Chappell Roan reiterates his message to fans: “Stop touching me”

Chappell Roan has reiterated her message to “predatory” fans, urging them to respect their boundaries.

After posting several TikTok videos earlier this week to vent her displeasure over her sudden fame, the 26-year-old artist posted a candid message on Instagram lamenting her experiences with pushy interactions following a series of viral performances.

Roan wrote: “I feel more insecure than I have ever felt in my life.”

Her rise to fame, fueled by the success of her single “Good Luck, Babe!” and a record-breaking performance at Lollapalooza, catapulted her into the spotlight. The momentum continued with her performance at Outside Lands on August 11, helping her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, to its best streaming week ever, according to Billboard.

“I have been working on my project nonstop for the past ten years and now I have reached the point where I need to set boundaries and restrictions,” Roan wrote in her post on Friday, August 23.

She emphasized her call for respect, adding: “Women don’t owe you anything. I chose this career path because I love music and art and honor my inner child. I will not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.”

Roan’s performance at Outside Lands, which drew an estimated 50,000 fans to her 4 p.m. performance, outperformed the night’s headliner, Sturgill Simpson. Viral video clips from the event showed Roan calling out the VIP audience for their lack of enthusiasm, sparking a TikTok trend featuring her ranting fans.

The queer singer, whose real name is Kayleigh Amstutz, has spoken openly about the challenges that come with her newfound fame. On the podcast “The Comment Section with Drew Afulo,” she revealed that she is considering quitting music due to the intrusive behavior of her fans.

In her Instagram post, Roan clarified that she is “at work” on stage, but otherwise “off.” “I disagree with the idea that I owe people I don’t know, don’t trust, or scare me a reciprocal exchange of energy, time, or attention – just because they express their admiration.”

She stressed that having a close connection to her music does not mean knowing her personally. Drawing a parallel to victim shaming a woman who is harassed for wearing a short skirt, Roan explained: “It’s not the woman’s duty to take it; it’s the harasser’s duty to be a decent human being, to leave her alone, and to respect that she can wear whatever she wants and still deserve peace in this world.”

The “Pink Pony Club” artist pleaded with her fans to allow her to maintain some level of normalcy in public, concluding, “Please stop touching me. Please stop acting weird around my family and friends. Please stop making assumptions about me.”

Roan isn’t the only artist to talk about the pressure that comes with sudden fame.

In her 2020 Netflix documentary “Miss Americana,” Taylor Swift opens up about the downsides of being pushed into the spotlight after years of striving.

“We are people who got into this profession because we wanted people to like us. Because we were naturally insecure. Because we liked the sound of people clapping. Because it made us forget how much we felt like we weren’t good enough,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years now and I’m tired of it.”

Actress and singer Selena Gomez expressed similar sentiments in her 2022 documentary “My Mind & Me.”

“Everything I ever wanted, I had and did,” she said. “But it killed me.”

Chronicle writer Zara Irshad contributed to this report.

Contact Aidin Vaziri: [email protected]