Chappell Roan has done little but soar to pop stardom over the past year. The singer-songwriter from small-town Missouri, at age 26, jammed-packed arenas across the country on the back of irresistibly catchy tunes and glammy, so-slick performances. Her debut album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” revealed Roan’s flair for intimate yet amazingly anthemic pop gemstones, but it’s her breakout single “Good Luck, Babe!” that has fully launched her into the mainstream.
It was Roan’s Coachella performance in April 2024 that rocketed her into pop stardom. Clips of her performance soared on social media, further exposing new listeners to “Good Luck, Babe!” Streams of the song spiked dramatically in the weeks following Coachella. It had become inescapable—an earworm of which you seem to find yourself humming without It has a deceptively simple, totally addictive killer hook that draws one into the more glittering, emotionally fulfilling storytelling of Roan with every replay.
Bubbly instruments fill the track with Roan’s powerful voice, “It’s fine, it’s cool/ You can say that we’re nothing, but you know the truth,” she sings with an undertone of threat. As it builds up to the pre-chorus, her vocals get bigger and bigger over the lush production: “You only wanna be the one that I call ‘baby’,” she declares, hitting a silky high note into the euphoric chorus That’s when the magic happens. Roan spells out the refrain in an otherworldly falsetto: “You can kiss a hundred boys in bars, shoot another shot, try to stop the feeling.” Playful, yet it knows what it talks about with its subject. Then a beautifully deep layer of backing vocals joins in with the killer tagline: “Good luck babe!” it’s all classic pop perfection—glorious melodies, slick sounds, and intimate storytelling, all bundled up in three sparkling minutes. And then, of course, the song continues to unfold with each listen. “And I cry, it’s not fair. I just need a little loving, I just need a little air,” she sings beautifully in the second verse. Strings swell sadly behind her, underscoring both the tender pain in her words.
“Good Luck, Babe!” is “about wishing good luck to someone who is denying fate.,” Roan explains. An account of dating someone who still hasn’t come to terms with their sexuality. “I knew exactly what I wanted. I wrote it in three minutes. I felt so much anger. I was so upset. It all came out and I didn’t add anything when I wrote it all done. It was a perfect storm.”
Highlight: Her breathy belting through the bridge, climaxing powerfully through “I told you so.” But it’s in the ending that hits the hardest, though. As the instruments fade delicately, Roan echoes that haunting refrain one last time – “You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.” She leaves it sitting there as a quiet worry that stays long after the track ends.
With “Good Luck, Babe!”, Chappell Roan made the perfect pop anthem. When only such sparkling qualities come to the fore, world hearts can be won over. Months later, it feels just as fresh and as exciting as ever. Her vocals shine with easy grace, while her lyrics burrow deep. It’s no wonder this modern love song has set the bar: dazzling yet profoundly human. Pop music has never felt so powerful in the skilled hands of Chappell Roan.
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