Z success story, Olivia Rodrigo. Roan's debut album followed in September 2023 and her connection to Rodrigo via Nigro helped her score the opening slot on Rodrigo's stadium world tour.
Videos of Roan singing some of her more explicit lyrics from the album (look up the lyrics to 'Casual'), on stage during that tour started going viral on TikTok, and a few months later, her first single post 'Good Luck, Babe!' blew up on the platform. Roan had officially 'made' it.
Most likely. Her song ‘Good Luck Babe!’ peaked at number one on the Irish singles charts and is currently sitting at number two, just behind Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Taste’.
A previous single, ‘Hot To Go’ from her album also peaked at number ten in the Irish charts, and both have enjoyed significant airplay on Ireland’s main radio stations.
‘Pink Pony Club’ has also peaked inside the Top 20.
Very big. An estimated 100,000 showed up to her set at Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. A spokesperson for the festival told CNN it was the biggest daytime set the festival had ever seen.
Recently, she performed 'Good Luck, Babe!' at MTV's VMA Awards where she made headlines for telling a photographer on the red carpet to 'Shut the fuck up'.
Or, it's a popstar with boundaries — she is Gen Z after all.
Despite working as an artist for years, Roan's ascent to the top of pop has been swift, and with it, has come some unfortunate side effects. Unlike the popstars that have come before her, Roan isn't afraid to call out her fans for creepy behaviour, something which has earned her criticism from some, and praise from others.
In August, she posted two TikToks where she asked the public to consider their relationship to her and other famous people.
"If you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from the car window? Would you harass her in public? Would you go up to a random lady and say, “Can I get a photo with you?” And she’s like, “No, what the fuck?” And then you get mad at this random lady? Would you be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time? Would you stalk her family?"
"I don’t care that abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous, whatever. I don’t care that it’s normal.
The singer went on to say she is "allowed to say no to creepy behavior".
Her TikTok videos sparked a conversation about the way we treat famous people and whether or not Roan was rude or ungrateful for telling fans she didn't owe them a picture. She has since double-downed on an Instagram post where she asked her fans not to call her by her birth-name Kayleigh and said "I'm not afraid of the consequences for demanding respect."
Roan is a big advocate for the LGBTI+ community and doesn't just play lipservice to her drag influences. For all dates of her tour, including her upcoming date in Dublin, she invites local drag acts to open for her. A portion of each ticket sold for her Dublin/UK shows also goes to Kaleidoscope Trust, a UK-based charity focused on "fighting for the human rights of LGBTI+ people across the Commonwealth and beyond".
Her on-stage fashion choices are also something that has set her apart from her peers. Working with stylist Genesis Webb, Roan's looks are influenced by drag, burlesque, punk and more, and often pay tribute to icons that have come before her. Like her ruby red gown paired with drawn-on brows and blue eyeshadow in a tribute to queen Divine, the star of John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, designed by Irish fashion designer Oran O’Reilly.
She also encourages her fans to dress-up for her shows and gives out 'themes' for each one. Dublin's theme is 'Pink Pony Club' so expect to see lots of pink cowboy hats, pink glitter mini-skirts and pink cowboy boots around Dame Lane on Tuesday.
Great question. Many of Roan’s Irish fans have been pleading with the promoters and Roan herself to upgrade the venue for a second time (it had already been upgraded from The Academy to the Olympia), but this hasn’t happened.
While there isn’t a show in the 3Arena on the same night as Roan’s Dublin date, there is a show at the venue the night after. It’s worth noting all of Roan’s European tour dates are sold out, and only the recently-announced Berlin date has been upgraded to a bigger venue since Roan's meteoric rise.
Probably not. But, if you want to soak up the vibes, there are plenty of Chappell Roan themed club nights popping up around Dublin with dressing up strongly encouraged.
While Roan is playing the Olympia, The Grand Social will be playing Roan from 11pm at the ULTRA MODERN GIRL | Chappell Roan Club Night (tickets from €11.70 on eventbrite), while The Workmans Club will have another Chappell Roan clubnight this Friday, September 20, from 11:30pm, tickets €8.
