After delivering a stunning performance of “Pink Pony Club” and winning Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys, Chappell Roan took the industry to task. The pop star used her acceptance speech to “demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists.”
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Dressed in a fairytale princess outfit (her third look of the night), Roan gave the standard thanks and shouted out Charli XCX’s brat as she read her speech from a book. She said she’d told herself that if she ever won a Grammy and “got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music,” she’d take them to task.
“Because I got signed so young, I got signed as a minor, and when I got dropped, I had zero job experience under my belt,” she said. “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,” she concluded. “Labels: We got you, but do you got us?”
Watch the entire speech below, and see our full coverage of the 2025 Grammy Awards here.
Roan has become as known for how she’s confronted fame and the industry as she has for the pop smashes that brought her success. She’s called the way people behave towards celebrities “abusive,” shut down aggressive photographers, and canceled performances to protect her mental well-being. Just over a year since we CoSigned Roan, she’s become one of the most powerful, outspoken voices in music.
“Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” – Chappell Roan gives a powerful speech calling out record labels after winning the award for Best New Artist at the 2025 #Grammys pic.twitter.com/yPglAJtETJ
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 3, 2025