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Charli XCX and Noah Kahan have pledged to match Chappell Roan's donation to artist healthcare after the singer's Grammys 2025 speech was met with criticism from music executive Jeff Rabhan.
In case you need a quick refresher, Chappell Roan was crowned as the Best New Artist category winner this year, and she took the opportunity to advocate for better rights and protection for young artists in her speech.
“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 off of artists would offer a liveable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists,” Roan said in her speech, which you can see in full below:
Roan got a standing ovation and a loud round of applause inside the Crypto.com Arena, but Jeff Rabhan criticized her in a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter. Rabhan said Roan was “far too green and too uninformed to be the agent of change she aspires to be today” and claimed she broadcasted “naïveté [for] taking aim at the very machine that got her there.”
“Roan’s call for record labels to pay artists a livable wage and provide health care was noble — but also wildly misinformed,” the exec continued, adding that “she should do something about it — rather than just talk at it. Change is waiting to be championed, not just announced.” And, lo and behold, she is championing.
After Rabhan's column went live, Roan reacted to those very last sentences on her Instagram, announcing she donated $25,000 to support “struggling dropped artists” and encouraging him also to join the championing and match her donation.
“Mr. Rabhan, I love how in the article you said ‘put your money where your mouth is,'” Roan wrote in a follow-up slide. “Let's link and build together and see if you can do the same." She also added: “Will keep everyone updated on the much awaited [Jeff Rabhan] response!! And I will show receipts of the donations <3.”
Noah Kahan shared an Instagram Story on February 8 promising to match Roan's $25,000 donation. “I'm inspired by you," Kahan wrote. "Happy to keep the ball rolling. Money where my mouth is!”
Shortly after, Charli XCX shared an Instagram Story pledging the same thing. “I saw [Noah Kahan] say that he would do the same and so i thought i'd follow suit,” Charli wrote. “Your speech at the Grammys was inspiring and thoughtful and from a genuine place of care. Happy to help get the ball rolling too. Money where my mouth is.”
After calling for a livable wage and healthcare for up-and-coming artists, Roan also used her championing methods once again to spotlight “some artists that deserve more love and a bigger platform,” sharing stories to promote hemlocke springs, Sarah Kinsley, Devon Again, and Baby Storme.
