When Chappell Roan accepted the award for Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys on Feb. 2, she seized the opportunity to urge “the most powerful people in music” to give artists a livable wage and access to health care.
“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,” she said in her acceptance speech.
The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer signed her first record deal when she was 17. After being dropped by her label in 2020, she could not afford health care and struggled to make ends meet.
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“It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have health care,” Roan said. “If my label would’ve prioritized artists’ health, I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to.”
On Feb. 5, Jeff Rabhan, a former music and business executive, criticized Roan’s comments. In a guest column for the Hollywood Reporter, Rabhan argued that record labels “are businesses, not charities.” He challenged Roan to “put your money where your mouth is” and invest in the change she wants to see.
Roan responded to the op-ed on Feb. 7. In a series of Instagram stories, the Grammy winner praised Rabhan’s call to action as “genius.” She then said she would donate $25,000 to “struggling dropped artists” and challenged Rabhan to do the same.
With the help of Backline, a nonprofit organization that prioritizes mental health in the music industry, that’s exactly what the “Pink Pony Club” singer did. On Feb. 10, Backline announced it partnered with Roan to create the “We Got You! Campaign.”
Named after a line from Roan’s Grammy speech — “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” — the campaign is “a fund to support artists’ mental health in an effort to create a safer, more sustainable music industry.”
“Sunday night [Feb. 9], we were informed by [Roan’s] team that they chose Backline to be the beneficiary of the $25,000 donation,” Terra Lopez, Backline’s community manager, told Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s been a very fast-growing campaign. Easily our single busiest day in our entire five and a half years as an organization.”
Founded in 2019 by Hilary Gleason, Backline provides free mental health and wellness resources to people working in the music industry, including artists, managers, agents, promoters, labels, venue staff and their family members.
Roughly 48 hours since its launch, the “We Got You! Campaign” has raised nearly $250,000, said Lopez. Noah Kahan and Charli XCX immediately matched Roan’s donation, each giving $25,000 of their own. Live Nation and Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc. (AEG), have also donated to the fund.
Mid-interview with Yahoo, Lopez received word that Sabrina Carpenter had just made a $25,000 donation to the campaign too.
“Having these internationally known stars come together and not only support us financially but also let their communities and followers know that we exist has just been huge,” said Lopez. “[The money] is going to help us fund grants to cover these long-term mental health costs because we do find that many folks just don’t have the funds and the means to … even think about therapy. So, we’re going to pay for therapy costs.”
Roan isn’t the only star who is speaking out about mental health care for rising stars. On the Feb. 10 episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Ariana Grande said therapy should be built into young stars’ contracts.
“It’s so important that these record labels, these studios, these TV studios, these big production companies make it a part of the contract when you sign on to do something that’s going to change your life in that way, on that scale,” Grande told Maron. “You need a therapist to be seeing several times a week.”
“The pressures like [Grande] mentioned, especially if you’re a woman … feeling like you have to be perfect at all times … there’s so much that goes into being an artist. All of that inevitably affects your health,” said Lopez.
There’s also a misconception that once artists sign with a label, they’ve “made it.”
“I think a lot of folks don’t understand that when you’re in the industry, there really is no bar,” Lopez said. “You can be signed to a major label and still not have health care and still not have a living wage and still not know how you’re going to pay your rent. You could be on the largest label all the time. So, we are seeing artists from all levels, from emerging artists, developing artists to major artists, still struggling with the same issues.”
While she’s in awe of the support the “We Got You! Campaign” has seen from some of pop’s biggest stars, Lopez urged industry executives to commit to protecting artists.
“This is a movement, and it cannot be a one-time thing. It cannot be a one-time event,” she said. “We need the industry to fully change and reform itself. We also need artists, especially at the level of the Chappell Roans, Charli XCXs and Sabrina Carpenters, to continue to speak up for all artists. This is going to be a long game.”
