Chappell Roan to Play FirstBank Amphitheater Oct. 1

Just a month after a show-stealing performance at Bonnaroo (upgraded, at the last minute, from a tent to a main stage), breakout pop star Chappell Roan has announced a Nashville area return, and by far her largest local headliner to date, Oct. 1 at Franklin’s FirstBank Amphitheater! Though she’s been making music and touring for a number of years, and her debut full-length, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, arrived ten months ago, Roan has experienced a massive surge of fame over the last several months, with her infectious and campy pop songs shooting up the charts and attaining millions of streams, achieving viral status on TikTok, and notching acclaimed sets at a number of major summer fests like Coachella, Governor’s Ball, and the aforementioned Bonnaroo.

Born Kayleigh Amstutz, Roan hails from a small town near Springfield, Missouri, and had a religious, conservative upbringing, which, despite her early affinity for music, felt personally and creatively stifling until, after being discovered as a teen from her YouTube videos, she was able to sign a record deal, release debut EP, School Nights, in 2017, and begin to tour, finally allowing her to move to Los Angeles on her own, begin to live her life more freely as a young, queer woman, and to forge her campy, drag-inspired alter-ego as Chappell Roan, which is just as much its own identity as it is a stage name. Despite rave early reviews for 2020 single “Pink Pony Club” and early tours with artists like Vance Joy and Declan McKenna, Chappell struggled to make ends meet in those early years, eventually being dropped by her label and seeing her favored producer, Dan Nigro, become busy with Olivia Rodrigo, leading Roan briefly to return home to Missouri as she worked on new material. By 2022, however, Roan had refocused and moved back to LA, landing tours with Rodrigo and breakout queer pop singer FLETCHER, while also again working Nigro, whose profile had exploded thanks to Rodrigo’s SOUR, on a series of independent singles which would eventually culminate in The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Propelled by bombastic, gloriously poppy, unabashedly queer and camp singles like “Red Wine Supernova,” “Femininomenon,” and “HOT TO GO!,” and viral new hit “Good Luck, Babe!” (the first taste of her next era), and heralded for her theatrical, drag-inspired, and ridiculously fun live show, Chappell has proven to be a genuine modern pop superstar, whose swift mainstream ascent has been stunning to witness.

No stranger to Nashville, Roan played some early supporting shows at the former Mercy Lounge and Cannery Ballroom in the late 2010s, as well as a pair of headlining dates last year at The Basement East and the 1,200 cap Brooklyn Bowl, returning back in March to support Olivia Rodrigo at Bridgestone. The fact that she’s headlining that 7,500 cap FirstBank Amphitheater just a year after her last headliner at Brooklyn Bowl is a testament to Chappell’s newfound star power, and the fact that she’s all but guaranteed to quickly sell it out only affirms that. Tickets go on sale this Friday, July 19 at 10 a.m. CDT right here, with pre-sales beginning Wednesday (use code ‘PINKPONY’ for early access).