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British pop artist Charli XCX and American folk-pop musician Noah Kahan have pledged a further $25,000 each to help support the wages and healthcare of developing artists, matching Grammy winner Chappell Roan’s suggested $25,000 donation.
The rush of funding and support from notable, high-profile artists follows Chappell Roan’s ‘Best New Artist’ speech at the 2025 Grammys. At the podium, Roan drew attention to the lack of liveable wage and healthcare support for developing artists under affluent labels.
Roan said: “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a liveable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists.
“Because I got signed so young — I got signed as a minor — [that] when I got dropped I had zero job experience under my belt and like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in a pandemic, and could not afford health insurance. It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and so betrayed by the system, and so dehumanised to not have healthcare. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
Roan’s speech caused backlash from longtime music executive and former Chair of New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music Jeffrey Rabhan, who stamped her call-out as “misguided” and “uninformed”, in a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, and said she should “put [her] money where [her] mouth is”. Amid defence from US pop singer Halsey — who said the column was a “personal attack” against the ‘Pink Pony Club’ singer — Roan donated $25k to struggling, dropped artists.
Soon after, Kahan — known for breakthrough single ‘Hurt Somebody’ — wrote: “Hey [Chappell] — I’m going to match your 25k to support artist’s access to healthcare.”
Taking to Instagram, XCX said: “Hey [Chappell], I am going to match your $25k to support artists’ access to healthcare. I saw [Noah Kahan] say that he would do the same so I thought I’d follow suit. Your speech at the Grammys was inspiring and thoughtful and from a genuine place of care. Happy to help get the ball rolling too. Money where my mouth is.”
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