Chappell Roan challenged the writer of an op-ed crucial of her speech on the Grammy Awards to match her in donating $25,000 to “struggling dropped artists.”
In a sequence of posts on her Instagram story early Friday, the pop singer — who after being named greatest new artist at Sunday’s ceremony referred to as on document labels to offer up-and-coming musicians with “a livable wage and health care” — tagged Jeff Rabhan in a screenshot of the piece he wrote this week for the Hollywood Reporter by which he described Roan, 26, as “far too green and too uninformed to be the agent of change she aspires to be today.”
Rabhan, former chair of New York College’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, went on to say that Roan had a naive understanding of the document trade’s workings — “There is no moral or ethical obligation by any standard that hold labels responsible for the allocation of additional funds beyond advances and royalties,” he wrote — earlier than urging her to “do something about it — rather than just talk at it.”
On Instagram, Roan wrote, “Mr. Rabhan I love how in the article you said ‘put your money where your mouth is’ Genius !!! Let’s link and build together and see if you can do the same.” She added that she’d “show receipts of the donations” then shouted out a handful of artists “that deserve more love and a bigger platform”: Hemlocke Springs, Sarah Kinsley, Devon Once more and Child Storme.
Years earlier than Roan broke out in 2024, she was signed as a young person and later dropped by Atlantic Information, a journey she recounted in her Grammy speech.
“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,” she mentioned to applause from fellow artists together with Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Benson Boone. “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’ve prioritized artists’ health, I could’ve 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 mentioned.
In his op-ed, Rabhan requested, “If labels are responsible for artists’ wages, health care and overall well-being, where does it end and personal responsibility begin?” He added: “Demanding that labels pay artists like salaried employees ignores the fundamental economic structure of the business.”
