A Quick Look At Chappell Roan’s Controversial Fight For Up-And-Coming Artists

Throughout her momentous rise to pop stardom this year, Chappell Roan has not been without her controversies. Like fellow sapphic star Reneé Rapp, Roan is unafraid to candidly share what she thinks and feels. The “Pink Pony Club” singer was no less honest when she accepted the award for Best New Artist at this year’s Grammys, using her speech to controversially call for record labels to provide living wages and healthcare for their artists.

Little did she know that those words would set off a firestorm of discourse within the music industry. Here’s a look at the chaos caused by the Midwest Princess herself. 

February 2 – Chappell Takes Home Best New Artist And Gives Brave Speech

After stunning the audience with a joyful performance of “Pink Pony Club,” Chappell was presented with her only award of the night, Best New Artist. When she took the stage, notebook in hand, she used her moment on Music’s Biggest Night to call for change in the music industry. “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy, and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists, would offer a livable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists,” said Roan, who was met with thunderous applause. 

Roan went on to share her experience of being signed to Atlantic Records as a minor in 2015 and dropped from the label in 2020 after “Pink Pony Club” and other singles were deemed not profitable. She was left without work experience to find a new job during the pandemic and ultimately unable to afford healthcare. “It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have healthcare,” said Roan. Ending her call-to-action, Roan looked straight into the camera and said, “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”

For most of us watching the award show, her speech was not only powerful but also relatively non-controversial. Of course, artists should be paid a livable wage by their employers. That’s a no-brainer, right? In the days following the speech, it would become apparent that her words were much more provocative than anyone expected.

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February 5 – Former Music Exec Bashes Roan’s Speech In Op-Ed

In a predictable media move, days after the speech, the Hollywood Reporter published an op-ed written by the former Director of A&R (the department in charge of finding new talent) at Atlantic Records, Jeff Rabhan. Titled “Chappel Groan: The Misguided Rhetoric of an Instant Industry Insider,” Rabhan did not mince his words, calling Roan’s speech “a hackneyed and plagiarized script of an artist basking in industry love while broadcasting naïveté and taking aim at the very machine that got her there.” 

His criticism doesn’t end there. Rabhan takes issue with almost every aspect of the speech—the fact that she used her speech to shame the industry, her belief that labels owe artists healthcare, her supposed lack of nuance, and what he deems to be performative activism. 

Rabhan strongly rejects that record labels should be responsible for providing a living wage or healthcare, writing, “If labels are responsible for artists’ wages, health care and overall well-being, where does it end and personal responsibility begin?” He goes on to say, “There is no moral or ethical obligation by any standard that hold labels responsible for the allocation of additional funds beyond advances and royalties.” 

Throughout the article, Rabhan continuously references Roan as a “young star getting a taste of success” and an artist who “hasn’t lived in the industry long enough to understand its intricate workings,” even though Roan has now spent a decade in the industry and has seen firsthand how labels can fail up-and-coming artists. 

To end his rant, Rabhan offers Roan a list of alternative ways she could have better spread her message—start a foundation and get fellow artists to donate, offer mentorship programs for young artists, and “put your money where your mouth is and invest in new models of artist compensation instead of expecting labels to change overnight.” I know I risk sounding uninformed when I ask this question but, if not to provide for and support the artists they have signed, WHAT IS A RECORD LABEL FOR? Why is it up to artists to crowdfund their wages and healthcare? 

February 6 – Halsey Defends Chappell’s Position

The next day, pop singer Halsey shared her own distaste for Rabhan’s article via Instagram stories while defending Chappell’s original message. “It’s a game of investment but the investment is towards producing the materials, the person *the ORGANIC MATERIAL* that is producing that product needs access to things like health care. Shocking, I know,” the singer wrote. “If you want to profit off of someone else’s art; that artist should have the basic living means to feel safe enough to create that art.”

