Chappell Roan quickly achieved new levels of stardom the night of February 2 with her first ever Grammy Award win for Best New Artist.
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter received six total nominations for her debut studio album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and her 2024 single "Good Luck, Babe!"
In her acceptance speech, Chappell drew attention to young, developing artists signed with record labels that are often left without resources and, most notably, health insurance when they are struggling to find initial success or unceremoniously dropped.
"I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially developing artists," she stated.
Chappell was born in the small town of Willard, Missouri and began her career by uploading covers and the occasional original song to YouTube as a teen under her birth name, Kayleigh Rose. In 2015, at the age of 17, after her covers attracted attention from record labels, she moved to Los Angeles and signed with Atlantic Records.
"I got signed so young, I got signed as a minor," she continued in her speech. "When I got dropped, I had zero job experience under my belt, and like most people, I had … quite a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and [could not] afford insurance."
She released her debut EP with Atlantic in 2017 and began working with producer Dan Nigro. However, her lack of commercial success did not please her label, who opposed the release of her 2020 single "Pink Pony Club."
After pushing from Chappell and Dan, the song was eventually released, and while it received acclaim, it did not fare well commercially at the time. "I was so devastated," Chappell told Rolling Stone of the lack of support from her label. "It made me second-guess myself."
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In August 2020, Atlantic dropped a then 22-year-old Chappell, the same week she broke up with her boyfriend of four years. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, she moved back to Missouri to live with her parents, and was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder later that year.
"It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized," Chappell added in her Grammys speech. "If my label had prioritized it, I could have been provided care for a company I was giving everything to."
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She worked several odd jobs to support herself, including as a barista at a coffee drive-through back home. "It's the classic Midwestern thing where it's like, 'We can make any candy bar you want into a frappé!' It was not my favorite," she told Variety.
Chappell moved back to Los Angeles soon after and began working as a production assistant on an HBO show and as a nanny to make ends meet. She continued working on her music independently, but eventually reconnected with Dan in 2022, signing to his own label, Amusement Records.
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They began putting out steady work until the release of her debut album in 2023, which became a sleeper hit, boosted by her appearance as the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS World Tour.
"Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection," the "Hot to Go" singer concluded. "Labels, we got you, but do you got us?"