Drag Sensation Chappell Roan Dazzles Houston Crowd

Chappell Roan dazzled her Houston audience on her The Midwest Princess Tour with an amazing performance from her openers, and her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess at the House of Blues.

For context, Chappell Roan is a drag persona for the 25-year-old singer songwriter Kayleigh Rose. Much of Roan’s music and activism revolves around her queerness, and how accepting it has allowed her to become the sensation she is now.

At each show, Roan sets a theme for the crowd to dress up as a means of making the night special and personal. For Houston, Roan was originally unsure of what to set the theme as, but when the theme space was suggested to her on a TikTok live stream, said to herself, “Houston is obviously space, dumbass.” Walking into the crowd, it is clear that everyone in the audience understood the message. Everyone was wearing metallic outfits, alien ears, and glasses. 

In order to support the queer community, Chappell Roan reached out to many local drag queens to perform a mini drag show as her openers. For her Houston show, Roan chose Miss Majors, Hanna Santanna and Lila Dubois, who all worked together to create an entertaining opening act. Lila Dubois acted as MC and introduced herself as the great-granddaughter of Irene Dubois who was the first eliminated contestant of season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

Miss Majors was the first queen to come on stage performing an amazing lip sync for the crowd. Afterwards she shouted to the crowd “I love the energy in this room let’s keep it up.” Hanna Santanna was next on stage, performing hit songs “bad idea right?” and “get him back!” by Olivia Rodrigo. Throughout the show she waved a middle finger with Rodrigo’s vengeful lyricism, and threw her gloves into the crowd. After she finished her performance she told the crowd that this was her second performance for Chappell Roan and said, “I love her, y’all love me too right?”

Next, Lila Dubois began her lipsync in which she did the splits, a death drop and began dancing in the crowd, ending the drag show part of the concert with a bang. Afterwards, Miss Majors commented, “I told y’all she was sickening…this bitch is fucking fierce.” Dubois ended the opening set by applauding Chappell Roan for growing so much in the past year and saying that “next year Chappell will be at NRG.”

Afterwards, Roan opened her set with her song “Femininomenon,” which was a perfect beginning for the show. Fans screamed along to her lyric “bitch, can you play a song with a fucking beat.” Next, she sang “Red Wine Supernova,” which had her fans cheering and dancing along. 

In honor of the space theme, Roan was dressed in a silver bodysuit with a chiffon fabric draped on top. Her band was dressed in white jumpsuits which looked similar to space suits.

Before beginning her next song, “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” Chappell told the crowd, “my mom gives me strange advice even if I don’t ask for it…she says don’t wear anything too promiscuous…and wait ‘til the first date to sleep with them…I’m like mom we sleep together before we kiss,” eliciting laughs from the crowd. She immediately sang the opening words of the song “you know what they say, never waste a Friday night on a first date, but there I was.”

Afterwards, she taught her audience a dance to the song “HOT TO GO!” by having the crowd repeat the steps after her. During the song, everyone in the crowd danced with Chappell, creating a memorable experience for all. She also revealed that her song “Guilty Pleasure,” is her favorite off of the album. She reminded her crowd to tip the drag queens, and announced that a portion of each ticket bought was donated to For The Gworls, a Black, trans collective dedicated to assisting the trans community at an individual level. She said

“there is a heaviness within these southern shows…you can feel it…support your queer community now”.

Chappell Roan

Before signing her song Kaleidoscope, Roan said,

 “I realized within 5-6 shows…this tour isn’t really about me anymore…these concerts aren’t necessarily concerts to some people…it’s the only time people can dress how the way to dress…this is more of a communal feeling in a way that I want to be here if you feel left out of a community…I know what it feels like… to be left out…so thank you for being you…this is your community…this is your communal love and feeling…thank you for being accepting of others and thank you for being here.”

Chappell Roan

For her two surprise songs Chappell Roan performed a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and “Good Hurt” from her EP School Nights, which Roan revealed she wrote when she was seventeen, and felt like it was “the most seventeen song to ever exist.” She ended her concert with the song “My Kink is Karma.”
For her encore, Roan came back on stage singing her songs “California” and “Pink Pony Club.” Check out Chappell Roan’s The Midwest Princess Tour and listen to her album.