Halsey continued by challenging Rabhan’s notion that Roan is not basking in the monetary gains of her rise to fame and should allocate that money to artist healthcare, writing, “To compare the payoff of her actions to those of an industry titan with the power and financial leverage of Taylor Swift, when Chappell hasn’t even spun the block enough times to see the residuals of her long earned but sudden success, is irresponsible for someone with your experience in this industry.” She ended her defiant post with “Shame on you. Boot licking behavior.”

February 7 – Chappell Responds With a Challenge

In response to the clamor of Rabhan’s article, Roan took to her own Instagram stories to challenge Rabhan to match her $25k donation to struggling artists. 

She furthered her challenge by writing, “Mr. Rabhan I love how in the article you said ‘put your money where your mouth is’ Genius !!! Let’s link and build together and see if you can do the same.”

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February 7 – A Second Rabhan Rant

Rabhan took to X to share an open letter long enough to make one yearn for the days of the 140-character limit. Addressing both Roan and Halsey, Rabhan attempted to defend his position and complain about the backlash he faced since the publishing of his opinion. “Who thought it was a good idea to publicly challenge an educator to a 25k ‘one-upping’ contest? Really? Do you know what teachers make?” Rabhan began his defense. 

He went on to remark that Roan should “stop dumpster diving” by calling him out and instead “move the conversation forward.” In reference to the backlash he had been receiving, Rabhan wrote, “If you and Halsey had directed your fanbase to donate $1 to your Living Artist Fund for every hate-filled slur sent to me— you would have enough funding in ONE DAY to cover health care for every single artist and writer in need for almost 2 years.” Once again, he returns to this notion that somehow the crux of wages and healthcare can be solved by artists instead of directing his criticism towards the record label institutions with quite enough funding to make a change for their artists. “If you, your artist friends and your fans want to attack me for pushing you to think and act like a champion, to lead by doing instead of finger-pointing and to be the change you want to see,  then carry on,” he adds. “Your move.”

February 8-9 – Stars Put Their Money Where Their Mouths Are

Seeing the pledge made by Roan to donate $25,000 to struggling artists, stars Noah Kahan and Charli XCX pledged to match Roan’s donation and shared how inspired they were by Roan’s speech.

February 9 – Chappell Doubles Down On Grammys Message

Roan once again took to Instagram stories to share that her speech “wasn’t meant to be a crowdfunded bandaid but a call to action to the leaders of the industry to step up, help us make real change and protect their investments in a sustainable way.” 

In following stories, Roan posted a link to the charity she was donating $25,000 to along with a message telling fans, “[Y]’all don’t have to donate a damn penny. This is one of many opportunities for the industry powers to show up for artists.” Since she posted the link to her “We Got You!” project with Backline, a nonprofit that works to connect music industry professionals with mental health and wellness providers, many industry organizations have donated their own $25,000. 

Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, Sumerian Records, AEG Global Touring, Hinterland Music Festival, and others have all matched Roan’s donation alongside messages like, “Our favorite artist’s favorite artist brought us here. We got you!”

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February 8-11 – Rabhan Crashes Out On LinkedIn

Instead of celebrating the fact that Roan got her artist friends to crowdfund for the right to healthcare, Rabhan has been maniacally responding to comments on LinkedIn about his op-ed. Here are a few of the best lines from the past few days:

• “She used her speech time poorly, shamed the biz asking for things that no one wants and can’t happen and said the labels should pay for it.”
• “Some would say that standing in front of the industry and shaming down the room before asking for help or investing a moment or a dollar yourself to the demands your asking is condescending”
• “[I]t was speak[ing] loud by doing, not fumbling the opportunity by being uninformed and shaming the people who can help.”

I ask once again, was Roan shaming the industry Rabhan so clearly loves to protect, or was she simply holding up a mirror to their questionable practices?

Only time will tell who will emerge the victor of this bizarre online battle but one thing’s for sure: While this feud now takes up a significant chunk of Jeff Rabhan’s Wikipedia page, he will always merely be a footnote in Chappell’s story.