Chappell Roan Promises Fans She’s Not Permanently Pivoting From Pop Music

As Chappell Roan prepares to release her highly-anticipated new song “The Giver,” she’s assured fans that this doesn’t mean her pop music is a thing of the past.

Roan confirmed earlier week that her new single – the first since the release of 2024’s “Good Luck, Babe!” – would arrive on Thursday, March 13, with the fresh track inspired by her lifelong exposure to country music.

“I have such a special place in my heart for country music,” she wrote on Instagram. “I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars.”

“Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album???” the Missouri native continued “My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on c–try xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall.”

Now, the Grammy-winning musician will be appearing on the March 14 episode of Apple Music’s Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen, with E! News sharing a new teaser clip that sees Roan expound upon her love of the country genre.

“I wanted to write a country song because I just thought it would be funny,” she explained succinctly. “It’s campy and fun.

“I’m from southwest Missouri,” she continued. “[I] grew up on Christian and country, and then found ‘Alejandro’ by Lady Gaga and I was like, ‘I think I like this, too.’ So, I have kept country in my heart. And it’s so incredibly nostalgic to drive in West Hollywood and have Jason Aldean [playing] or Alan Jackson’s ‘Chattahoochee.’”

According to Roan, one of the biggest inspirations for her pivot to the world of country came by way of Tennessee duo Big & Rich and their Grammy-nominated 2004 single “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).”

“I was like, ‘I want to feel that way on stage. I want to feel that,’” she explained. “Because that’s how I write. I’m like, ‘How do I want to walk around on stage and sing?’ And I was like, ‘I want to write that song, but Chappell’s version.’”

In keeping with her previous comments about the decision to venture into the world of country music, Roan also again assured fans they’ll be hearing plenty of the pop music they’re used to moving forward. “I really just did it for fun,” she added. “I’m not switching genres or anything.”

The imminent arrival of “The Giver” will mark Roan’s first release since “Good Luck, Babe!,” which she dropped in April last year. The track — which remains the only song she’s released since breakthrough 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess — peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September.

Roan has been teasing the arrival of “The Giver” for weeks, rolling out a series of characters — a lawyer, a plumber, a private investigator, and now, a construction worker — who can “get the job done” à la the lyrics on the track, which she debuted on Saturday Night Live in November. Fans have spotted the alter egos on billboards all around the country, as well as on Roan’s Instagram.

All of the personas correlate to different special versions of 7-inch single vinyls for “The Giver,” which are available for purchase on Roan’s website.