Chappell Roan appeared on Saturday Night Live Nov. 2. After performing her beloved song, “Pink Pony Club,” she debuted a new song, “The Giver.”
I think most kids in small towns grow up wanting to leave. This isn’t to say that small towns are bad — they just don’t always glitter with possibility and potential like cities do. To them, staying in one is synonymous with never amounting to anything.
That’s part of why Roan’s music resonates with me and why her success story is so meaningful.
She went to the big city with a dream and a ticket. She has talent and worked hard, but it didn’t pan out for her. However, her dreams didn’t end when she had to move back home. Her album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” has essentially made her a household name, and she’s done it all while embracing her Midwestern identity.
With her latest song, “The Giver,” she goes above and beyond.
The background instrumentals are delightful and have a heavy country influence. The fiddle in the intro stands out as not only being incredibly catchy but also energizing. Meanwhile, the hi-hats being played mimic the sounds of people clapping. It’s a beat that’s easy to follow and makes you want to start clapping and stomping along.
Combined with her line-dance-inspired moves, it’s not too different from the kind of song and dance many of us grew up around.
What makes this song special, of course, and different from the abundance of country and country-adjacent music that already exists is how unabashedly queer it is.
Although LGBTQ Midwesterners aren’t always able to live as openly here as they could in other regions, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. Their stories are equally deserving of representation as other stories are. With her music, Roan is more than happy to share her experiences as a lesbian Midwestern woman with the world.
While at times it may seem that her outfits and lyrics poke fun at the Midwest, you can ultimately tell this song was made with love.
She might not have antlers on the wall, but when you need a hit song, she sure knows how to get the job done.
