US singer-songwriter Chappell Roan performs on stage during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards
(Maya Dehlin Spach/FilmMagic)

Chappell Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club’ Grammy performance is a powerful love letter to the trans community

Chappell Roan rocked the 2025 Grammy Awards with her performance of “Pink Pony Club,” the eleventh track on her hit album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Though many were expecting her to perform her recent single “Good Luck, Babe!,” her song choice is exceptionally meaningful in light of recent attacks on trans rights, highlighting where this point in LGBTQIA+ history intersects with her career as an openly lesbian artist.

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Nominated for five Grammys, of which she took home the apt Best New Artist award, the Midwest Princess has never backed down from talks about issues in politics, consistently lending her voice and platform to other queer artists, designers, and the like. Ahead of her performance, she spoke with GLAAD and once again cited trans women and drag queens as her biggest inspirations and went on to offer insight and support to the trans community.

It’s brutal right now, but trans people have always existed and they will forever exist. And they will never, no matter what happens, take trans joy away, and that has to be protected more than anything because I would not be here without trans girls. So, just know that pop music is thinking about you and cares about you, and I’m trying my best to, like, really stand up for you in every way I can.”

This message was loud and clear when Roan finally hit the Grammy’s stage with “Pink Pony Club.” True to the artist’s drag-inspired style and Midwest roots, Roan donned an intricately bedazzled cowgirl getup and mounted (you guessed it!) a giant pink pony. She was accompanied by dancers waving individual flags to represent each color displayed on the trans flag, closing out her performance of the track she previously fought to release.

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Chappell Roan performs “Pink Pony Club” at the #grammys2025

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“Pink Pony Club” is all about queer acceptance and radical joy

“Pink Pony Club,” per Capital’s timely reporting, has always been about finding acceptance through queer spaces. It was written with the singer’s experience at West Hollywood’s famous gay bar, The Abbey, in mind. “It was so different from home where I always had such a hard time being myself,” she said in an interview with Headliner. Atlantic Records, her former label, didn’t see the track’s potential and discouraged Roan from releasing it. “The label just didn’t want to put it out. They didn’t get it,” she told Capital Buzz.

Despite earning a positive response, the single’s “underperformance” during the COVID-19 pandemic eventually led Atlantic to drop Roan from their roster, a move that “devastated” the budding artist. Roan took the opportunity to address this hardship in her Grammy’s acceptance speech, calling out record labels for their predatory behavior and demanding livable wages and healthcare for artists, especially minors.

The sheer vindication underlining her GRAMMYs debut aside, what was so profound about Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” performance was her steadfast commitment to uplifting trans people, whose rights are now under threat during Donald Trump’s second presidential term. In seeing the track’s meaning and lyrics so joyously showcased on stage, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a famous saying coined during the AIDS crisis and often shared within the LGBTQIA+ community during hard times since.

The mantra states to bury friends in the morning, protest in the afternoon, and dance all night. The dancing, they say, is what keeps us in the fight.

“Joy is resistance,” one TikToker succinctly added in reiterating the statement. Though the source of the mantra is tough to pinpoint, even before the adage made its rounds, its sentiment was echoed through the Stonewall uprising and prior events of the ’60s, ultimately leading to the inception of Pride in the ’70s. Today, the mantra still rings true, emphasizing the importance of joy and celebration in the face of adversity.

I’d love to close with something cute and quippy, like, “I’m not crying, you are!” but I actually am crying. Through her Grammy performance of “Pink Pony Club” and its lyrics, Roan reminds us to keep on dancing.


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Olivia Rolls
Olivia Rolls is a freelance contributor at The Mary Sue. She's been writing professionally since 2022, covering gaming news and guides at a handful of outlets. Her work has appeared at Screen Rant, GameSkinny, N4G Unlocked, and VideoGamer, but you can also find her at The Escapist. A lover of cozy games, all things horror, and the modern anthropological study that is dissecting and participating in online pop culture spheres, Olivia dedicates both her work and downtime to writing about current interests, big and small. For deep dives on everything from NPC Studio's blushing farm sim, Fields of Mistria, to women's place in the horror genre and trending talking points on TikTok, she's your girl.