The musician Chappell Roan has spoken out against fans’ “creepy behaviour” amid the explosion of interest in her and her music, saying she and her family have been stalked and harassed both in person and online.
The 26-year-old singer, whose debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess now sits behind Taylor Swift at No 2 on the US music charts, posted two TikTok videos on Monday night, in which she called out people for allegedly stalking her and her family, bullying her online, shouting at her in the street and becoming abusive when she refused to pose for photos or give hugs.
“If you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from your car window? Would you harass her in public? Would you go up to a random lady and say, ‘Can I take a photo with you?’ and she says ‘No, what the fuck?’ and then you get mad at this random lady?” she said.
“Would you be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time? Would you stalk her family? Would you follow her around? Would you try to dissect her life and bully her online? This is a lady you don’t know and she doesn’t know you at all. Would you assume that she’s a good person, assume she’s a bad person? Would you assume everything you read online about her is true? I’m a random bitch, you’re a random bitch. Just think about that for a second, OK?”
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Roan said she did not care that people feel such behaviour “is a normal thing” that celebrities encounter, saying: “I don’t care that this crazy type of behaviour comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it OK, that doesn’t make it normal. That doesn’t mean that I want it, that doesn’t mean that I like it.
“I don’t want whatever the fuck you think you’re supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity,” she continued. “I don’t give a fuck if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug. That’s not normal. That’s weird. It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online and you listen to the art they make. That’s fucking weird! I’m allowed to say no to creepy behaviour, OK?”
Celebrities, including Pete Davidson, Cardi B and Keke Palmer, have increasingly spoken out against fans’ bad behaviour and the pressures of parasocial relationships – an intense, one-sided attachment where people believe and act as if they know a celebrity personally because they enjoy or engage with their work, a dynamic exacerbated by the internet and social media.
Last month, Roan said she was considering quitting music due to obsessive fans, telling the Comment Section podcast: “People have started to be freaks, [they] follow me and know where my parents live, and where my sister works. All this weird shit … A few years ago when I said that if [there were] stalker vibes or my family was in danger, I would quit. And we’re there. We’re there.”
Though her debut album came out in September 2023, Roan has become hugely popular this year after breakthrough performances at Lollapalooza and Coachella. Last week her album almost reached No 1 on the US music charts, before Swift released yet another variant of her last album The Tortured Poets Department. Roan currently sits at No 1 on the UK music charts and at No 5 in Australia.
