If you missed it, yesterday (February 6), The Hollywood Reporter published a controversial op-ed about Chappell Roan's Grammys acceptance speech, with guest columnist Jeff Rabhan calling the pop star's plea to labels to provide artists with more support, including healthcare, "disingenuous" and "wildly misinformed."
Fellow artist Halsey was among the people who called out THR for the piece, referring to Rabhan's "seething tantrum" as "boot-licking behaviour." Now, Roan herself has responded to the widely criticized article on her Instagram Story, challenging Rabhan — a music executive and artist manager — to match her in donating $25,000 USD to help out struggling artists who had been dropped by their labels like she was in 2020.
"@jeffrabhan wanna match me $25k to donate to struggling dropped artists? My publicist is @biz3publicity let's talk," Roan wrote atop a screenshot from the article, where Rabhan suggested that she "should do something about it — rather than just talk at it."
In a follow-up post, she wrote, "Will keep everyone updated on the much awaited @jeffrabhan response!! And I will show receipts of the donation. Mr. Rabhan I love how in the article you said 'put your money where your mouth is' [sic] Genius !!! Let's link and build together and see if you can do the same."
The pop star added shout-outs to hemlocke springs, Sarah Kinsley, Devon Again and Baby Storme as "artists that deserve more love and a bigger platform."
When accepting the Best New Artist award on Sunday (February 2), Roan said that she had always promised herself that if she was ever given the chance to address "the most powerful people in music" on the Grammys stage, she would demand that "labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and healthcare."
