Chappell Roan's Grammys speech inspires Universal Music Group to launch mental health fund
Chappell Roan's viral, vulnerable Grammys speech has seemingly inspired Universal Music Group to launch a mental health fund for music industry workers.
After accepting the Grammy for best new artist, the "Pink Pony Club" singer called out record labels for a lack of livable wages and healthcare for aspiring artists. Now, major label UMG is announcing a fund in partnership with the Music Health Alliance.
In a statement released Wednesday, UMG's chief impact officer Susan Mazo praised the partnership and Music Health Alliance's CEO Tatum Hauck Allsep.
"We have been working on ways to establish a streamlined pathway for mental health access, funding, and care planning. Growing and continuing our partnership with Tatum (Hauck Allsep) and the Music Health Alliance was the most natural way to ensure continuous and effective mental health support for anyone working in our industry."
UMG has also been under fire by rapper Drake recently amid his feud with genre peer Kendrick Lamar. In January, the Canadian rapper filed a lawsuit aimed at UMG, according to court documents obtained by Paste BN, and accused UMG of "corporate greed" in their promotion of the Lamar song, which alleges that Drake is a "certified pedophile."
The expanded relationship from UMG and MHA will build on an existing partnership between the two entities, which will provide tailored recommendations for mental health providers, grants to help ease healthcare costs and ways for music industry professionals to pay for continuing coverage.
At the Feb. 2 ceremony in Los Angeles, Missouri native Roan recalled being dropped by her first label Atlantic Records ahead of her breakout 2024, which catapulted her to superstardom. The 26-year-old pop star, reading from a personal notebook, said she felt "so betrayed" and "so dehumanized" after being dropped from her first label deal.
"I told myself that if ever won a Grammy and I got to stand 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.
"If my label would have prioritized artists health I could've been provided care by the company I was giving everything to. So record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protections," she said inside Crypto.com Arena. "Labels we got you, but do you got us?"
Chappell Roan, whose real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, was signed to Atlantic as a teenager in 2015. The label dropped her from their star-studded roster of artists, which include Coldplay and Cardi B, in 2020. In 2023, she was signed to Amusement Records, an imprint of Island Records created by her producer and collaborator Dan Nigro.
Together, the pair released their project "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess" in September 2023.
Shortly after the Grammys, Roan responded to the music industry executive who called her Grammy speech misguided and performative after she urged record labels to better support smaller artists.
The 26-year-old pop star challenged Jeff Rabhan, a former artist manager for over 15 years, on Feb. 7 to match a $25,000 donation she said she'd make toward artists who have been dropped by their music labels.