Halsey defends Chappell Roan against “personal attack” from op-ed criticising Grammys speech: “Boot licking behaviour”

Halsey has slammed an op-ed that has criticised Chappell Roan‘s recent Grammys speech in which she demanded that record labels take better care of their artists.

• READ MORE: Chappell Roan: the pop supernova who feels like one of the ‘Drag Race’ girls

After winning Best New Artist at the Grammys earlier this week, Chappell Roan took aim at record labels by talking about her past experience as a struggling artist.

She began: “I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a liveable wage and health care, especially developing artists.”

Her speech had already drawn applause by then, with artists like Taylor Swift giving her a standing ovation. “Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.” She ended her speech by saying: “Labels, we got you. But do you got us?”

Check out her full speech below.

Following the Grammys, The Hollywood Reporter published an op-ed from guest columnist Jeff Rabhan, who was a former music journalist and label executive. In his op-ed, Rabhan labelled Roan as “misguided” and “far too green and uninformed” to be demanding that major labels take care of artists.

Rabhan wrote: “Her Grammy speech was a hackneyed and plagiarized script of an artist basking in industry love while broadcasting naïveté and taking aim at the very machine that got her there. If labels are responsible for artists’ wages, health care and overall well-being, where does it end and personal responsibility begin? Should Chris Blackwell put a mint on her pillow and tuck her in at night, too? There is no moral or ethical obligation by any standard that hold labels responsible for the allocation of additional funds beyond advances and royalties.

He continued: “The moment she stepped onto the Grammy stage Sunday night, she was no longer the scrappy indie artist fighting from the fringes — she became part of the establishment. It is disingenuous to cash a fat label check, ride meaningful industry support to mainstream success and then act like the kid who didn’t get picked for dodgeball when your name is called.”

Now, Halsey has posted a scathing Instagram Story calling out The Hollywood Reporter and Rabhan for the op-ed. She wrote: “I hope you’re embarrassed of the absolute personal attack that you’ve ran and disguised as critical journalism. This is so far beneath the standard you should uphold as a publication.”

“Rabhan’s ranting, seething tantrum is loaded with assumptions and accusations that generalise the experience of every artist to that of the most successful. Out industry is comprised of thousands of voices, the elite at the very top of the class are not the example of a monolithic experience of all artists.”

Halsey continued: “An artist like Chappell who has worked for over a decade is not an ‘instant industry insider’ and to compare the payoff of her actions to those of an industry titan with the power and financial leverage like Taylor Swift, when Chappell hasn’t even spun the block enough times to see the residuals of her long earned but sudden success, is irresponsible for someone with your experience in this industry. Shame on you. Boot licking behaviour.”

Chappell Roan has yet to comment on the op-ed.

Roan has been announced as a headliner of next year’s Reading & Leeds and Primavera Sound, and this month she was crowned the winner of BBC Radio 1’s Sound Of 2025.

Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe’ was also named as NME’s best song of 2024. “With ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, Roan set out to write a ‘big anthemic pop song’. It was an unqualified success: over subtly insistent synth-pop, Roan serves up home truths to someone desperately trying to deny their queerness,” the entry read.

The post Halsey defends Chappell Roan against “personal attack” from op-ed criticising Grammys speech: “Boot licking behaviour” appeared first on NME.