Midwest Princess Chappell Roan is an artist who has recently caught my attention with her new single “Good Luck, Babe”. I first heard the artist's name last year when I heard that she was opening for singer Olivia Rodrigo during her Guts tour, but I didn’t think much more about Roan until now. Since hearing “Good Luck, Babe” and subsequently the rest of the artist's discography, I have been kicking myself for not looking her up earlier.
Roan’s 2023 debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, features 14 glam pop songs that celebrate femininity and the queer experience. There are many catchy songs that I have been playing on repeat all week from this album, my favorite being “HOT TO GO” and its accompanying viral dance. I also very much enjoy “Red Wine Supernova”, “Pink Pony Club”, and pretty much all the other songs on the album.
Roan describes her new single “Good Luck, Babe” as “the first song of the next chapter”, and I am excited to hear it. The song tells the story of the singer and a partner who is not accepting of their sexuality. The song starts with a faux nonchalant, “it’s fine, it's cool,” and quickly changes as the chorus comes four lines after the start of the song with an angry told-you-so vibe. “Well, good luck, babe (Well, good luck)/ You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.”
"Well, good luck, babe (Well, good luck) / You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.”
I have not been able to escape the bridge of this song, not that I’d want to. I have been hearing this iconic single all over social media. It tells of a situation that many people in the LGBTQ community experience. Even though Roan is angry at her partner, it seems like she feels empathetic to the situation of the other person. However, the artist doesn’t feel so sorry that she wouldn’t give an “I told you so” to her past partner. The empathy that she has for the situation isn't enough to keep her around in a relationship that hurts her as expressed in the earlier pre-chorus.
“When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night/
With your head in your hands, you're nothing more than his wife/
And when you think about me, all of those years ago/
You're standing face to face with ‘I told you so’/
You know I hate to say it, I told you so/
You know I hate to say, but 'I told you so”
The song is rapidly gaining popularity with about 60 million listeners on Spotify. An anthem for the LGBTQ community, "Good Luck, Babe" is a sure sign of good things to come from Roan's upcoming album.
"With your head in your hands, you're nothing more than his wife"
I cannot wait to see this new chapter that Chappell Roan is starting this year. I will be impatiently waiting for more music from this “Midwest Princess.”
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