The MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist went to Chappell Roan, who is from Missouri. It was the cherry on top of a summer of incredible fame.
A catchy song by Roan called “HOT TO GO!” played in the background as the “Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” singer, shining in a chain-mail bodysuit with a hood, read her victory speech from her notebook.
Roan gave her award “to all the drag artists who inspire me… to queer and trans people who fuel pop,” she said with a big smile.
“To the gay people who give my songs to someone they love or hate, and to my fans who listen when I talk about my fears and joys,” Roan went on.
“Listen up, all you gay kids in the Midwest: I see you and understand you because I’m one of you.” Also, never let anyone tell you that you can’t be who you want to be.
Chappell Roan was on stage for the first time at the Video Music Awards on Wednesday. The singer was one of 29 first-time nominees. With “Red Wine Supernova,” “Good Luck, Babe!” and “HOT TO GO!”, she was also up for Song of the Summer and MTV Push Performance of the Year.
Roan won the award for Best New Artist over Gracie Abrams and Tyla. Benson Boone, Shaboozey, and Teddy Swims were the runner-ups for the award.
Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Cardi B are some of the artists who have won the Best New Artist award before.
Roan walked the red carpet on Wednesday in the first of three outfits with ancient themes. She wore a sword with it.
As her meteoric rise to fame continued this summer, she played at a number of music festivals, such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, Hinterland, and Bonnaroo. She also opened for Rodrigo on 24 stops of his Guts tour and wore a wig so high that it broke the internet on NPR’s Tiny Desk.
Sasha Colby, a drag queen, activist, and past winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, introduced Roan’s performance of the summer hit “Good Luck, Babe!” halfway through the show.
To play off of Colby’s slogan, “Your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen,” she called Roan “your favorite drag queen’s favorite artist” before calling her “my daughter.” This is a big deal in the drag community, where the House of Colby is very famous.
Roan sang “Good Luck, Babe!” in a hot way on a fancy castle set that was lit on fire by a crossbow. She had two long red ponytails and a huge collection of medieval weapons.
While fires roared in the background, Roan fought for her spot on stage by dancing and blocking a line of swordsmen. As she sang the famous bridge of “Good Luck, Babe!” she fell to her knees, and fans reached out to touch the stage to feel a bit of the Midwest singer’s medieval glory.
Roan told The Star in April that she wanted her songs, clothes, and music videos to honor her Missouri roots. She lived in a trailer park as a child in Willard, Missouri, a town of 6,344 people.
Roan said at the time, “I love Missouri for what it is, but I also want to leave so badly because I feel not accepted and just misunderstood because I’m queer or like a sexual artist.”
Roan says in her song “California,” “I miss the seasons in Missouri, my dying town.” Like cicadas in the summer, the words of “Naked in Manhattan” say that thoughts about a crush are “constant.”
She says that she adds “trashy” and “redneck” things to her shows, like deer heads, cigarettes, long nails, and a certain chain of gas stations in middle-America: She told The Star, “I’m a Kum & Go girl.”
In the music video for her song “HOT TO GO!” Roan performed a bouncy cheerleader dance all around Springfield, Missouri, including in front of an Andy’s Custard shop, where she said her favorite order is a peanut butter and brownie frozen custard concrete filled with hot fudge.
After Wednesday’s VMA performance and win, the starlet will continue the European leg of her Midwest Princess tour with a sold out show in Manchester, United Kingdom, on Friday.