Chappell Roan has confirmed that her eagerly anticipated sophomore album will be a pop record – see what she had to say below.
Later today (March 13), Roan will drop her first single of the year, ‘The Giver’. The track, which has been teased for several months now, will see the ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ singer take on the country music genre.
Speaking on the March 14 episode of Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen on Apple Music, per E! News, Chappell Roan clarified that despite releasing the country single, her forthcoming releases and album will see her expand on her pop sound: “I really just did it for fun. I’m not switching genres or anything.”
She also explained why she decided to pivot to country music for the song: “I wanted to write a country song because I just thought it would be funny. It’s campy and fun.” While the song is meant to be fun, it also harbours a deeper meaning for the singer, as it sees her returning to her musical roots.
Chappell Roan. Credit: Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
“I’m from southwest Missouri,” she explained. “Grew up on Christian and country, and then found ‘Alejandro’ by Lady Gaga and I was like, ‘I think I like this, too.’ So, I have kept country in my heart. And it’s so incredibly nostalgic to drive in West Hollywood and [play] Jason Aldean or Alan Jackson’s ‘Chattahoochee.’”
Another song that inspired ‘The Giver’ was Big & Rich’s 2004 hit ‘Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)’: “I was like, ‘I want to feel that way on stage. I want to feel that. Because that’s how I write. I’m like, ‘How do I want to walk around on stage and sing?’ And I was like, ‘I want to write that song, but Chappell’s version.’”
Roan has been steadily teasing ‘The Giver’ for some time now, and the former NME Cover star broke out the upcoming track during an appearance on Saturday Night Live last November.
On the show, she told the audience: “All you country boys saying you know how to treat a woman right. Well, only a woman knows how to treat a woman right,” prompting fans to dub the new song a “lesbian anthem”.
Chappell Roan performs onstage at the 67th annual GRAMMY Awards. CREDIT: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Before then, Roan’s producer Dan Nigro told The New York Times fans could expect a “fun, up-tempo country song” that featured a fiddle, and said it would show “a new version” of the ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ singer.
“We’ve never done a country song and I have such a special place in my heart for country music,” she wrote on Instagram of the track. “I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars.”
Chappell Roan then addressed whether her upcoming sophomore album will be a country record: “Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album??? My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on cuntry xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall.”
Chappell Roan. CREDIT: Erika Goldring/WireImage
Roan’s ‘The Giver’ comes shortly after she had performed a duet of ‘Pink Pony Club’ with Elton John at his Oscars viewing party. Elsewhere at Elton John’s fundraising event, she took the stage for a full set that included more duets with John for ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ and ‘Your Song’, which she covered on YouTube five years ago before finding mainstream fame. She also sang ‘Naked in Manhattan’, ‘Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl’, ‘Femininomenon’, ‘Hot To Go’ and ‘Good Luck, Babe!’.
Just the night before the performance, Roan had used her voice to dedicate her BRIT Award win “to trans artists, to drag queens, to fashion students, sex workers, and Sinead O’Connor,” and prior to that made headlines after using her Best New Artist speech at the 67th Grammy Awards to take aim at record labels and share her past experience as a struggling new artist.
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