Remember March 2024? The Tories were still in government, finals were for students but an abstract event for future selves, and Chappell Roan’s management were trying to sell tickets for her upcoming Midwest Princess tour at Glasgow’s SWG3 venue. Glasgow’s SWG3, capacity 1,000. Chappell Roan, Chappell Roan.
None of the above lasted, including Roan’s venue choices for her European dates, where several cities received venue upgrades, including Glasgow to the O2 Academy. Why? Well, because nothing and no one (including even her own touring schedule) could have anticipated the rapid ascent to fame awaiting Roan in the coming months.
But first, back to early 2024. Chappell Roan’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released to steady success back in September of the previous year – it was well-received both critically and by a dedicated array of pop fans celebrating the return of FUN to music. Landing on several best-of-year-end lists, it was a campy, synthy, glittery affair with darker and deeper lyrical themes relating to Roan’s ‘Christian and conservative’ upbringing in Missouri, and the isolation she sometimes felt.
‘Pink Pony Club’, the album’s lead single, is an equal parts celebratory and devastating anthem detailing the freedom Roan felt following a visit to a Los Angeles gay bar, alongside the ostracisation she anticipated from her hometown. Joyful extolments of “a special place / where boys and girls can all be queens every single day” are peppered with exasperated cries of “God / what have you done?” – if one song from her discography were to sum up the artist’s overall message of queer and creative liberation in the face of hometown resistance, it is this.
A cult following developed as 2024 began, bolstered by her stint as a support act on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts world tour. However, when it all truly went down; when the deal of global fame was truly sealed; when the stars aligned and a star was made, was surely the release of follow-up single ‘Good Luck, Babe!’.
The single received 7 million streams in its first week. There’s a particularly fascinating line graph doing the rounds on social media, showcasing the genuinely mind-bending rise of the Midwest Princess; a visual representation of the kind of viral fame possible in 2024.
Waiting outside the O2 Academy’s doors tonight are dozens and dozens of cowboy-hatted and glitter-faced fans, holding up signs desperately seeking spare tickets, a visual representation of demand outstripping supply in the case of a newly-minted superstar.
Inside, the craftsmanship and creative skills of Chappell Roan’s fanbase are a beautiful sight to behold – and a testament to the wonderful niche Roan has carved out for herself – inspired by drag queens, it involves a lot of makeup and colour and big hair.
It’s fitting and delightful, then, that the openers for the night are local drag queens from across Scotland (for each night of her tour, Roan posts a call-out for drag performers in the area to support her). A highlight is Edinburgh’s Rhiannon, who performs to Charli XCX’s ‘Vroom Vroom’, scooting across the stage in an incredibly impressive impersonation of, well, a car.
The energy inside the O2 is magical and slightly manic as Chappell Roan herself skips onto the stage. There’s a powerful moment as the entire venue erupts into a chant of “Chappell! Chappell! Chappell F*cking Roan!”. Roan appears genuinely moved and slightly taken aback.
“I’ve never… had a chant like that before”, she finally says softly in her Missouri twang, faced with her first Glasgow crowd.
The set itself is hit after hit, essentially performing the entirety of her album (a non-skippable feat, anyway). Her voice is big and expressive, and her body is never still, as she jumps and hops and joyously bounds across the stage in a sparkly camouflage bodysuit with long red locks flowing behind her.
There are some surprises, in the form of a song from her somewhat forgotten 2017 EP – ‘Love Me Anyway’ is a crowd pleaser nonetheless, with its immensely catchy and singable chorus. She also plays an unreleased piece of new music, ‘The Subway’ (about the NYC one, not Glasgow). It’s emotional in the way all Chappell Roan songs are emotional, without too much wallowing before the next big melody, or the next lyrical one-liner.
‘HOT-TO-GO’ gets the biggest audience reaction of the show, with the entire O2 breaking out into what is kind of the YMCA for the TikTok generation; ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ also receives a huge response, the line “I hate to say but / I told you so!” screamed out by >2,000 sets of lungs all at once.
She finishes where the Midwest Princess era began, with ‘Pink Pony Club’. “I’m just having fun / on the stage in my heels / it’s where I belong”. By the delight radiating off of the Glasgow audience tonight, I think they’re inclined to agree.
Image credit: courtesy of Tamsin Dunlop