Chappell Roan is “your favorite artist’s favorite artist” (and one of the most exciting performers in years), but it was only a few short years ago that she was performing Christmas songs on the local news.
In 2018, the Missouri-based KOLR 10 & FOX 49 stations uploaded a clip of Roan singing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” to YouTube. The clip (as spotted by Reddit user “OtherPassage”) has less 1,000 views, but it’s a fascinating time capsule of a pre-fame Roan, shortly after she moved from Willard, Missouri, where she grew up, to Los Angeles.
You can watch the lovely video above.
Roan released her first EP, School Nights, in 2017. It sounds nothing like the infectious pop joy of her debut album, 2023’s The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess. She had to head west before Kayleigh Rose Amstutz could truly become Chappell Roan. “It felt like I needed to get out of Missouri to finish the rest of the songs that needed to be written,” she told Vanity Fair. “I couldn’t write pop songs when I was depressed on a farm. I just needed to get out of there. I was working the drive-through and I would just think of little song melodies and write on my Notes app. And that’s kind of how I kept the flame going. It didn’t really explode until I moved back to L.A. and got a job.”
