She’s quickly becoming a household name, with five songs rising up the Billboard Hot 100 chart, thousands flocking to her music festival gigs and and clips from her now-viral Tonight Show appearance taking over TikTok.
But Missouri-born superstar Chappell Roan even had some of her diehard fans doing a double take on Wednesday.
The Red Wine Supernova hitmaker, 26, looked nearly unrecognizable as she appeared barefaced and barefoot in a new Instagram slideshow.
The photos showed Chappell – born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz – wandering around New York City in a sheer white bra and no shoes.
She cheekily captioned the post: ‘No shoes no shirt no problem !!!’
Instead of her blue eyes, the makeup-free singer sported a pair of chocolate brown contact lenses for the grungy street shoot.
She styled her white triangle bra with a ruffled white mesh shrug and a billowing ruffled skirt.
Chappell’s long, flaming red curls were swept up in a messy bun as she gazed stoically at the camera.
She was photographed at various locations in NYC.
One shot showed her walking towards a line of colorful hotdog carts while another showed her standing idly under a scaffolding with her fingers tangled in her curly mane.
The photos were taken by Chappell’s tour photographer Lucienne.
Chappell’s post racked up nearly 1,000,000 ‘likes’ in less than 12 hours and she earned a comment from Miley Cyrus’s younger sister Noah Cyrus.
‘no cause barefoot in new york is crrrazy,’ 24-year-old Cyrus — who is a hitmaker in her own right — penned.
Chappell’s meteoric rise to fame is one of the top stories of the year in the music industry – even earning the acknowledgement of pop divas like Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.
Chappell – who gave herself the moniker ‘your favorite artist’s favorite artist’ in the spirit of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 winner Sasha Colby – has earned a staggering 68.36M streams to date.
In September 2023, the rising star – who identifies as a lesbian – released her debut album The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess which earned just 2.51million on-demand streams through January 4, 2024 in the US according Luminate via Billboard.
However her profile expanded beginning with touring with Olivia Rodrigo on her GUTS World Tour from February to April before releasing single Good Luck, Babe! and performing at Coachella that same month.
Chappell Roan had many of her diehard fans doing a double take on Wednesday as she appeared on Instagram wearing brown contact lenses and no makeup; seen in May
The red-haired hitmaker is quickly becoming a household name, with five songs rising up the Billboard Hot 100 chart, thousands flocking to her music festival gigs and and clips from her now-viral Tonight Show appearance taking over TikTok; seen in June
Then in May and June her streams saw a massive jump as she performed at three festivals: Boston Calling in Boston, Governors Ball in New York, and Bonnaroo in Tennessee.
Now Chappell’s streams have reached more than 20 times greater than they did at the star of the year with her catalog earning a whopping 68.36 million streams in the week ending June 20 according to the site.
Her aforementioned debut album also did not chart on the Billboard 200 upon release back in September as it earned just 7,000 equivalent album units according to Luminate.
However after Chappell’s run on Olivia Rodrigo’s tour and the release of her single Good Luck, Babe! she finally debuted at No. 127 on April 6 with just over 9,000 equivalent album units.
And that was only the beginning as it continued rising on the charts before earning 46,000 equivalent album units in the week ending on June 20 for a grand total of 423,000 equivalent album units.
The fast rise to fame has not exactly been easy as the star broke down into tears while performing on stage at a concert earlier this month.
The singer – who hit the red carpet at the 2024 ASCAP Pop Music Awards last month – choked up during her concert in Raleigh, North Carolina on Wednesday, June 12.
The Good Luck, Babe! hitmaker – born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz – had tears running down her face as she told the audience: ‘I guess I just want to be honest with the crowd. I just feel a little off today ’cause I think that my career is going really fast and it’s really hard to keep up.
‘So I’m just being honest that I’m just having a hard time today.’
The rising star went on to explain that her meteoric rise is hard to take in even if she is living out her dream.
In September 2023, the rising star – who identifies as a lesbian – released her debut album The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess which earned just 2.51million on-demand streams through January 4, 2024 in the US according Luminate via Billboard
Now Chappell’s (pictured in LA back in February) streams have reached more than 20 times greater than they did at the star of the year with her catalog earning a whopping 68.36 million streams in the week ending June 20 according to the site
Chappell continued: ‘So sorry that — I’m not trying to give you, like, a lesser show. It’s just, there’s a lot… Thank you for understanding.
‘This is all I’ve ever wanted. It’s just heavy sometimes, I think.’
Chappell has seen a massive uptick in her fandom in recent months as her current Midwest Princess Tour was set for club-sized venues.
The demand has been so high that some dates have been moved to bigger venues which have still continued to sell out.
The Willard, Missouri even reportedly pulled bigger crowds than headliners including Ed Sheeran at the Boston Calling festival last month.
On Sunday, June 16 she performed at the highly-popular Bonnaroo festival as she was originally set to play one of the smaller stages in a tent.
After public outcry, Chappell was upgraded to the outdoor Which Stage in order to be able to accommodate her rabid fanbase.
The talented star’s music is inspired by 1980s synth-pop and early 2000s pop hits as her performance style has often been described as ‘campy,’ which is defined as ‘an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value.’
The performer – who cites her aesthetic to be heavily influenced by drag queens – has been performing music for more than half of her life.
At 17-years-old she uploaded an original song – titled Die Young – to YouTube and was quickly signed to Atlantic Records shortly after before releasing an EP and single and being dropped shortly thereafter in 2020.
The fast rise to fame has not exactly been easy as the star broke down into tears during her concert in Raleigh, North Carolina on Wednesday, June 12
On Sunday, June 16 she performed at the highly-popular Bonnaroo festival (pictured) as she was originally set to play one of the smaller stages in a tent. After public outcry, Chappell was upgraded to the outdoor Which Stage in order to be able to accommodate her rabid fanbase
Chappell performed at the Governor’s Ball festival in New York on June 9 and revealed that she had turned down a pride event at the White House as she boldly said: ‘This is a response to the White House, who asked me to preform for Pride. We want liberty, justice, and freedom for all. When you do that, that’s when I’ll come’
After a brief hiatus Chappell released a series of songs independently in 2022.
The rising artist released debut album – titled The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess – in 2023 with Island Records.
In early 2024, she was the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour and performed at the globally known festival Coachella and surged in popularity.
Chappell performed at the Governor’s Ball festival in New York on June 9 and revealed that she had turned down a pride event at the White House.
She boldly said: ‘This is a response to the White House, who asked me to preform for Pride. We want liberty, justice, and freedom for all. When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.’
Chappell also debuted a new song titled Subway at the festival.
