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Chappell Roan has had a banner year and she can pinpoint the exact moment that she said "changed" her career.
The 26-year-old rising star, who recently scored her first Grammy nominations, sat down with Brandi Carlile and songwriter Dan Nigro for a chat last week at the Grammy Museum where she revealed that watching an iconic scene from the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody inspired her "hardcore" switch "into pop," per People. The scene in question was the film's recreation of Queen's 1985 Live Aid performance where Freddie Mercury led the crowd in synchronized clapping.
"That scene, whenever they're performing Live Aid and they're performing 'Radio Ga Ga' and they're doing that part, [thumping]? That changed my career," she said. "It pivoted and I was like, 'I will do whatever it takes.'"
When Carlile also asked if Roan connected her own queer identity to the film, she admitted she "wasn't there yet" and instead just saw it as a way to connect with a crowd.
"I think it was like I just would do anything to feel that way in a crowd," she said. "I just thought to myself, 'How do I do something that I can look out and have everyone do the same thing like that?' It was so powerful to just be like, to all do the same movement."
Roan truly took inspiration from the scene and ran with it, as many of her songs garner audience participation at live shows, such as "HOT TO GO!," which involves fans spelling out the title similar to the "YMCA," and "Pink Pony Club," which Roan encourages her crowds to belt along with in the chorus.
"You started playing shows, then you were seeing how people were responding to that. I think that was also a moment of, oh, we can push it even further,'" said Nigro. Roan agreed, adding, "It was like I knew the whole time I just wanted to write songs that would be amazing live to interact with the audience."
The "Femininomenon" singer believes her live performances throughout the year are part of what led to her skyrocketing success and the attention to her debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
"I genuinely think that's why this project has just caught on fire this year because it [has] been my year of performing live, like every festival, at so many tours," she said. "We've done 83 shows this year. It's no joke. I think that's why, it's like these songs were never meant to only be, I dunno, hidden on an album somewhere."