Jeff Rabhan: Last News

Halsey is stepping up to defend Chappell Roan after her powerful speech at the Grammys.

Chappell Roan’s speech at the 2025 Grammy awards was, in some ways, familiar to me. Her advocacy for healthcare and living wages for musicians was something I’ve heard over the past seven years I’ve spent interviewing musicians, whether signed to indie or major labels.

Chappell Roan is speaking out after a music exec branded her an “instant industry insider” and took issue with her acceptance speech at the 2025 Grammys.

Halsey has slammed an op-ed that has criticised Chappell Roan‘s recent Grammys speech in which she demanded that record labels take better care of their artists.After winning Best New Artist at the Grammys earlier this week, Chappell Roan took aim at record labels by talking about her past experience as a struggling artist.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. “Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.” She ended her speech by saying: “Labels, we got you.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Late Wednesday evening, an uproar erupted across the music industry over an op-ed published in the Hollywood Reporter, in which Jeff Rabhan (former chair of New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music) unpacked some of the implications of Chappell Roan’s passionate statement about music companies owing musicians “a livable wage and life insurance” during her speech accepting the best new artist award at the Grammy Awards. As is the case with many such situations, both sides are right about some things and less right about others.