How Daniel Nigro’s Belief in Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan Led to the ‘Year of Vindication’

variety.com:

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Daniel Nigro knew there was something special about Chappell Roan, a young upstart who had just moved to Los Angeles from Missouri, during their first meeting in 2018.

The pair cooked up a few songs after that — notably “Pink Pony Club,” about a queer woman who finds community at a West Hollywood gay bar — but it would take a long time for the tune to resonate.

It finally entered the charts this past June, nearly four years after its initial release. For Nigro, it’s all a matter of staying true to his belief in an artist. “Of course, it’s the year of vindication,” he says about Roan’s success. “I feel like there’s so many times where I was shouting from the rooftops about how amazing Chappell was or how good her songs were.” Nigro, who has been named Variety Hitmakers Producer of the Year, has spent the past five years building out the sound of pop’s biggest breakthroughs, first with Olivia Rodrigo’s debut, “Sour,” in 2021 and its tearjerker lead single, “Drivers License,” which debuted at No.

1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and stayed there for eight weeks). Then came Roan, who built a framework for her rocket ride to superstardom as an opener on Rodrigo’s “Sour” tour in 2022, followed by a massive word-of-mouth groundswell that culminated in six songs from her debut, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” charting.