Chappell Roan

Chappell Roan throws glitter, drag, and bops at Pasadena’s ‘Damsels’ finale

Chappell Roan closes the final U.S. show of her brief ‘Damsels’ tour in Pasadena with a glitter-clad set, plucking heavily from her debut album and standalone tracks like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “The Subway.”

The event, staged at Brookside Park near the Rose Bowl, borders on music carnival, featuring drag icon Trixie Mattel’s DJ set and a surrealist-themed fairground dubbed “Chappellchella.”

Chappell Roan clocks in for “The Subway” release, trades crown for wig on fire escape

A year after its live debut costumed as the Statue of Liberty at Gov Ball 2024, Chappell Roan finally schedules “The Subway” for release on July 31 at 8 p.m. EST. With cover art showing her submerged in her own red hair and glimpses of a Rapunzel-length wig atop a fire escape, the track arrives as her follow-up to March’s “The Giver,” which peaked at No. 5.

Following sightings of a presumed music video shoot in New York and ahead of her fall pop-up shows, Roan hints at a creative pause to write her next album after 2023’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” finally arrives—14 months and one outro debate later

The Greatest Pop Stars podcast deconstructs the prolonged rollout of Chappell Roan’s “The Subway,” a track first teased live in June 2024 and finally released 14 months later. Complete with a new video and a climax of anticipation, the single’s arrival is dissected through timing, promo strategy, and performance expectations.

Hosts debate whether the studio version sustains the allure of its live debut, if the outro should’ve functioned as a bridge, and how the video aligns with prior fan fantasies of big-budget visuals.