Chappell Roan fires back at music exec who slammed her Grammys speech
Los Angeles, California - Pop star Chappell Roan fired back after a music executive wrote a scathing op-ed about her acceptance speech at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
![Pop star Chappell Roan fired back after a music executive wrote a scathing op-ed about her acceptance speech at the 2025 Grammy Awards.](https://media.tag24.de/951x634/u/5/u5222niy5tblo1kf5nsrzibaic4f8dny.jpg)
On Friday, the 26-year-old singer took to her Instagram story to respond to Jeff Rabhan, who publicly slammed her plea for livable wages for rising artists in an op-ed for The Hollywood Reporter.
"@jeffrabhan wanna match me $25K to donate to struggling dropped artists? My publicist is @biz3publicity. let's talk," Roan wrote over a screenshot of the article.
In another post, she promised to update fans on his response and would "show receipts of the donations."
She repeated Rabhan's own call to "put your money where your mouth is" and said, "Let's link and build together and see if you can do the same."
The Pink Pony Club artist then shouted out a few up-and-coming musicians who "deserve more love and a bigger platform."
Roan took home the award for Best New Artist on Sunday and used her speech to call out music labels and executives who are "profiting millions of dollars off of artists" while neglecting to provide a liveable wage or healthcare benefits to their performers.
Chappell Roan calls on music labels to provide liveable wages
![Chappell Roan had been in the music industry for nearly a decade before her meteoric rise to stardom in 2024.](https://media.tag24.de/951x634/v/4/v4jtontyg1agrnoajqbjl7domnb7i3kz.jpg)
"I got signed so young," Roan told the audience.
"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 a pandemic and could not afford health insurance.
She ended her speech by asking, "Labels, we got you, but do you got us?"
In his guest column published Wednesday, Rabhan – the former Chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University – wrote, "Demanding that labels pay artists like salaried employees ignores the fundamental economic structure of the business.
"No one is forcing artists to sign deals."
He also branded Roan an "instant industry insider" in the headline, which was widely slammed for misrepresenting her career trajectory.
Roan, who released her first single in 2017, was dropped from Atlantic Records in 2020 before experiencing a meteoric rise in 2024 with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, released through Island Records.
Cover photo: KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP