Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Chappell Roan’s meteoric rise to pop stardom has been buoyed in part thanks to her hit song “Pink Pony Club.” Now, in a full circle moment of life meets art, Roan took the stage in West Hollywood on Sunday night to headline the 33rd Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party.
Hosted by Elton John and David Furnish and held in West Hollywood Park, the fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation is one of Oscar weekend’s highest-profile events. This year’s was co-hosted by Jean SmartSheryl Lee Ralph, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka and the tent was filled with hordes of boldfaced names, many of whom jumped to their feet for Roan. Her set started after the Academy Awards viewing party had wrapped, opening the way for an electric e.l.f. Beauty-sponsored afterparty.
Elton John himself introduced Roan, sharing with the audience that he “just freaked out” when he heard her music. “I immediately wanted to get her on the program, and she came on the program and I interviewed her and I fell in love with her and I fell in love with the album. I’ve continued to be her friend hopefully and speak to her quite a lot.”
Calling Roan “One of the biggest stars in the world right now, quite rightly so,” he went on to applaud the singer who “not only speaks with her voice on stage, she speaks with her voice off stage in a voice candid and wonderful way.”
Road twirled her way on to the stage and kicked off her set with “Coffee.”
“Can you play a song with a fucking beat,” she said pausing for effect.
“Can you believe it? We’re in a dog park by the Abbey!” she exclaimed before launching into “Naked in Manhattan.”
Roan’s appearance comes hot on the heels of the Grammy Awards ceremony at which she won the coveted best new artist trophy. She used her time on the Crypto.com Arena stage to call out record labels in an acceptance speech that reverberated across the music industry for weeks. “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 health care, especially to developing artists,” Roan said,
She added that she was signed as a minor and then dropped, leaving her with no job experience or health care. “It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have help,” she said. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
More to come.
