Last autumn, Chappell Roan’s UK performances were confined to intimate, club-level venues.
On Friday, she commanded the stage as a headliner at the Reading Festival, delivering a captivating and triumphant set that underscored her meteoric rise over the preceding 18 months.
Against the backdrop of a gothic fairytale castle and accompanied by a formidable all-female band, Roan infused a raw rock edge into hits like “Hot To Go” and “Casual,” amplifying her debut album for a stadium-sized experience.
“Thank you for loving me and standing with me,” she expressed to the audience of 90,000. “This is a dream come true, seriously.”
Roan’s Reading booking followed her emergence as a prominent breakout artist of 2024, a success story forged through years of refining her artistic vision and navigating skepticism from record labels before her infectious, singalong anthems resonated with their intended audience.
Her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” has steadily gained traction, chronicling the singer’s journey of self-discovery, from leaving her small-town Missouri roots for California to embracing queer love and distancing herself from past relationships.
The songs, expertly crafted and spanning genres from country to 80s synth-pop, found a deep connection with listeners through lyrics filled with longing and romantic setbacks.
At Reading, her devoted fans fervently sang along, frequently threatening to overpower Roan’s own powerful vocals.
Radio 1’s Jack Saunders observed, “You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the world’s biggest hen party,” noting the prevalence of pink cowboy hats among the audience.
Roan took the stage shortly after 7pm, adorned in an elaborate crimson ensemble complemented by a black “bat wing” fascinator, swiftly dubbed “Chappell Crow-an” by fans.
Bounding across the stage, she initiated the set with three of her most energetic tracks—”Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” “Femininomenon,” and “After Midnight”—pausing only to shed layers of her intricate costume.
Over the ensuing 90 minutes, she performed nearly her entire discography, including early releases like “Love Me Anyway” and standalone tracks from this year such as “The Giver” and “Subway.”
Ordinarily, relying on album tracks and deep cuts might signal a festival headliner stretching thin material, but Roan’s performance defied this expectation.
Remarkably, almost every song from “Midwest Princess” has become a contemporary anthem, elevating the album to the status of classics such as “Thriller,” “Rumours,” and “Back To Black.”
Standout moments included “Hot To Go,” complete with its viral YMCA-style dance routine, and the biting “My Kink Is Karma,” dedicated by Roan “to my ex who is in the crowd tonight.”
However, it was ballads like “Casual,” “Coffee,” and “Picture You” that truly highlighted the star’s vocal prowess, characterized by country twang and delicate vocal flips, setting her apart from her pop contemporaries.
The constraints of the festival slot regrettably omitted Roan’s characteristic banter.
A recurring highlight of her current tour involves “The Giver,” during which she pauses to read messages from audience members about their disappointing exes. (Notably, in Oslo last week, she encouraged fans to boo a man named Daniel who had cheated on his partner “twice in the same Burger King parking lot.”)
While this segment was absent at Reading, the singer’s charisma and stage presence remained undeniable.
As the sun dipped below the horizon at Little John’s Farm, she walked to the edge of the catwalk for her breakthrough single, “Good Luck Babe,” backlit by spotlights and embodying the essence of a superstar.
She concluded the set with “Pink Pony Club,” blowing kisses and high-kicking across the stage as fireworks illuminated the sky and fans ecstatically embraced the moment.
From beginning to end, it was a quintessential pop performance.
Roan will repeat the performance in Leeds on Saturday night, followed by two headline shows at Edinburgh’s Royal Showground next week.
Following her summer festival run, Roan has scheduled a few dates in Ireland and the USA before tackling the daunting task of following up on the resounding success of her debut album.
In a recent interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, she suggested that this process could take up to five years.
“The second project doesn’t exist yet,” she revealed. “There is no album. There is no collection of songs.”
“I want to write music whenever I feel settled. I haven’t felt settled,” she elaborated. “It’s been a very unsettling year and a half, and I think once I really feel calm in a new house and have a routine… Then I can think about writing a song.”
Let us hope that she finds that rest soon, because her return is eagerly awaited.
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