Chappell Roan Uses Grammy Win to Call Out Record Labels for Not Providing Health Insurance to Artists: I Felt ‘Betrayed by the System’

28 comments

1. >After thanking her friends, family and team, the “Pink Pony Club” singer said, “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 livable wage and health care, especially developing artists.”

   >As the Los Angeles audience broke into cheers and applause, Roan added, “I got signed so young, I got signed as a minor. When I got dropped, I had zero job experience under my belt, and like most people, I had … quite a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and [could not] afford insurance.”

   >“It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized,” Roan continued. “If my label had prioritized it, I could have been provided care for a company I was giving everything to. Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.”

   >She finished her victory speech by asking, “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”

2. She isn’t wrong.

3. Guy here who doesn’t really follow mysic or Hollywood that much… but she’s genuinely a great human being from what I’ve read… that alone is far more important than any Grammy… also I really like her H O T song

4. I cannot respect her enough for having more balls to call out the labels like this than a lot of veterans in the industry

5. She should go without a label. Otherwise, the labels will just shrug

6. Watch there being a sudden influx of hate about how rude and mean she is now that she dared poke the dragon

7. Working in the music industry sounds awful

8. I think the issue is they don’t have a union like people in television and film since they are essentially independent.

9. As a self employed person who pays for my own family’s insurance…

   I always thought musicians like her were self employed as well.

10. Id never thought of it, but if asked I would’ve thought *of course* labels provide health insurance for their singers. It’s in everyone’s best interest.

    But they don’t?! Vampires, vultures, and leeches, the lot of them.

11. I mean, record labels aren’t employers of the artists, are they? It’s just a business contract between two parties, not an employee-employer relationship.

12. That wouldn’t be a problem if the US had universal health care like most other countries.

13. I agree with her but there’s definitely a line between contractor and employee (yes I’m aware of the prevalence of sham contracting)..I don’t really think it applies to this. Maybe I’m just bitter cause I’m just a dumb drywall guy who has basically no other option but to be a contractor.

    If this is the road we want labels to go down, we should ask: Would Chappel accept a salary of like 120k a year flat if her label provided her health insurance, holiday pay, tax withholding, superannuation etc? Regardless of how much money her music brings in?

    In saying all that: she is 100% right, any developing and unknown artist who gets signed to any sort of recording or development or publishing contract, whether they are contractors or not, should 1000000% be paid a living wage and insurances and all that sort of thing.

14. Everyone should be calling out our elected political leaders for not providing government paid health care to everyone.

15. On the one hand, artists aren’t “employees” of their label, so this shouldn’t be surprising.

    On the other hand, none of us should be relying on our employer for health insurance in the first place.

16. crazy how so many people in **so many** countries don’t have to deal with this

17. Wish.com Sophie

18. I understand the sentiment about getting healthcare if you have a label but she said she was dropped by her label and didn’t have insurance

    How is that different than when I am let go from an employer and I have to either find another job or pay for my own insurance?

19. They can afford to buy their own just like the rest of us. Fuck her.

20. She said in the speech that this was when she was dropped by her label though. Most people when their employer fires them do not continue to get health insurance from their former employer

21. She lives in California right? What’s wrong with Covered California? It seems to do just fine for us poors. The entitlement factor is heavy with this one….again. Does she realize you don’t want health insurance tied to your job?

22. She was against voting for Harris. She is a “both sides are bad, better not to vote” person. I have zero sympathy for her and I can’t stand how she uses drag culture to further her career but tears us down politically as a gay community.

23. In Hollywood, my understanding is that Screen Actors’ Guild provides pretty good healthcare for their members. Well paid actors subsidize less successful ones. Why don’t wealthy musicians like her do that?

24. Ah yes Chappell I know using your platform to complain about a group of people who can all mainly afford to pay for health insurance out of pocket as opposed to *gestures broadly everything else makes the most sense rn, esp considering your audience demographics. God she needs so much more media training

    At least the other award shows pretends to be about something. What a bunch of self congratulatory drivel for the most mediocre rich people the Grammys are now

25. Lover her with all my heart but…

    Chappell Roan has won her first and last Grammy

26. Lmao! What a clown.

27. I know there’s a level of social responsibility to these celebrities using their platform to call out weaknesses in the system but…

    Is there a bigger conversation to be had about every single celebrity having a new thing to complain about possibly eroding the very institution that made them as successful as they are? What I mean is there is a lot of complaining about what’s wrong and not enough emphasis on what’s right. It should be very clear that behind the scenes it’s impossible to appease every individual need and implement it on an industry wide scale.

    I just wish people like Chappell Roan would recognize the logistics and money allocation/reallocation that goes into something like healthcare to all talent.

    TLDR: It’s easy to spout what’s wrong with your employer. It’s much harder to do the legwork to fix the problem.

28. If they can afford those mansions they can get health care 🙄🙄

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