Chappell Roan can’t be stopped.
Over the last 12 months, the 26-year-old has become the buzziest star in pop. A flamboyant, flame-haired sensation, whose songs are as colourful as they are raw.
Her debut album, released to little fanfare in 2023, has just topped the UK charts for a second time. Next week, she’s up for six Grammy awards, including best new artist. And BBC Radio 1 have named her their Sound Of 2025.
Success has been all the sweeter because her former record label refused to release many of the songs that exploded onto the charts last year.
“They were like, ‘This is not gonna work. We don’t get it’,” Roan tells Radio 1’s Jack Saunders.
Watch Radio 1’s full interview with Sound Of 2025 winner Chappell Roan.
Reaching pop’s A-list isn’t just a vindication but a revolution.
The 26-year-old is the first female pop star to achieve mainstream success as an openly queer person, rather than coming out as part of their post-fame narrative.
On a more personal level, she’s finally got the financial security to move into a house of her own, and acquire a rescue cat, named Cherub Lou.
“She’s super tiny, her breath smells so bad, and she doesn’t have a meow,” the singer dotes.
If kitten ownership is a benefit of fame, Roan has bristled at the downsides.

Every time a celebrity poses on a red carpet, countless cameras flash, forever immortalizing their outfit, preserving the hundreds or even thousands of hours it has taken to create.

Sunday night’s Golden Globes were no different, with Zendaya channeling old Hollywood glamor in a saffron Louis Vuitton gown, Angelina Jolie wearing a dazzling crystal chain McQueen dress and Tilda Swinton donning a custom embroidered Chanel jacket.

Online, such red carpet outfits have long afterlives as they are shared around social media, dissected by influencers and journalists alike. But the real-life fate of the garments themselves is less well-publicized. What happens to them after their moment of fame — where do they go and when are they seen again?

Outfitted with a large film camera and often dressed in athletic wear, Seoul-based photographer Kim Seunggu has spent almost 15 years capturing the essence of what he calls “leisure culture” — vacationing, poolside unwinding and communal gatherings — in contemporary South Korea.

The focus of his ongoing series, “Better Days,” is all the more striking in a country that ranks fourth globally for the longest working hours and where the phenomenon of “gwarosa” (death by overwork) is thought to claim numerous lives annually. In 2023, the South Korean government was forced to abandon plans to increase the maximum working week from 52 to 69 hours amid backlash from Millennial and Gen Z workers. The proposed move was intended to combat the nation’s labor shortage stemming from a declining birth rate and an aging population.