By: Hannah Wiley, Assistant Features Editor
This past weekend was music’s most anticipated night, the Grammy Awards. While the internet debates who they think was robbed and celebrates those who won, Chappell Roan is proving that in a stacked category – nominated alongside Sabrina Carpenter, Benson Boone and Shaboozey – she was the right choice for the “Best New Artist” Grammy.
After last year’s winner, Victoria Monét, announced that Chappell Roan had won, Roan was visibly overcome with emotion. She started her speech by thanking her producer, record label, parents and her papa Chappell, who her on-stage persona is named after. While most artists would go on to say how thankful they were, Roan opened up a small notebook and started to read a speech prepared prior to winning. She continued on to say, “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and 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 liveable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists.”
While it's not a new concept for socialites to shed light on topical issues while accepting awards, calling out the music industry and its wages at an event put on by the industry is something much more bold. Roan went on to say, “Because I got signed so young – I got signed as a minor – and when I got dropped I had zero job experience under my belt and, like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic.” In 2020, Chappell Roan was signed to Atlantic Records where she made her hit single, “Pink Pony Club,” which the label thought wouldn’t perform well, later dropping her. Five years later, that same single was performed at the Grammys right before she won her first one.
She ended her speech saying, “Labels we got you, but do you got us?” Roan urged record labels to provide not only a liveable wage to their artists, but also healthcare. Celebrities, like Benson Boone and Taylor Swift, were seen giving her a standing ovation as she exited the stage, while other artists, like Sabrina Carpenter, were brought to tears by her speech.
Since the 2025 Grammys, Rolling Stone released an article entitled, “Chappell Roan’s Grammy Speech Raises Questions on Health Care in the Music Industry,” mentioning that beginning steps were being taken to look into changes that can be made to meet artists’ needs. Other outlets are saying Chappell Roan is “far too green and uninformed” to make change, especially one of such gravity. On social media, fans and viewers of the Grammys started to call out Roan for being “disrespectful,” considering the artist set down her Grammy during her speech. They also argued she shouldn’t have chosen this specific issue when there is so much more socio-political turmoil today, while others have praised her for using her platform to speak out and advocate for change.
In a year, recording artists can make anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars. With such a wide range, and such a focus on bigger artists, we forget about the new artists without a record deal, whose financial situation is much closer to the latter. At the 2025 Grammys however, Chappell Roan shined a light on those artists.