Singer Chappell Roan calls on fans to engage in ‘creepy’ behavior – and she’s not the only one

Pop singer Chappell Roan has some harsh words for her obsessive fans as she continues her meteoric rise to superstardom.

“I don’t want what the f–k you think you’re entitled to when you see a celebrity. I don’t give a f–k if you think it’s selfish of me to say no to a picture, or your time, or a hug,” the American singer said in a TikTok video on Tuesday.

“That’s not normal; it’s weird. It’s weird how people think you know someone just because you see them online or listen to the art they make… I’m allowed to say no to creepy behavior, okay?”

Roan joins a growing number of musicians, including Halsey and Tyler, the Creator, who have voiced their frustrations with rude and overenthusiastic fans in recent weeks.

In another Tiktok posted the same day, Good luck, dear The singer asked viewers if they would approach a random person in public the way they approach celebrities.

“Would you stalk her family? Would you follow her everywhere? Would you try to dissect her life and bully her online?”

Roan has disabled comments on the videos, which have been viewed approximately 12 million times each.

Roan’s criticism is not typical of celebrities: marketing prof

The 26-year-old has been recording music since she was a teenager, but this year she has shot to fame.

She released her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in September and saw steady growth through 2024, but her monthly listeners on Spotify jumped from just over a million in February to nearly 21 million in June, according to a music data analytics platform Chartmetric.

Jenna Drenten, a marketing professor who studies digital consumer culture at Loyola University Chicago, says it was impressive for Roan to speak out in a video without her trademark stage makeup, at this point in her career, about the way fans treat her.

“I can’t remember a celebrity at the height of their career, with such a large following, ever being so open about the parasitic relationship that fans expect from celebrities,” she said.

Roan gave some details last month about fans acting like “freaks”, narrate The comments section podcast that she “put on the brakes” on what she shared publicly.

“[Fans] follow me and know where my parents live and where my sister works. All that weird shit,” she said.

Drenten says people have long held the idea that celebrities have chosen or “asked” for a lifestyle of judgment, scrutiny and criticism from fans and onlookers as a compromise for fame and fortune. She says fans also believe that celebrities are somehow beholden to them, and that they take credit for their fame.

Social media has magnified its effects and turned it into “obsessive fan behavior on steroids,” she said, providing unprecedented access to celebrities’ private lives and breaking down perceptions of intimacy.

Rapper Tyler, the Creator shared similar feelings last week about “strange” fans on the Non-conformists podcasting.

“They want to know who your sister is and what you had for dinner. Mind your f–king business,” he said. “The Internet has made people lose their personal boundaries and normalize it.”

Halsey said fans are ‘meaner’ to her than anyone else

Pop singer Halsey lashed out at her fans in a Tumblr post last month, saying she regretted returning to music due to the cruel comments online.

Halsey took a break from the spotlight after being diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2022, and later with “a rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder.” She returned in June with new music that didn’t sit well with some fans.

“My own fans are without a doubt meaner to me than anyone on the planet,” she wrote in a since-deleted post.

“I don’t speak for all of you, of course. But it used to be just a minority that was horrible to me and now it seems like a majority only occasionally voices their opinion about how much they hate me or how horrible I am.

“It’s hard to want to commit to a space where there is no kindness, sympathy, patience or, frankly, human decency.”

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber has publicly set boundaries with fans and spoken out about harassment on several occasions, dating back to 2016, when he said he felt like a “zoo animal” and was “done taking pictures.”

When fans continued to harass his wife Hailey last year and pressured Bieber to get back together with his former partner, singer Selena Gomez, begged fans to “be kinder and considerate of the mental health of others.”

How Social Media Is Changing Celebrity Culture

Jordan Foster, a researcher at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business who studies culture, new media and inequality, says celebrities complimenting their fans for crossing boundaries is part of a broader shift in celebrity culture.

Obsessive fan behavior isn’t new, but online platforms have led to the rise of new types of celebrities and micro-celebrities, he said. What’s more, some fans feel like they know them personally, even when they don’t.

Foster says Twitter, now X, started the shift by allowing celebrities and fans to interact directly with each other. That accessibility has evolved with Instagram and TikTok.

“Fans felt like they had a very intimate connection with the celebrity that was more accessible,” he said.

But if their comments or online behavior cross the line of decency, they will likely never know exactly how it affected the recipient. “We are not aware of the damage we are doing.”

WATCH | Chappell Roan on CBC’s Q with Tom Power

Foster says that in the case of Roan and Halsey, who are both queer (Halsey also uses both the pronouns they and them), their identity markers make them more susceptible to criticism from the public because they “embody these status markers that have historically and continue to be subject to harassment, prejudice, and discrimination.”

Foster suspects that Roan’s comments in particular may divide her growing audience, but they’re unlikely to do much damage. In fact, they may help spark a broader conversation about bullying and harassment.

“She has a persona that is based on this resilient character, this outspoken character, this individual who is able to disrupt traditional ideas about gender and sexuality and binaries. And so she is well positioned in that regard to be quite vocal,” Foster said.

“That doesn’t mean she’s immune to the consequences. There will be people in the audience who feel her backlash is unwarranted.”