Chappell Roan Turned Down White House Offer to Perform at Pride Event
In one of several headline-grabbing moments from her epic set at New York’s Governors Ball festival on Sunday, fast-rising singer Chappell Roan revealed that she turned down an offer to perform at a White House Pride event.
“In response to the White House, who asked me to perform for Pride,” Roan, dressed in a glammed-up Statue of Liberty costume, said directly into a video camera that was broadcasting onto the festival’s giant screens. “We want liberty, justice and freedom for all. When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.” A rep for the singer confirmed to Variety that the White House had reached out to Roan’s management and was declined.
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Referencing her costume, she continued, “I am in drag of the biggest queen of all,” she said to cheers and laughs. “But in case you had forgotten what’s etched on my pretty little toes, Give me your tired, free, that means freedom and trans rights, that means freedom and women’s rights, and it esp means freedom for all peoples in oppressed — she paused, apparently tearing up — for all oppressed people in occupied territories.”
However, the seriousness of her statement was slightly undercut by her abrupt change in tone when saying “Thank you! OK, we’re gonna do ‘Hot to Go!’’”
Her performance, which lit up social media on Sunday evening, began with an “Am I Gay?” quiz posted on the video screens, saw her take the stage by emerging from a giant fake apple in her Statue of Liberty costume, and performing her second new song to be released this year, called “Subway.”
A mid-tempo ballad, the song is more low-key than her “Good Luck Babe!” single released in April but has swooning, synth-driven verses and continues the insecure vein of some of her lyrics, concluding with the line, “I’m just another girl on the subway.”
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