Good Luck Babe! How one song made Chappell Roan 2024’s biggest organic pop superstar

2024 has been a year where pop juggernauts have failed to impact the cultural zeitgeist. We are currently watching Katy Perry have the most disastrous comeback in recent memory. Ariana Grande returned with a nice album that came and went. Taylor Swift released an album that broke records and sat atop charts for so long it’s a wonder its arse didn’t go numb – and yet no one in the general public could hum a song from its 31 strong tracklist. Even Beyoncé, who never really misses and released an amazing album with Cowboy Carter kinda failed to have it land with the same oomph as the life-changing and year defining record Renaissance before it. But 2024 has been a great year for underdogs. Sabrina Carpenter became a main pop girl. Charli XCX has major news networks debating how Brat summer might impact the election. And Chappell Roan released Good Luck Babe – becoming a household name and having endless sleeper hits. One song can change everything.

In a world of nepotism everywhere we look in the music industry and beyond, we’ve watched talent win in the most organic way possible. Here’s how one song changed it all – the power of Chappell Roan and Good Luck Babe.

‘I’m your favourite popstar’s favourite popstar’

god giving us chappell roan pic.twitter.com/oufIWfxyQN

— ian (@itsianraymond) August 7, 2024

Chappell Roan is from the humblest of beginnings. She grew up in a very conservative, very Christian area of Missouri where she and her family lived on a trailer park. No famous mummy or daddy here to give any sort of leg up into fame – just a young queer girl who started working on her talent, winning school talent shows and grafting her way up into getting noticed.

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I first became aware of Chappell Roan in 2021 – when I heard My Kink Is Karma in a Spotify playlist. It eventually would live on the tracklist of her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess – but when I heard it, that wasn’t a blip on the radar. It was part of Chappell’s work with Dan Nigro – the producer and co-writer best known for his work with Olivia Rodrigo. Whilst Olivia Rodrigo hit the big time in 2021 instantaneously with Driver’s License, Chappell Roan and Dan Nigro slogged in the background working on her debut album.

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess released last year to good reviews. I liked it. If I’m honest, I never saw this record giving Chappell Roan major mainstream success. The kind of record that would give her an underground, loyal fanbase of queer pop fans in the same vein as Carly Rae Jepsen. But my thoughts here were before 2024, before we saw low key pop girls become household names seemingly overnight. Before a supporting slot on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts world tour and one little song changed everything.

‘You know I hate to say, but, I told you so’

Good Luck Babe dropped in April. Hard to believe, when it’s arguably peaking right now. It is one of those songs you press play on and instantly know it’s the artist’s best work – in the same world as Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. These songs came out a week apart and changed the lives of the artist’s singing them. Good Luck Babe has spent the months of 2024 since it released organically becoming a hit. As of right now, it’s number 2 in the UK singles chart and has broken into the top 10 on the Billboard 100. A breakthrough hit for an artist who has been slowly honing her craft since 2017.

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is uncompromisingly queer. Chappell Roan has spoken umpteen times about her own queerness, regularly performing in drag and recruiting local drag queens to platform them as performers at her live shows. The music is campy and queer. At the time of release, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess provided no hits. A lesser artist might use this to pivot to something more palatable for a mainstream audience.

The Father, the Son, and Chappell Roan pic.twitter.com/puoqMVbl4h

— CRN (@ChappellRoanNow) August 4, 2024

But Good Luck Babe is queerer than that album in its lyrics, detailing how her same sex lover is denying her feelings for Chappell and going back to men – and denouncing her queerness in its entirety. Having a song genuinely contend for the top of the charts with lyrical content like this from such an outwardly queer and campy artist in an era where the far right tries to demonise queer people and drag in general is honestly a revelation.

Off the back of Good Luck Babe, Chappell Roan’s record has become a sleeper hit. It will likely be number one in the UK this week – the number one record in the country nearly a year after its initial release. It’s like the world collectively woke up to this massive talent and gave her her flowers. It’s just a joy to see. She just broke records for a crowd at Lollapalooza for god’s sake. After having her stage upgraded.

In an era of TikTok fads and hits coming and going, how refreshing to see someone who is clearly a talent get the acclaim for being one. Good Luck Babe is a song good enough to be a catalyst to be commercially star making – and Chappell Roan pulled it off. This is an artist we’ll have on our lips and in our ears for years to come.

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Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Chappell Roan complains fame has made her miss ‘rolling up’ and ‘being a freak at the bar’

• Fans think Kamala and Tim ripped off Chappell Roan’s merch and her response is so iconic

• Memes, streams, popstar of dreams: How Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso took over the world