The Rise and Fall of Chappell Roan in 2024

If one musician kept Us talking throughout 2024, it was Chappell Roan.

Roan is no stranger to the music industry, having signed her first record deal in 2015, but it wasn’t until the 2023 release of her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, that she began to take the world by storm. More than six months after the record dropped, Roan’s popularity skyrocketed once again with the release of her single “Good Luck, Babe!”

Throughout her rise to the top of the charts, Roan hasn’t shied away from setting boundaries with fans — or from critiquing the system that made her so famous in the first place.

“I’m in therapy twice a week. … I think it’s because my whole life has changed,” she confessed in a September interview with The Guardian. “Everything that I really love to do now comes with baggage. If I want to go thrifting, I have to book security and prepare myself that this is not going to be normal. Going to the park, pilates, yoga — how do I do this in a safe way where I’m not going to be stalked or harassed?”

Roan described herself as “confrontational,” explaining, “I’m very turned off by the celebrity of it all. … [People] think I’m complaining about my success. I’m complaining about being abused.”

Despite hitting a number of career highs in 2024 — from playing her first festival to earning her first Grammy nominations — Roan’s year also included a few low moments. Scroll down for a look back at Roan’s rise and fall:

The Album and Tours

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess made an impact when it dropped in 2023, and Roan launched the Midwest Princess Tour to support her album. The tour ended in 2024, with $1 per ticket sold benefitting For the Gworls, a nonprofit helping to fund gender-affirming surgery. Roan wasn’t away from the road for long — she joined Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour in early 2024, opening for shows throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her streaming numbers skyrocketed within one week, increasing by more than 30 percent, according to Billboard.

‘Good Luck, Babe!’ Takes Off

In April, Roan released her single “Good Luck, Babe!” She described the hit — which is now nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2025 Grammys — as the “first song of the next chapter.” It became Roan’s first song to break the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and her fastest to hit 100 million streams on Spotify.

Hitting the Coachella Stage

Not only did Roan make her Coachella debut in April, but it was the first time she ever played a festival. “To be playing Coachella as my first festival is surreal. I can’t believe it,” she told Vogue. “I’ve always heard of it growing up, but I genuinely have no idea what to expect … except to have fun.” Roan’s performances at the desert festival — teamed with the success of “Good Luck, Babe!” — marked a noticeable shift in her career.

Discussing Her Mental Health

Roan’s star status reached epic heights over the course of 2024 — and adjusting to the spotlight wasn’t easy. During a June concert in North Carolina, Roan took a moment to share her feelings with the crowd, saying, “I just feel a little off today because I think that my career has just kind of gone really fast, and it’s really hard to keep up. And so I’m just being honest that I’m just having a hard time today. … This is all I’ve ever wanted, it’s just heavy sometimes, so thank you.”

Two months later, Roan raised eyebrows when she called out “entitled” fans for invading her privacy. “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,” she said via TikTok. “I don’t care that it’s normal. I don’t care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it OK. That doesn’t make it normal. That doesn’t mean I want it. Doesn’t mean that I like it. I don’t. Whatever the f— you think you’re supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity. … I’m allowed to say no to creepy behavior.”

Roan continued to peel back the curtain on her mental health in an eye-opening Rolling Stone interview published in September, revealing she was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder in 2020 and experienced suicidal thoughts. Reflecting on her viral North Carolina concert confession from earlier in the summer, Roan explained, “I was worried of letting people down after they’ve seen these videos of me f—ing serving. I wasn’t serving that day, and I had to be honest.”

Lollapalooza and Festival Drama

After her first festival of the year (and of her career!), Roan continued to draw massive crowds at Bonnaroo, Governors Ball and Lollapalooza. She broke a record at the Chicago-based festival, with a Lolla rep confirming in August that Roan had “the biggest daytime set we’ve ever seen.”

One month later, however, fans who hoped to see Roan performing at All Things Go in New York City and Washington, D.C. faced a last-minute disappointment. “I apologize to people who have been waiting to see me in NYC & DC this weekend at All Things Go, but I am unable to perform,” Roan shared via social media one day before the event was set to take place in September. “Things have gotten overwhelming over the past few weeks and I am really feeling it.”

She continued, “I feel pressures to prioritize a lot of things right now, and I need a few days to prioritize my health. I want to be present when I perform and give the best shows possible. Thank you for understanding.” (All Things Go issued its own statement at the time encouraging fans to “rally around Chappell Roan.”)

Roan’s break from the stage was brief — she returned for the 2024 Austin City Limits festival just one week after dropping out of All Things Go. (Believe Us, the Texas crowd was H-O-T-T-O-G-O.)

VMAs Red Carpet Tension

Roan earned four nominations at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, winning Best New Artist. “I dedicate this to all the drag artists who inspire me. And I dedicate this to queer and trans people that fuel pop,” she said in an emotional acceptance speech. “And for all the queer kids in the Midwest watching right now, I see you, I understand you because I’m one of you. And don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t be exactly who you want to be bitch.”

As Roan celebrated her accomplishment, footage surfaced via social media of a tense interaction with a photographer on the red carpet. In the clip, Roan clapped back after being told to “shut the f— up.” She pointed at the photographer and replied, “You shut the f— up. Don’t! Not me, bitch.”

Discussing the encounter on the red carpet, Roan told Entertainment Tonight, “It’s quite overwhelming and quite scary. … And I need to — I yelled back. I yelled back! You don’t get to yell at me like that!”

Making Her ‘SNL’ Debut

Roan appeared as the musical guest on a November episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by John Mulaney, where she performed “Pink Pony Club” and a new song titled “The Giver.” Nielsen reported that the episode drew 6,586,000 total viewers — SNL’s largest live-plus-same-day audience since 2021.