After a whirlwind six months since the release of her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan is opening for Olivia Rodrigo on the first American leg of her GUTS World Tour, which makes its way to St. Louis on March 12.
While she is currently based in L.A., Roan is originally from Springfield, Missouri. The St. Louis stop is the closest to her hometown on the GUTS tour.
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Roan has come into her own over the three years since she last played in St. Louis, opening for Ben Platt. She’s spent the time since honing her specific brand of theatrical, queer, party pop songs.
”I feel really ready for this,” Roan says. “If this were to be happening when I was dying for it to happen, at 19 or 20, I wouldn’t have been ready. Now, I can just enjoy it instead of worrying about it the whole time.”
Her music clearly struck a chord with audiences. Roan garnered critical praise for The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess from publications such as Pitchfork, Uproxx, and Rolling Stone.
“It’s a representation of that journey from a small Missouri town to Hollywood, as cliché as it sounds, and being exposed to queer communities for the first time, then unraveling this queer self that I didn’t know existed while I was in Missouri,” Roan says. “L.A. just brought parts of me that were dying to come out, and the album is a sonic representation of that.”
For her set opening for Rodrigo, Roan promises 40 minutes of “all bangers,” sure to include hits such as “HOT TO GO!,” “Pink Pony Club,” and “Red Wine Supernova.”
Fans who want to hear more from Roan won’t have to wait long: On May 30, she’ll return to St. Louis on her own headlining tour. (She was originally slated to play at The Pageant, but after the show sold out in just a week, it was upgraded to a larger venue, Saint Louis Music Park.) While opening for Rodrigo will offer a taste, Roan’s headlining set is its own affair, complete with local drag queens performing as openers and nightly themes that take the show off the stage and into the audience.
“It’s my dream to be able to perform like this for a living and not have to work at a doughnut shop anymore, as much fun as that was,” Roan says. ”I’m just so excited that people are coming, let alone selling out shows.”
Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour at the Enterprise Center on March 12 is currently sold out, but resale tickets are available online. Tickets for Chappell Roan’s show at Saint Louis Music Park on May 30 can be purchased via Ticketmaster.
