A lesbian is the biggest star in pop – shame it’s taken this long

Chappell Roan is one of the biggest pop stars in the world (Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for MTV)

Chappell Roan has burst into the spotlight as one of the most exciting pop stars in the world who combines camp theatrical performances with a drag queen-influenced aesthetic.

The Red Wine Supernova singer, 27, has become one of the biggest singers in the world after her fame skyrocketed in 2024 .

Her fame has continued to grow ever since, becoming a mainstream pop star with legions of fans – but it should not have taken this long for an artist like Chappell to reach this level of success.

The artist, whose real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, first began her career in 2015, but despite releasing various singles, she didn’t achieve fame until 2023, when she signed with a label and released her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

Chappell supported Olivia Rodrigo on tour in 2024 with this album and then released the hit song Good Luck Babe! the same year – and her fame exploded.

The song reached one billion streams on Spotify, a huge milestone for the pop icon who previously called the song ‘a b***h to write’ in an interview with Rolling Stone.

On Spotify, her other tracks boast listening figures in the hundreds of millions, and she now boasts a total of 4.5 billion streams on the streaming platform.

Over the past year, she has performed at the Grammy Awards, while also snagging the 2025 award for best new artist, which she dedicated to queer and trans people.

The artist isn’t taking a break anytime soon and is set to release her album The Giver in August 2025 and is set to appear at a variety of festivals in the summer, with rumours she may even be set to appear at Glastonbury.

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Chappell won the best new artist award onstage during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Her fame has been so intense that the star has been forced to speak out about her fans ‘creepy’ behaviour towards her.

‘For the past 10 years I’ve been going non-stop to build my project and it’s come to the point that I need to draw lines and set boundaries. I want to be an artist for a very very long time,’ she said in a lengthy post in August 2024.

‘I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you s**t.’

The star has had a meteoric rise to fame all while embracing her queer identity and has been praised as one of the saviours of pop music.

Chappell’s lesbianism is key to her identity and is evident in her emotive, moving songs that she has self-penned. The lyrics are filled with sapphic imagery and tell stories of love and loss in lesbian relationships.

Her song Pink Pony Club has become a gay anthem that tells a story of finding a safe space in the LGBTQ+ community and leaving behind the confines of a Christian upbringing.

The smash hit Good Luck Babe! discusses the pain of falling in love with a woman who is in denial about her sexuality and would rather stay in a heterosexual relationship than be honest about her identity.

Her music and fame has spoken to a generation of queer people.

‘As a lesbian, I’ve spent years recommending underground, independent LGBTQ+ artists to my friends and having them recommended to me. Seldom do said artists break out into the mainstream,’ Emily Bashforth told Metro.

The singer is set to release a new album in 2025 (Picture: Etienne Laurent / AFP)

‘It feels foreign to have an openly lesbian pop star suddenly be the hottest thing on streaming platforms, as if one of the community’s secrets is being exposed to the masses… but it also feels amazing.

‘In fact, how I was first exposed to Chappell’s music was as lesbian as can be, as a (sort of) ex told me to listen to Red Wine Supernova. Naturally, it made its way onto my Spotify Wrapped that year.

‘While I no longer speak to that girl, the impact of Chappell Roan lives on, as she repeatedly encourages me to be the boldest, bravest, most unapologetic version of myself.’

Asyia Iftikhar told Metro about how Chappel’s music has spoken to her.

‘Very rarely in my life had I listened to a song that I felt I could so intimately relate to (and that coming from a mid-western American, someone ordinarily so removed from my own experience).

‘It makes my heart so happy to see her not only get the acclaim she deserves but have her stand alongside other pop girlies like Sabrina and Olivia in her own right rather than being pigeon-holed into being a ‘niche queer artist’.

‘She’s quickly become one of my favourite artists for her evocative lyrics, awesome use of the guitar and vocal support of important causes like trans rights.’

The singer speaks about her identity in her songs (Picture: Noam Galai/Getty Images for MTV)

Danni Scott, Metro’s music reporter, said: ‘Chappell has felt special since she burst through onto the mainstream with Hot To Go. Much of this comes down to how rare it is to see an unapologetically queer woman — a drag artist at that — awarded and celebrated outside of just the LGBTQ+ community.

‘Everything Chappell does is intentionally drenched in references to gay icons who have gone before. The importance of that alone in the current climate is something that should never be overlooked.

‘However, Chappell is so much more than a lesson in LGBTQ+ history. She is someone I never knew I was yearning for and clearly, I’m not alone. Gay icons historically fall into two main categories: straight female allies and flamboyant gay men.

