Chappell Roan is officially a Grammy winner—and she used her first acceptance speech to shed light on a crucial issue in the music industry.
Tonight at the 67th annual Grammy Awards ceremony at Los Angeles’s Crypto.com Arena, Roan was named the Best New Artist of the year, beating fellow nominees like Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii, and Raye. For her acceptance speech, the “Pink Pony Club” singer made sure to use her platform for good.
“I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up 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 healthcare, especially to developing artists,” said Roan, who changed out of her red-carpet Jean Paul Gaultier look and into an Acne Studios minidress accompanied by a medieval princess hat by Piers Atkinson.
She went on to recount how this particular issue has personally affected her. “Because I got signed so young, I got signed as a minor, and when I got dropped I had zero job experience under my belt and like most people I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance,” she continued. “It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have healthcare. If my label would have prioritized artists’ health, I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to.”
She ended her acceptance speech with a question to those holding power in the industry: “So record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
Tonight, Roan has been nominated in six categories: Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Pop Solo Performance. Earlier, she also took the stage for her first-ever performance at the prestigious music event.
