Chappell Roan Was the Clear Star of Osheaga 2024 — Despite Playing in the Afternoon

One of pop music's biggest breakouts stole the show at Montreal's Osheaga Music & Arts Festival this year.

It's rare to see the festival grounds packed at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon — especially on a day with a heat warning. (It was 35-40 degrees with humidity in Montreal on Saturday). But for the celebratory queer pop of Chappell Roan, fans were willing to take the heat.

She was booked for the festival last fall, but since then, the Midwest Princess has exploded in popularity, opening for Olivia Rodrigo and entering the Billboard Hot 100 with "Good Luck, Babe!" She now has six songs on the Hot 100 at once, almost all from her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

Her afternoon slot felt mismatched to her current stature, but Chappell made the most of it, turning in a performance that hit harder than Green Day's headline set that night.

She opened with a high-energy "Femininomenon," her voice as strong as it is on the recordings, with no sign of intimidation from the heat or the crowd. She was outfitted in a gossamer fairy costume, but Chappell Roan is no lightweight tinkerbell — this is one fairy you don't want to f-ck with.

"That alone lived up to the hype," someone said behind me after the opener, but "Femininomenon" was just the beginning. For an artist whose career has only recently blown up, Chappell Roan has a big arsenal of hits.

She pranced her way through bops like "Naked In Manhattan" and "Red Wine Supernova," blowing kisses and keeping up the intensity the whole way through. She did the splits during "After Midnight" and tested out her French on the crowd before "My Kink Is Karma," with some choice words for her ex: "tu es stupide!" she giggled.

Her peppy take on pop can occasionally feel a bit much on headphones, but it was perfect for a festival setting, with chants that compelled the crowd to join in and an infectious in-your-face energy.

Her music is made for a collective experience — a specifically queer collective experience. Fans dressed in Chappell-themed hot pink and cowboy hats held up signs with messages like "it's a hot lesbian summer," and belted along to songs about lesbian sex and dating straight girls.

Set times were likely agreed on long ago, but it's a shame she couldn't perform later in the day. (She also played a packed-in and frenzied afternoon set at Lollapalooza earlier in the week). It felt not entirely safe to have so many people out at once in the afternoon sun with no shade in front of the main stages and long lines for water refills. I saw one crowd member panicking in the throng after Chappell's set.

At one point, Chappell made an honest mistake that also reminded the crowd where she should have been on the lineup. "Tonight, we're going to," she began — before remembering it was the afternoon.

"Hot To Go!" was a cathartic moment for an audience sweltering in direct sunlight, with Chappell asking playfully: "are you hot?!" She closed with a powerhouse rendition of "Pink Pony Club," a song about leaving behind your hometown and disappointing your parents to find greatness and community and, most of all, fun in L.A.

Stories like that make Chappell's music ripe for this moment, a perfect marriage of campy style and resonant substance. Chappell sings about queer desire and taking risks, about choosing to live with joy and ecstasy rather than staying in boring relationships or one-horse towns. And the way she sings it makes you believe you can have it all, too.

Two fans in front of me at the show were Chappell die-hards. One of them had fully committed to her aesthetic, with black tights, a black bustier and drag-inspired makeup. The other wore jewelled boots she had made to see the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie.

"She's the only reason that we're here today," Maria in the black tights told me. She discovered Chappell a year-and-a-half ago on TikTok, and said she got emotional during "Pink Pony Club."

"It's so nice to have everybody here," Maria added, "we're here for the same reason — to support an amazing queer artist and to live in each other's queer joy."

Stay tuned to Billboard Canada for more from Osheaga 2024.