Missouri musician Chappell Roan is throwing a pop party, and queer joy is at the heart of it

Despite all the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric across the country, Chappell Roan — who grew up in the small, religious town of Willard, Missouri — is sharing her spotlight with local drag queens in every city she plays on tour.
Before Chappell Roan took the stage at her Springfield, Missouri, show in March, she felt more nerves than at any other show on the tour.

The Missouri native expected to look out into the crowd and recognize nearly everyone there. But instead, the house lights shone down on a venue packed with strangers, mostly LGBTQ people, dressed up in gowns, sashes and crowns. (All of Roan’s concerts on her spring 2023 Naked in North America tour had themes for attendees to dress for, and this one was homecoming queen.)

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, there are so many queer people here that I didn’t know about who are probably hiding a little bit like I was,’” she says.