Whereas most Best New Artist winners at the Grammys are a little too caught up in the moment after receiving what’s arguably music’s closest thing to a guaranteed golden ticket for future success, Chappell Roan – 2025’s winner – used the occasion to broadcast a message bigger than her own brilliance.
“I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a liveable wage and health care, especially developing artists,” she said, eliciting an instant stand-up and applause from the likes of Taylor Swift.
Having seen success and support slip from her fingers when she was dropped from Atlantic Records in 2020, Chappell continued: “I got signed so young, I got signed as a minor. When I got dropped, I had zero job experience under my belt, and like most people, I had quite a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and [could not] afford insurance.
“It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized. If my label had prioritized it, I could have been [given] care [by] a company I was giving everything to.
“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?,” she concluded to universal applause.
However, following her comments Jeff Rabhan, a music executive and ex-Chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music branded Roan’s speech: “misguided” and “ill-informed” and said she should “do something about” wealth disparity “rather than talk about it” an op-ed for the Hollywood Reporter.
The retort prompted Roan to explain her position further, both branding Rabhan a “random dude” and clarifying that wasn’t asking for fans to donate to a cause but was calling for big labels to stump up the cash and do the right thing.
“Sharing my personal experience on the Grammy stage wasn’t meant to be a crowdfunded band-aid but a call to action to the leaders of the industry to step up, help us make real change and protect their investments in a sustainable way,” she said in a post after the event.
Nevertheless, Roan herself has since put her money where her mouth was and has seemingly stirred up sufficient emotion within her contemporaries that they’re all coming forward to do likewise.
The singer has given $25,000 to Backline, a support charity providing mental health and wellness resources for music industry professionals and their families, while aiming to “build a safer and more supportive music industry.”
And her donation has been quickly followed by identical sums from like minded stars such as Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Noah Kahan for the same charity.
Meanwhile, Roan has invited Rabhan to contribute too. Adding to her Instagram story she wrote: “Mr. Rabhan, I love how in the article you said ‘put your money where your mouth is. @jeffrabhan wanna match me $25K to donate to struggling dropped artists? My publicist is @biz3publicity let’s talk,” before highlighting four artists who “deserve more love and a bigger platform”: Hemlocke Springs, Sarah Kinsley, Devon Again and Baby Storme.
At the time of writing there’s been no response from Rabhan but we expect further contributions to Backline to follow from elsewhere.
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