Chappell Roan Dips Into Country With ‘The Giver’

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Chappell Roan

Pop star Chappell Roan, who recently won Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards, released her debut country single “The Giver” last Thursday (March 13) via Island Records. She first performed the tune on Saturday Night Live last year, and the song is currently being serviced to country radio.

Roan sat down with Apple Music Country’s Kelleigh Bannen to gear up for the release. The two discussed why Roan wanted to write a country song with her current success in pop and how the genre connects to her midwestern roots.

YouTube video

“I just thought it would be funny. It’s campy and it’s fun,” explained Roan on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen. “I’m from southwest Missouri, grew up on Christian and country and then found ‘Alejandro’ by Lady Gaga. And I was like, ‘I think I like this too.’ So I have kept country in my heart and it’s so incredibly nostalgic to drive in West Hollywood and have Jason Aldean, or Alan Jackson on. And I love how… ‘Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)’ [makes me feel]. I was like, I want to feel that way on stage. I want to feel that because that’s how I write. I’m like, ‘How do I want to walk around on stage and sing?’ And I was like, ‘I want to write that song, but, like, Chappell’s version.'”

The song also serves as way for Roan to connect a part of her past to now by using her music to embrace her queer identity, which is something Roan did not openly express while growing up in her hometown.

Chappell Roan & Kelleigh Bannen

“I don’t hate myself for not knowing everything about the queer culture at the time,” she shared. “I don’t hate myself for coming from Missouri and not knowing any lesbians. I don’t hate myself for being closeted and hating myself. Every person in the Midwest and the South, especially these tiny towns, are taught to not only keep it down, but hate or pray it away. I’m not mad at myself for doing that. It’s all I knew what to do. That’s all you’re told to do… I can hate myself for being gay at 15 and being like, ‘I’m a woman. I’m supposed to just be there for my husband and I’m going to learn how to cook.’ I can do that then move to LA, have a revelation, and write a country song to wrap it all up and be like, I love myself for loving country music and I love that I came around the other side. I love myself so much that I took a leap into a pretty painful part of my past in the Midwest and made a song of joy.”

Kelly Sutton, Chappell Roan & Amber Anderson.

Roan also sat down with Kelly Sutton and Amber Anderson from Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly Podcast to discuss her visit into the country music genre, and how releasing this single is paying respect to the genre.

“I wrote a country song not to invade country music, but to really capture what I think the essence of country music is for me–which is nostalgia, fun in the summertime, the fiddle, the banjo and feeling like country queen,” she explained. “It makes me feel a certain type of freedom that pop music doesn’t let me feel. I think it’s interesting and I had to do it. I had to do it for myself to know what is it actually like to write a country song and perform it next to ‘Casual’ or next to ‘My Kink is Karma’ or next to ‘Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl’ I just had to do myself justice.”

Madison Hahnen
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