‘Rarely has an exceptionally fem-presenting, openly lesbian artist, singing songs about the queer experience, managed to make such a cultural impact.’

Lesbianism in the music industry

For the last 50 years, it has been the status quo that queer women in the music industry have avoided confirming their sexuality.

Pioneering queer artists like Dusty Springfield, Joan Jett, and Tracy Chapman have never confirmed their orientation, preferring to separate their professional life and romantic interests.

This meant that lyrics about their lived experiences were non-gendered, unspecific, and while still raw and tapping into something genuine – bleached and packaged into something digestible for the masses.

When asked about her sexuality in 2002, Tracy replied: ‘I have a public life that’s my work life and I have my personal life. In some ways, the decision to keep the two things separate relates to the work I do.’

As seen by male artists Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, being openly queer invited huge media speculation and negative attention. It’s unclear what these women might have faced had they been open about their sexuality.

Reflecting on keeping her sexuality private at her height of fame, The Runaways singer explained it was necessary for her career.

Joan was asked about identifying as a bisexual or as a lesbian by The Interview in 2010.

She replied: ‘Anyone who wants to know who I am can just read my lyrics- I’ve always written about who I am.’

Joan Jett has never confirmed her sexuality (Picture: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

The Cherry Bomb singer added that at the time, her orientation would have been the story rather than her music if she had been out.

‘Look, in The Runaways I learned at a very young age, because I could see the looks in the writers’ eyes when they would ask me questions about the band and our offstage antics, and I could see from the way they asked the questions that if I answered this stuff, that was all they were ever going to write about,’ she said.

‘It was one of those gut-instinct things that doesn’t have to be taught.’

Even just 20 years ago, being openly gay wasn’t on the agenda but lesbianism was used as a gimmick.

This was best highlighted by the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. who were best known for their breakout hit All The Things She Said in 2002.

The duo Lena Katina and Julia Volkova, were marketed as lesbian singers and released a song about a woman’s gay awakening.

Lena Katina and Julia Volkova from t.A.T.u. kissing each other during a concert in 2003 (Picture: Wojtek Laski/Getty Images)

It would later be discovered that the duo were in fact straight but played into lesbian rumours with homoerotic lyrics and by caressing each other on stage – because their management made them.

‘I looked at it as my role … like a movie. We play in a role in a movie. That was my role. I never was a lesbian. I never was attracted to a girl. I never had that,’ Lena told ‘The Daily Beast in 2013.

In the noughties, Tegan and Sara, Brandi Carlile, and Beth Ditto all had varying levels of success and fan followings – but nothing that could be compared to the ‘lesbian renaissance’ that we have seen in the past couple of years.

In the past decade, music acts such as King Princess, Girl In Red, St Vincent, and Brittany Howard have emerged onto the music scene with openness about their sexuality and have been welcomed by the queer community.

Gen Z artists – such as Renee Rapp and Julien Baker – are chipping away at the mould as they are open about their sexuality and use their lyrics to empower queer women rather than fetishize their sexuality for hetronormative consumption.

The consensus among fans seems to be the same, it’s shocking that it has taken this long for a lesbian to reach this level of fame.

‘Often our lesbian icons exude a more toned-down, indie digestible queerness releasing melancholic tracks. As a makeup-loving, fem-presenting pansexual, I was desperately screaming for a lesbian artist to make upbeat pop music,’ said Danni.

‘Watching a proud lesbian bragging on one of the US’ biggest shows in drag about making women orgasm better than a ‘country boy’ ever could? It’s hard not to feel emotional.’

‘Chappell is someone we have been sorely missing and it’s a travesty it’s taken us so long to get here. There’s nothing casual about the impact she will continue to have, regardless of where her career goes from here,’ Danni concluded.

Emily added that she hopes this success paves the way for other queer artists.

‘Whether she’s asserting her boundaries to paparazzi or openly singing about the most explicit parts of her relationships, everything about Chappell is a breath of fresh air in a corner of music that’s been oppressed and had its creativity stifled for decades. I like to think she’s paving the way for other queer artists to follow.’

‘Her music has spoken to a generation of lesbians – but it should not have taken this long for a lesbian artist to reach this level of fame.’

The star’s fame has reached stratospheric levels (Picture: Dana Jacobs/WireImage)

It’s obvious that the level of success achieved by Chappell shouldn’t be as groundbreaking as it.

Lesbians have been in the music industry forever, with trailblazers carefully paving the way bit by bit for decades.

It’s a shame it has taken so long, but a performer who is able to embrace all aspects of their identity so wholly on stage and receive this level of success is a major win for the LGBTQ+ community – albeit long overdue.

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