Chappell Roan Duets With Elton John on ‘Pink Pony Club’ for Electric Oscar Party Performance
With a little help from the legend himself, Chappell Roan transformed West Hollywood Park into the “Pink Pony Club” during an electric headlining performance at the 33rd annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party.
Fresh from winning a best new artist Grammy, the self-proclaimed Midwest Princess took the stage at 9 p.m., shortly after the end of the dinner program and auction which helped the event raise $8.6 million for the foundation. John, who had just arrived from the Oscars ceremony at which he was nominated for best original song, introduced Roan from his table in the center of the ballroom.
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He noted how he “just freaked out” when he first heard her music. “I immediately wanted to get her on the [Apple Music show Rocket Hour], and she came on the program and I interviewed her and I fell in love with her and I fell in love with the album. I’ve continued to be her friend hopefully and speak to her quite a lot.”
Calling Roan “one of the biggest stars in the world right now, quite rightly so,” he went on to applaud the singer who “not only speaks with her voice on stage, she speaks with her voice off stage in a candid and wonderful way.” Roan, outfitted in an ensemble by Valentino, then twirled her way on to the stage and kicked off her set with “Femininomenon.”
“Can you play a song with a fucking beat,” she said pausing for effect.
“Can you believe it? We’re in a dog park by the Abbey!” she exclaimed before launching into “Naked in Manhattan” and “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl.”
Later, Roan shared that going to the Abbey, the West Hollywood hotspot, “was like church, it was spiritual.” (In fact, next door to the Abbey is an adjoining space called The Chapel.)
“I Went to the Abbey when I was 21. You know what that is. … It’s the gay bar. … I walked through and I saw all these really hot people making out and like there was steam coming from the ceiling when the beat dropped and there were these beautiful go-go dancers. And I thought to myself, this is actually heaven. … It was like pure love. I wanted to be a go-go dancer so bad. But instead, I wrote a song about it.” It was a reference to “Pink Pony Club” and a tease of what was to come during the intimate set.
Bur first, she honored the host of the evening with a special cover. “I’m gonna sing a song that is one of my favorite songs of all time. … I think it’s like, I don’t know, maybe the best song of all time. I dedicate it to my parents because they introduced me to Elton John, so I would not even be here were it not for them, and obviously, Elton, this is your song,” she said as she instructed her parents to wave to the crowd from their position at the side of the stage.
What followed was a faithful cover of “Your Song” delivered with an understated emotion. Later, she confessed, “Girl, it’s kind of scary singing it in front of the person who wrote it and sing it.”
“Casual” came next followed by “Hot To Go!” but not before practicing the call-and-response with the audience. “It’s hot in here, are you hot?” she asked. “I’m going to teach you guys a dance. I know some of you are wearing strapless little gowns. So if I tell you to raise your arms and a little nip slip happens … good! Free the nipple! It’s Elton John’s party, you can do that here!”
Continuing to demonstrate her comedic chops, Roan at one point dedicated “My Kink Is Karma” to “all the future ex-husbands in this room, because as soon as I walked out on stage, your wives said, ‘Wait a second, maybe I like girls.'”Roan continued her set with “Red Wine Supernova” and the smash hit “Good Luck Babe.” She then welcomed John for a duet of his classic “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me.”
John stayed in the lights but moved from his position at the keyboard to center stage where Roan was primed and ready to go with a pink cowboy hat for John to wear while seated in a chair for their duet on “Pink Pony Club.” Said Roan: “I would just like to say thank you, Elton, for believing in ‘Pink Pony Club.’ He played it first, y’all!” He seemed to relish in the moment, jumping up from his seat to help Roan belt out the chorus, which the audience was more than willing to help them sing. As John said of the superstar while on stage: “You’re the best, baby. I love you so much.”
Roan’s appearance comes hot on the heels of the Grammy Awards ceremony at which she won the coveted best new artist trophy. She used her time on the Crypto.com Arena stage to call out record labels in an acceptance speech that reverberated across the music industry for weeks. “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 livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” Roan said.
She added that she was signed as a minor and then dropped, leaving her with no job experience or health care. “It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have help,” she said. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
With vital health care in mind, Roan closed out her appearance by emphasizing “such an important cause. … You have sacrificed so much for the queer community and you made it so I could be the artist I can be.” To which John replied, “You’re the best, baby. I love you so much. Thank you for doing this.” And with that, they stood together.
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