Chappell Roan Makes Grammys Into the Pink Pony Club
Your favorite artists’ favorite artist is the talk of the town. Midwestern princess Chappell Roan stole the show and the Grammy for Best New Artist on Sunday night after an awe-inducing debut performance.
All eyes were on the twenty-six-year-old pop singer from the beginning of the night until the cameras were cut. From her sunshiny red carpet dress through her performance of “Pink Pony Club” all the way into her first of many Grammy wins.
For all artists, performing at the Grammys is the “eyes on you moment.” Some choose to perform a stripped-down and vulnerable heart-melting symphony or assemble a melody of bangers that will get everybody in downtown LA’s Crypto.com Arena on their feet.
Chappell, being Chappell, went for the latter.
Of course, we expect nothing less of her; she is no stranger to turning live performances into “you had to be there” experiences. But assembling a performance that would stand out from all the rest was a challenge of her own doing.
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Her Lollapalooza set back in August 2024 made music history by drawing one of the largest crowds in the festival’s history, with roughly an estimated 110,000 attendees.
A month after the festival, she stole the show again at the MTV Video Music Awards. Performing her hit single “Good Luck Babe!”, she was the most fabulous knight in shining armor MTV has ever seen and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she deserved to take home the moon man for Best New Artist that night, too.
As if that wasn’t enough, she made her Saturday Night Live debut in November, stealing the night with “Pink Pony Club” and a new country-inspired song, “The Giver.”
SNL‘s performer stage supposedly has unideal acoustics that make performing challenging, but the singer overcame these and came out on top. For one magical moment, the studio was filled with the audience’s voices singing her own words back to her.
Chappell Roan is a performer, plain and simple. Every live performance of hers has been a smash success. How will she rise above the standard she herself has set?
This year, the Grammys introduced each new performance with a pre-filmed interview about their music. In her interview, the artist considers “Pink Pony Club” to be her love letter to LA.
She considers the “City of Angels” the first place that allowed her the freedom to be herself, quite the change from the small town of Willard, Missouri, where she is from.
Our exciting new starlet’s performance took the audience back to the roots of such a Midwestern princess as the singer took the stage adorned in a shimmery metallic pink cowboy-inspired unitard, with boots and fringe sleeves to watch.
Joining her was an army of equally fabulous rodeo clowns and, yes, a ten-foot-tall pink pony.
It is difficult not to love “Pink Pony Club,” a love letter to history’s most imperfect place. A track that asks you to sing it with such abandon, such recklessness, demanding that you bask in that liberating chorus and guitar solo.
being this gay on television is so beautiful https://t.co/1kpognYFnK pic.twitter.com/wEJMeS9HAd
— bray ᱬ (@sosolidsapphic) February 3, 2025
Many artists were on the Grammy stage last night, but few are performers like Roan. Very rare is someone who fills the stage with their presence and extends it to the previous row. The Best New Artist exudes star power that shines brighter than her drag-inspired eye makeup.
Chappell Roan is heading out on tour this summer. For more information, click here.
Writer | Tweet me @jamiem_torres
