‘Good Luck, Babe!’: How Chappell Roan’s ‘Karaoke Song for the Ages’ Became the Soundtrack to a Generation of Situationships

variety.com:

Thania Garcia Chappell Roan’s first public performance of “Good Luck, Babe!” took place on one of the world’s biggest stages for a musician, the Coachella festival.

Donning a pink butterfly costume, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter from Missouri introduced herself, famously, as “your favorite artist’s favorite artist.” As Roan belted her way through the bridge, her glitter-covered wings flapped in the breeze.

That ascent to stardom was long and laborious. Writer-producer Dan Nigro had been working with the singer for years, releasing singles independently as the pair self-funded the early sessions for her debut full-length, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” now a contender for album of the year at the Grammys. “Good Luck, Babe!,” a lilting synth-pop love song wrapped in self-denial, was released as a stand-alone single just one year after Nigro and Roan completed a demo with hit songwriter Justin Tranter. “It was my first time working with [Nigro and Roan], and I was jumping at the opportunity,” says Tranter, who shares credits on songs like “Sorry” by Justin Bieber and “Believer” by Imagine Dragons. “I was a big fan of what Dan was doing with Olivia Rodrigo, and I heard he was committing to Chappell as her full-time collaborator.

After hearing [Roan’s] ‘Pink Pony Club,’ I was in.” The first song Roan, Tranter and Nigro completed together was the melodic “My Kink is Karma,” a standout track on “The Rise and Fall.” In those same sessions, the trio got to work on “Good Luck,” with the idea for the narrative stemming from Roan’s personal experience with a “situationship,” a label coined by Gen Z to define living in undefined and commitment-free relationship limbo.