Chappell Roan is an inch away from blowing up the pop charts

Chappell Roan is outrageously talented and she knows it. It’s no wonder the 21-year-old singer-songwriter teases her music like a pro. In the weeks before the release of “Naked in Manhattan,” snippets of the song on social media with bedroom clips of her singing along in a bedazzled wardrobe introduced us to a Chappell who has broken out of her shell. I couldn’t get the lyrics or the voicemail monologue out of my head and the February 18 release date couldn’t come any sooner. She set her fans’ expectations sky-high and delivered.

“Naked in Manhattan” is Roan’s first release in two years and her first independent project. This euphoric single is about Roan’s first queer experience and the giddiness of having a high school crush. With references to Lana Del Rey, Mean Girls, and Mulholland Drive, the single is instantly nostalgic.

The excitement Roan brings to this song — especially as she urgently screams “touch me, touch me, touch me, touch me!” — will make you want to doll yourself up and live out a sapphic reverie. “Hair clips, lip gloss”, and “bedazzled Chanel rings”, she glamorizes, taking me back to the simple days when piling on clashing Claire’s accessories was pure bliss. Almost as blissful as Roan’s belting vocal tangent in the outro.

The line “could go to hell but we’ll probably be fine” tackles the shame that comes along with queer sexuality with lightheartedness. The frivolity of this song represents the weight that gets lifted off your shoulders when you finally let go of the shame you were taught to feel and you don’t have to feel bad for being you.

If this is your first time hearing the name Chappell Roan — Get used to it. She’s already started teasing another single and I’m ecstatic!