Chappell Roan Calls Out Major Labels in Best New Artist Speech

Chappell Roan accepted the trophy for Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys, following the ultra-massive success of her debut album and its follow-up single “Good Luck, Babe!”

“Thank you, all who listened to get me here today,” said Roan, who used her speech to demand that labels offer “a livable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists…. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”

The glittery, self-described drag queen has had a whirlwind year-and-a-half since dropping her debut LP, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which also earned nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year at this year’s awards. For Best New Artist, she beat out Benson Boone, Sabrina Carpenter, Khruangbin, Raye, Shaboozey, and Teddy Swims.

“I got signed so young, I got signed as a minor,” Roan said in her speech, “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. It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system, and so dehumanized to not have health [insurance]. And if my label would have prioritized artists’ health, I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to. 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?”

The pop star’s 2025 single “Good Luck, Babe!” earned three nods too, for Best Pop Solo Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year.  The song — about being in love with another girl who is not quite ready to accept that she even likes girls — became Roan’s biggest hit yet.

The singer appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in October, just months after being named one of the magazine’s Future 25 in March last year. “This just rocks,” she said at the time. “It’s amazing to be living up my little pop-star life. It’s so slay.”