Chappell Roan isn’t only a Midwest princess — she’s a medieval one. The musician made her debut on the MTV Video Music Awards in entrance of a fort set, foreshadowed by her arrival on the crimson carpet with a sword and a medieval guard. Roan shot a flaming arrow on the fort on stage, setting it ablaze as she launched into “Good Luck Babe” from The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

Whereas guards battled with swords of their very own throughout her, Roan sang by way of the violence and the smoke from the flames. In her historical armor, she dropped to her knees and belted out the enduring “Good Luck Babe” bridge. “Whenever you get up subsequent to him in the midst of the night time/Together with your head in your fingers, you’re nothing greater than his spouse,” she sang. “And when you consider me, all of these years in the past/You’re standing head to head with I advised you so.”

Sasha Colby, your favourite drag queen’s favourite drag queen, launched Roan’s efficiency with a shifting speech match to your favourite singer’s favourite singer. “Pop music is inclusive. Irrespective of who you like, it’s meant for everybody,” she mentioned. “And nobody has revitalized that spirit greater than this subsequent artist. You might have all watched her blow up. The Midwest Princess is in the home. Your favourite drag queen’s favourite artist, right here is my daughter: Chappell Roan.”

Roan is one among three finalists for Finest New Artist at this yr’s VMAs. She faces off with Gracie Abrams and Tyla. The singer earned nominations for MTV Push Efficiency of the 12 months for her March 2024 efficiency of “Crimson Wine Supernova” and Finest Trending Video for “Scorching to Go!” She was additionally up for one of many largest awards of the night time, Music of the Summer season, for “Good Luck, Babe!”

Roan can be Rolling Stone‘s October 2024 cowl star. Within the interview, the singer mirrored on the entire folks, each inside and out of doors of the music trade, who didn’t consider in her as she was remodeling into the pop supernova she had emerged. “It feels so good to show them incorrect as a result of they weren’t just a bit incorrect,” she mentioned. “They had been actually, actually, actually incorrect. To know that my intestine intuition was proper is the very best feeling on the planet. Purposeful revenge doesn’t really feel good, however revenge accidentally feels superior.”

And for anybody who thought she constructed the muse of this pop empire — and the blazing fort round it — in a single day, she had a message for you, too: “What’s so infuriating is how persons are simply now taking me critically. Like, ‘You understand what, bitch? I’ve been doing this shit and also you’re simply now catching up.’ ”