Chappell Roan might have grown up in Missouri, but up until now, the “Pink Pony Club” crooner has largely steered clear of country music on her rise to global fame as a pop superstar. Now, the Grammy Award winner is now diving head first into country with her new single “The Giver.”
Roan first debuted “The Giver” during her SNL appearance last fall, signaling that the singer wasn’t afraid of branching out into new sounds. Like many of her hits including “Good Luck Babe!”, “Hot To Go!”, and “Red Wine Supernova,” Roan teamed up with Grammy-winning hitmaker Dan Nigro to bring “The Giver” to life and showcase the multifaceted artist right at home in seemingly unfamiliar territory.
“Ain’t got antlers on the walls / But I sure know mating calls / From the stalls in the bars on a Friday night / And other boys may need a map / But I can close my eyes
And have you wrapped around my fingers like that,” she sings on the track. “You ain’t got to tell me / It’s just in my nature / So take it like a taker, ’cause baby, I’m a giver / Ain’t no need to hurry, ’cause baby, I deliver / Ain’t no country boy quitter / I get the job done.”
Roan explained on Apple Music’s Today’s Country Radio With Kelleigh Bannen that she’s coming to country with her own unique perspective.
“I think I have a special relationship to where I’m from because of country music,” Roan said. “To kind of honor that part of myself by making a country song where it’s like, ‘You know what? Yes, I’m gay. Yes, I’m ultra-pop. Yes, I am a drag queen who can also perform a country song.'”
“There are a lot of drag queens that do country music all over the world. Name a girl who hasn’t done ‘Before He Cheats.’ Name a girl that hasn’t done ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman!’” she added.
“I’m from southwest Missouri,” she continued. “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.”
Don’t expect her next project to be a country album, however. “I really just did it for fun,” Roan said of the new song. “I’m not switching genres or anything. I wanted to write a country song because I just thought it would be funny. It’s campy and fun.”
More details surrounding the follow-up to her acclaimed debut LP The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess remain to be seen.
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