Will Chappell Roan Succeed In Toppling Taylor Swift On The Charts?

After interviewing Chappell Roan back in 2020, American Songwriter boldly declared that the Missouri native’s “transformation into a glittery pop artist is well underway.”​​ Fast forward four years, and that prediction now sounds comically understated. With hits like “My Kink Is Karma” and “Hot to Go,” Chappell’s star only continues to rise. And if her uptick in popularity continues, the breakout artist (real name: Kayleigh Amstutz) just may be coming for Taylor Swift’s crown.

Chappell Roan Is Everywhere

Taylor Swift dared her fellow pop stars to “try and come for my job” on her latest single, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” And it appears Chappell Roan may have accepted that challenge.

Swift dropped The Tortured Poets Department, her 11th studio album of original material, in April. The pop supernova’s foray into dark academia has singularly dominated the charts ever since. This week, TTPD is holding strong for its 14th week atop the Billboard 200.

However, Chappell’s 2023 debut, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, has certainly experienced much more “rising” than “falling.” This week, the album leaps to No. 3 on the same chart—its highest position so far.

“With Ye & Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 2 (No. 2 on the chart this week) all but sure to drop some in its second week of release, and no major debuts expected to impact the chart’s top five, it seems likely Midwest Princess is about to rise on the 200 for the third straight week,” Billboard reports.

Can Taylor Swift Be Deposed?

Could “your favorite artist’s favorite artist” have T-Swift in her crosshairs? Dethroning Swift is a tall order, according to Billboard. At the time of last week’s rankings, TTPD far outpaced Midwest Princess with more than twice as many units sold (142,000 to 64,000.)

However, the “Karma” singer has previously faced backlash for releasing multiple physical variations of the same album, all but assuring total chart dominance. Swift has certainly followed this pattern with TTPD, and Billboard reports it has boosted sales by a whopping 606 percent.

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None of these exclusive re-issues are seemingly in the pipeline for now, though—which could mean the time is ripe for a Chappell Roan coup.

Featured image by Daniel DeSlover/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock