Non-country artists branching out into the country genre is nothing new, and in March 2025, eccentric pop star Chappell Roan joined the ranks of country converts with her single “The Giver.” Roan previewed the single in a denim and gingham-clad Saturday Night Live performance the previous November, complete with dancing animals playing on a screen behind the band.
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As other musicians like Post Malone, Lil Nas X, and Beyoncé have shown, transitioning into country music isn’t always easy. Diehard fans of the genre can be particular about who and what defines country, and any music that goes against that definition can often be met with undue criticism and exclusion. Roan, ever the self-aware icon, seems to be getting ahead of that pushback with a disclaimer on her new track.
Chappell Roan Isn’t Trying To Take Over With “The Giver”
Chappell Roan and the term “meteoric rise” have become synonymous since 2024 when the theatrical pop star took the world by storm in her swift and sparkly ascent to the top of the charts. Tracks like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Pink Pony Club” began permeating the zeitgeist as Roan began drawing larger and larger crowds on the summer’s festival circuit. Despite her album, Rise and Fall of the Midwestern Princess, coming out in 2023, it would take just about a year for the general masses to really “get it.” And once they did, they weren’t letting go. Roan had officially hit major stardom and all of the soaring highs and creepy, devastating lows that came with that.
Roan’s March 2025 single, “The Giver,” is her first foray into country music since laying her claim to the pop world. But during an appearance on Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast, she clarified that she wasn’t after a full-on career transition. “I wrote a country song not to invade country music, but to really capture what I think is the essence of country music, which is nostalgia and fun in the summertime and the fiddle and the banjo. Feeling like a country queen. It makes me feel a certain type of freedom that pop music doesn’t let me feel. I think it’s interesting, and I had to do it.”
The “Red Wine Supernova” singer said allowing herself to explore different genres was a way to “do myself justice. I had to do it for myself to know what [it’s] actually like to write a country song and perform it next to “Casual” or next to “My Kink is Karma” or next to “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl.””
She Might Be A Pop Star, But She Has Country Roots
Becoming a successful pop star practically guarantees you’ll have at least some naysayers at your door, demanding that you do something differently (or not at all). And indeed, we don’t doubt that discussions around Chappell Roan’s country music will start to echo sentiments about Beyoncé’s controversial Cowboy Carter country crossover. But just like Beyoncé, who was born and raised in Houston, Texas, Roan is no stranger to the South, either. Roan grew up in the southwestern town of Willard, Missouri, where country music dominates the radio airwaves and jukeboxes. “The Midwestern Princess” isn’t just a catchy name she chose for her 2023 record. It’s the truth.
In that sense, country music was almost an obligation. “I can’t call myself the Midwest princess and not acknowledge country music,” Roan told Amazon Music. “Straight up. That is what is around me in the grocery stores. That’s what is playing on the bus. I know that my heart really wanted to write a country song, and I’m trying to really articulate that it’s not me trying to cross genres and be like, ‘Hey, you know, look at me.’ I’m not trying to convince a country crowd that they should listen to my music by baiting them with a country song. That’s not what I feel like I’m doing. I just think a lesbian country song is really funny, so I wrote that.”
Photo by Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images
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