Chappell Roan Turned Down White House Offer to Perform at Pride Event
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In one of several headline-grabbing moments from her epic set at New York’s Governors Ball festival on Sunday, fast-rising singer Chappell Roan revealed that she turned down an offer to perform at a White House Pride event. “In response to the White House, who asked me to perform for Pride,” Roan, dressed in a glammed-up Statue of Liberty costume that exposed her backside, said directly into a video camera broadcasting onto the festival’s giant screens. “We want liberty, justice and freedom for all.
When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.” A rep for the singer confirmed to Variety that the White House had reached out to Roan via her management and was declined.
oh i fucking love chappell roan. pic.twitter.com/sWZD1LEUIU Referencing her costume, she continued later, “I am in drag of the biggest queen of all,” she said to cheers and laughs. “But in case you had forgotten what’s etched on my pretty little toes, ‘Give me your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breath free,'” she said, quoting the poem written on the 1903 bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. “That means freedom and trans rights, that means freedom and women’s rights, and it especially means freedom for all people in oppressed” — she paused, apparently tearing up — “for all oppressed people in occupied territories.” However, the seriousness of her statement was slightly undercut by her abrupt change in tone when saying “Thank you!
OK, we’re gonna do ‘Hot to Go!’’”chappell roan not only talking about but getting emotional while speaking about all the oppressed people on occupied lands oh let me stan immediately pic.twitter.com/EgfLXkB2tI Her performance, which lit up social media on Sunday evening, began with an “Am I Gay?” quiz posted on the video screens, and played up a New York theme: She took the stage by emerging from a giant fake apple in her Statue of Liberty costume, and performed her second new song to be aired this year,.