Chappell Roan took home the award for Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards, and she used her platform to advocate for musicians.
"I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage in healthcare, especially to developing artists," Roan said.
"I got signed as a minor, and when I got dropped, I had zero job experience under my belt and like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance."
She continued, "It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have healthcare. And if my label would have prioritized artists' health, I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to."
Roan further goes on to say, "Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?"
Roan was signed to Atlantic Records in 2015 when she was 17, but was dropped by the label in 2020. She would go on to work as a nanny and barista to support herself, eventually earning a publishing deal with Sony in 2022.
You can watch Roan's full acceptance speech below.
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