Actually, Chappell Roan Doesn’t Owe You Anything!
After a discourse-filled few weeks, the pop supernova just cancelled her performance at All Things Go this weekend and the internet is in an uproar about it... but is has no right to be.
Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images
It feels like Chappell Roan’s Gov Ball performance happened two years ago, especially with what September has been for her. The discourse around her, which has only gotten more and more immense with every waking day, seemed to have come to a boil this week when she declined to endorse a candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Of course, Chappell had to—but shouldn’t have—clarify that she is voting for Kamala Harris in November after explaining that she could not put her “entire project behind” “some of the left’s completely transphobic and genocidal views.”
Having conversations like this with liberals is like bashing your head up against the wall. How dare a 26-year-old take into consideration that a candidate like Harris, who said “I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself” at the Democratic National Convention last month, might not be someone deserving of one’s glowing endorsement. As I myself continue to deliberate over whether or not I will even cast a vote in November, I empathize with Chappell’s completely rational stance on the matter.
As of August 15th, it was reported that more than 40,000 people—many of whom were civilians—were killed by Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza, and that almost 100,000 have been wounded. A large percentage of the 2.3 million people living in the enclave were pushed out of their homes, as well. To me, casting a vote for someone who has poisoned her calls for a ceasefire by doubling down on the United States sending weapons to Israel is not something you can just put blind faith in for the sake of “not letting Republicans win.” It’s okay to have some shred of a moral backbone; if I was Chappell, I wouldn’t be going to work after all of this, either.
Again, Chappell has the internet turned inside out today, but not for her political stances. No, instead, she announced this morning that she would not be taking the All Things Go stages in Washington D.C. and New York City on Saturday and Sunday as originally planned. Naturally, everyone who bought a ticket to the festival is a bit pissed off about the news. One X/Twitter user even wrote “i really don’t think chappell cancelling **the day before** ATG is defendable like it really really sucks,” before expressing solidarity with the people who “worked so hard to afford tickets and travel” to see Chappell play.
I’m sorry, but what the fuck? What simulation are we living in? I’ve seen a few users online go as far as saying that, yes, Chappell does owe them, because they purchased a ticket to see her in the first place. It’s the same harebrained train-of-thought that leads people to believe that, because they paid money to attend a local show, they have the right to be on poor behavior during it—scrolling on their phones, talking over the opener’s set, hollering things at the headliner. No wonder Mitski falls off the grid every couple of years; this shit is exhausting just to read about on social media, let alone be subjected to it in a new city every single night. Fans want artists to set boundaries and take time to heal themselves when they need it—that is, they want that until it affects them. Chappell’s previous mentions of living with Bipolar II disorder mean nothing when a fan’s money is involved, or at least that’s what the internet would have you believe today.
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