Grammys 2025: Chappell Roan’s Best New Artist acceptance speech demands record labels “treat their artists as valuable employees”

nme.com:

Chappell Roan has won the Best New Artist award at the ongoing 67th Grammy Awards, and her speech took aim at record labels by talking about her past experience as a struggling new artist.The former NME Cover star has accrued six Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year for ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ and Album of the Year for ‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess’.Chappell Roan won Best New Artist, beating the likes of Doechii (who won Best Rap Album), Benson Boone, Raye, and Shaboozey.The pop artist – who, before that, gave a rousing clown-themed performance of ‘Pink Pony Club’ atop a giant pink horse – showed up in an Pagliacci-esque outfit and took the stage to deliver her acceptance speech, in which she previously teased that she will “say something controversial”.Her resulting speech turned out to be a plea to record labels for better protections for up-and-coming artists.She began: “I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a liveable wage and health care, especially developing artists.”Her speech had already drawn applause by then, with artists like Taylor Swift giving her a standing ovation.