Chappell Roan is opening up about being labeled a diva pop star for calling out “creepy behavior.”
The “Good Luck Babe!” singer, who had a monumental 2024 with the release of her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, spoke out during an interview with BBC Radio 1.
Skyrocketing to fame over the last year has forced Roan to get used to abusive paparazzi and stalkers, she explained, acknowledging that viral moment at the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet where she scolded a photographer who had been taunting and insulting stars.
“I was looking around, and I was like, ‘This is what people are okay with all the time? And I’m supposed to act normal? This is not normal. This is crazy,'” Roan recalled.
“I’ve been responding that way to disrespect my whole life — but now there are cameras on me, and I also happen to be a pop star, and those things don’t match. It’s like oil and water,” she continued, also referencing how so many people — British tabloids included — were quick to deem her spoiled or whining. “I think, actually, I’d be more successful if I was OK wearing a muzzle.”
She continued: “If I were to override more of my basic instincts, where my heart is going, ‘Stop, stop, stop, you’re not OK,’ I would be bigger. I would be way bigger… And I would still be on tour right now.”
Roan, in the running for six Grammys next week, refused to extend her 2024 tour and instead opted to protect her physical and mental health. She told the BBC that she credits her late grandfather for that sense of resolve.
“There’s something he said that I think about in every move I make with my career. There are always options,” she began. “So when someone says, ‘Do this concert because you’ll never get offered that much money ever again’, it’s like, who cares? If I don’t feel like doing this right now, there are always options. There is not a scarcity of opportunity. I think about that all the time.”
English (US) ·