Pop star Chappell Roan used her Grammy acceptance speech on Sunday night to advocate for two issues near and dear to the hearts of millions of working Americans: health care and a living wage.
The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer, 26, may be on top of the world now, but she used her platform to highlight her humble beginnings in the music industry—and advocate for better working conditions for her fellow musicians.
“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 told the crowd in a televised broadcast.
The statement was met with roaring applause, and fellow artists Sabrina Carpenter and Benson Boone could be seen clapping and nodding their heads in agreement.
Roan proceeded to share her early-career struggles after she was dropped by her record label in 2020, and her experience working a series of odd jobs including a nanny, a barista, production assistant, and a donut shop cashier. “Like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance,” she said. “It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized.”
Roan might have an unusual job, but her workforce critiques resonate across other industries, and especially with other members of Gen Z, who came of age during the pandemic. Perhaps it’s no surprise that this generation has been notably more vocal than their predecessors when it comes to work conditions they dislike, what they expect from their companies and managers, and how they engage with the corporate world.
“She’s alert to the precarity because it’s so recent to her,” Damon Krukowski, musician and member of United Musicians and Allied Workers tells Fortune. “It’s not like ‘Oh I made it, good luck to the rest of you.’”
While Roan specifically highlighted wage and health care issues in the music industry, millions of Americans are struggling with the same problems. Approximately 44% of full-time American employees don’t make enough to cover their family’s basic needs, assuming a dual-income household with two children, according to an August 2024 study from Dayforce in partnership with the Living Wage Institute.
Health care struggles are also a hallmark of U.S. life. Although Americans can pay for independent health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, premiums are often prohibitively expensive, and health insurance is often a main driver for people to stay in their current roles.
Around 27 million Americans are uninsured, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.