Chappell Roan and All-Pink Band Turn NPR’s Tiny Desk Into the Pink Pony Club

Feature image from the Chappell Roan Tiny Desk concert. 

“And I heard that there’s a special place/Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day”

I first heard Chappell Roan‘s “Pink Pony Club” during the summer of 2021 thanks to the least cool way to discover new music: Spotify Discover Weekly. Because I listen to a lot of what the algorithm probably labels “LGBT Music” I get recommended a wide variety of queer performers. During this first stanza I almost hit next, thinking this new artist might be a tad too tenderqueer for my hard Capricorn heart. But the vocals and the production kept me listening. And listening. And soon enough I, too, was ready for the Pink Pony Club.

Chappell Roan’s sincerity is part of her draw. There’s something uniquely queer about her combination of emotional lyrics and doesn’t-give-a-fuck energy. Like her signature drag paint that both hides and calls attention, Chappell Roan is an artist who gives the perception of an unencumbered split vein vulnerability, while curating her craft and presentation with precision.

The Chappell Roan Tiny Desk concert was released this morning and it’s sure to delight her already avid fans and bring her many new ones. In addition to showing off her impressive vocals with songs like “Casual” and “California,” she charms with total confidence and repeated mention of how cool and crazy this experience is for her.

She wears a big red wig and a pink dress and pink gloves and waves a pink fan and she’s joined by an all-femme band also in pink.

“Oh mama, I’m just having fun,” is another Pink Pony Club lyric and that’s the best way to describe the show. Chappell Roan and her band just seem to be having so much fun! It’s infectious.

So watch the concert below to enjoy her music, her banter, and to learn her big secret! (Spoiler alert: It’s that she donates to NPR.) There is nothing casual about our love for Chappell Roan after this performance.

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 622 articles for us.

3 Comments

  1. This is so good! I fairly recently discovered Chappell Roan thanks to the TikTok algorithm showing me videos of her opening for Olivia Rodrigo (thanks TikTok!) and I’m obsessed. She’s like if 2009-era Lady Gaga had been raised by drag queens, but queerer (more queer?) and I’m so into it.

    • She’s the best thing I’ve heard on Colbert in years. [When she ended RWSN w/ an orgasmic gasp, collapsing on the floor, and Colbert said “Stay down: you’ve done enough!”? I LIVE.]

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