Chappell Roan Puts Her Money Where Her Grammy Speech Was
After a former record label executive criticized her for calling on labels to provide wages and health care to artists.
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Chappell Roan — not one to keep it casual — is calling out former music exec Jeff Rabhan over his disillusioned February 5 op-ed in The Hollywood Reporter about her 2025 Grammys speech. Titled “Chappell Groan: The Misguided Rhetoric of an Instant Industry Insider,” Rabhan argues that artists should be personally responsible for their own health and financial status, not the labels. The take was a direct stab at Roan, who called on labels to pay developing artists livable wages and provide health care while accepting the award for Best New Artist.
“If labels are responsible for artists’ wages, health care and overall well-being, where does it end and personal responsibility begin?” Rabhan wrote in THR. “Should Chris Blackwell put a mint on her pillow and tuck her in at night, too?” After the piece went viral, Roan challenged Rabhan via Instagram stories to match her donation of $25,000 to struggling dropped artists. Roan did not say where she would be donating but did promise to “show receipts of the donations.” Rabhan then responded on X: “Right message pointed in the wrong direction. The challenge is to other artists, not me.” He added, “Don’t ask teachers to donate money ask your artist friends @ChappellRoan. I teach and provide services.” (Rabhan is also currently the Chair Emeritus of the Clive Davis Institute at NYU.)
The very online Halsey also responded to Rabhan’s op-ed. “Jeff Rabhan’s ranting, seething tantrum is loaded with assumptions and accusations that generalize the experience of every artist to that of the most successful,” she wrote on Instagram Stories. “Our industry is comprised of thousands of voices, the elite at the very top of the class are not the example of a monolithic experience for all artists.”
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