While accepting the Grammy for best new artist, Chappell Roan called out record labels for a lack of livable wages and healthcare for aspiring artists.
At Sunday’s ceremony, The “Hot to Go!” singer read her speech from a notebook, saying the system fails small musicians. The 26-year-old pop star emphasized she has felt “so betrayed” and “so dehumanized” after being dropped from her first label deal.
“I told myself that if ever won a Grammy and I got to stand 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 livable wage, and health care especially to developing artists,” she said.
Chappell Roan, whose real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, was signed to Atlantic as a teenager in 2015. The label dropped her in 2020.
“If my label would have prioritized artists health I could’ve been provided care by the company I was giving everything to. So record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protections,” she told the Grammys crowd inside the Crypto.com Arena. “Labels we got you, but do you got us?”
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For a couple of years, Roan worked a string of jobs including nanny and production assistant while developing her music career as an independent artist. In 2023 she was signed to Amusement Records, an imprint of Island Records created by her producer and collaborator Dan Nigro.
That fall, Roan released her studio debut, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.”
The pop star took the stage wearing a gray oversized dress with a cone-shaped princess hat, that fell off as she joked “My hat’s going to fall off, it’s going to be OK.”
The first-time nominee took home her first Grammy trophy following six nominations off her 2023 album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” and hit song “Good Luck Babe!” Roan won the best new artist category, winning against nominees Sabrina Carpenter, Docheii and Shaboozey.
Earlier in the show she performed her hit song “Pink Pony Club.”
Melissa Ruggieri contributed to this report.
