It might’ve actually been harder to snag a last minute ticket for this than the Eras tour or the Oasis reunion, honestly.
Words: Abigail Firth.
Photos: Patrick Gunning.
The rise of Chappell Roan this year has been nothing short of sensational. Almost a year to the day of the release of her debut album, ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess’, and the accolades have barely stopped coming: all-time biggest crowds at some of the world’s most famous festivals; Number 1s in the single and album charts in the UK; a Best New Artist award at the VMAs. It’s easy to forget this adoration wasn’t always Chappell’s reality.
The single that closes out a second night of pop mania at London’s Brixton Academy, ‘Pink Pony Club’, is also the one that found her dropped from Atlantic Records back in 2020 following her signing there as a teen. Directly preceding it is the strikingly honest rebirth, ‘California’; the moment she confronts all of her false starts in the industry, picks up her heels, puts on her glitter and decides to try again anyway.
Four years on, and there’s no disputing that 2024 would be far more boring if she’d packed it in for good. The thing about Chappell is that she was likely never supposed to have this level of success and definitely never this quickly. When ‘Midwest Princess’ dropped, despite its brilliance, the album and Chappell felt primed for a cult following rather than household name status. But if 2024 has taught us anything, it’s that pop’s outsiders can rocket out of the relegation zone and to the top of the league at any moment.
For Chappell and the nine(!) singles that came before the release of her debut full-length, it wasn’t really any of them that pushed her further into the mainstream, but rather one Coachella performance that’d change everything and a subsequent run of US festival bookings that’d amass bigger and bigger crowds with each appearance. Oh, and a timely drop of the almost instant hit ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ post-album.
All of this to say, the academies and theatres Chappell is playing on the ‘Midwest Princess’ tour now feel comically small (it might’ve actually been harder to snag a last-minute ticket for this than the Eras tour or the Oasis reunion, honestly), but Chappell Roan thrives here. A minimal set up of lights, a band, and sheer talent lends itself to her DIY roots, the air thick and walls practically dripping as she barrels out ‘Femininomenon’ in a camo print ball gown and signature massive red hair.
While she and her shows are often compared to the early performances of Lady Gaga (and sure, she’s obviously a student of Gaga and other bonkers pop stars of the early 2010s), the Chappell Roan live experience feels much looser, with all the pomp but little choreography; there are no gags or gimmicks, just stage presence and charisma in overflow.
The set is a masterclass in how to do call and response well; no one in the room is above shouting “fugly jeans” in ‘Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl’ or “play the fucking beat!” in ‘Femininomenon’. When it comes to it, the obvious mid-set highlight ‘HOT TO GO!’ really is, in many ways, the modern-day ‘YMCA’.
Though for all the fun there is, the ‘Midwest Princess’ tour is also a deeply emotional affair. The first taste of that side of the show comes in ‘Picture You’, the yearning ballad that sees Chappell serenade a wig on a mic stand, later the double punch of ‘Coffee’ and ‘Kaleidoscope’ leads up to the devastating crescendo of ‘Casual’. The similarly crushing and unreleased ‘The Subway’ marks the end of the balladry for the main show and rounds out a phenomenal vocal performance from Chappell.
Following her lyrics’ lead, ‘Red Wine Supernova’ picks it up again for the final stretch. It’s also around this point that it becomes astonishingly clear that ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess’ might have the most impressive set of singles from one pop album since Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream’, and with that in mind, what on earth must Chappell have in store for album two if the 80s disco pop catharsis of belter ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ is anything to go by?
Recent months have seen Chappell face trial by social media time and time again, with new out-of-context quotes doing the internet rounds almost daily. It’s a reputation that doesn’t match up with who she is on stage, which is a generational performer who’s here for the joy of it and who rarely speaks on stage, but when she does, it’s only to give out thanks for the overwhelming support and to earnestly state how much she needed a safe space like the one she and her fans have cultivated at these gigs when she was growing up. The pitfall of fame coming slowly, then all at once, is that Chappell is left misunderstood by so many people who know her name but not the story; fortunately, the people who do understand her are under this roof in matching Midwest Princess outfits (as requested) belting every lyric, which is perhaps what Chappell needs just as much now.
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