Chappell Roan Chokes Up At Raleigh Show As Bonnaroo Announces They’re Moving Her To A Bigger Stage: “My Career Is Going Really Fast, And It’s Really Hard To Keep Up”
Music-festival lineups and plans are usually locked into place long before they’re announced, and those festivals can struggle to respond when they’ve booked an artist who’s suddenly surging in popularity. That’s happening right now with Chappell Roan, currently on the kind of meteoric rise that we don’t see too often. Roan’s current tour was meant for club-size venues, but demand is so intense that she’s being moved to bigger venues, which are still selling out. (I saw it for myself in Richmond a few weeks ago.) The same thing is happening at festivals, where Roan is in the middle of the card but drawing headliner-size crowds.
At Boston Calling last month, Chappell Roan reportedly pulled in bigger crowds than headliners like Ed Sheeran. At this past weekend’s Governors Ball in New York — where Roan dressed like the Statue Of Liberty and told the crowd that she’d turned down an invitation to a White House Pride event — her audience was just colossal.
@govballnyc Hot To Gooooo #chappellroan #govballnyc #govball ♬ original sound – Julia Senga
This coming Sunday, Chappell Roan will play Bonnaroo. When the festival schedule was first unveiled, Roan was booked to play in a tent, which would not have been able to hold all the people who presumably want to see her. After a fan outcry, Bonnaroo shared an updated schedule yesterday, moving Roan to the outdoor Which Stage. She’s still playing in the middle of the afternoon, though. Good luck to Milky Chance, Veggi, and Irreversible Entanglements, all of whom are playing at the same time as her.
It’s fun to see a pop star taking off suddenly, but it’s not always so easy on the pop star herself. When I saw Roan a few weeks ago, she told the crowd that it was the biggest show that she’d ever played, and she seemed a little overwhelmed. Last night, Roan played Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheater. While introducing “The Subway,” the new song that she debuted at Gov Ball, Roan broke down in tears and told the crowd that she’s having a hard time adjusting to everything that’s happened to her so quickly:
I guess I just want to be honest with the crowd. I just feel a little off today ‘cause I think that my career is going really fast and it’s really hard to keep up. So I’m just being honest that I’m just having a hard time today. So sorry that — I’m not trying to give you, like, a lesser show. It’s just, there’s a lot… Thank you for understanding. This is all I’ve ever wanted. It’s just heavy sometimes, I think.
Part of what people like about Chappell Roan is that she’s not excessively media-trained. She hasn’t been prepped for fame since infancy. Last summer, she was still working as a camp counselor. It’s exciting to see someone take off out of nowhere, but that level of attention isn’t easy on anyone, media-trained or not.
