{"id":177502,"date":"2025-08-07T12:13:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/08\/07\/how-do-we-grade-chappell-roans-rollout-for-the-subway\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:13:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:13:03","slug":"how-do-we-grade-chappell-roans-rollout-for-the-subway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/08\/07\/how-do-we-grade-chappell-roans-rollout-for-the-subway\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do We Grade Chappell Roan\u2019s Rollout for \u2018The\u00a0Subway\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tIt\u2019s been 14 months since we first heard \u201cThe Subway,\u201d as debuted by Chappell Roan<\/a> as part of her set at New York\u2019s Governors Ball festival in June 2024. Since that performance \u2014 which she repeated at a number of other festivals and live dates over the subsequent year-plus \u2014 fans have been clamoring for an official studio version. And after about a week of teasing, on last Thursday (July 31) at 8:00 p.m. ET, they finally got it, along with a new music video that followed the next morning, thus marking the fullest rollout we\u2019ve gotten for a new Chappell Roan single since she became a superstar early last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo mark the occasion, we\u2019re bringing back the Rollout Report Card \u2014 which we first debuted<\/a> back in March to discuss the full release of Lady Gaga\u2019s Mayhem<\/em> album \u2014 to talk both about \u201cThe Subway\u201d as a song and as the center for an entire promotional era. Host Andrew Unterberger and Billboard<\/em> Pride<\/em> editor Stephen Daw return from that episode, and we\u2019re joined by Billboard<\/em> writer Hannah Dailey, who was in attendance for Roan\u2019s Gov Ball \u201cSubway\u201d debut (and has been watching the video she took of it for the last 14 months while anxiously awaiting the studio version).<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the course of our discussion, we give Roan letter grades for everything from the timing of the \u201cSubway\u201d rollout to the coherence of the entire promo push, while also debating many of the most pressing questions around the official song: Did it need to take so long? Did it improve on the live version? Does the video live up to our expectations of what we\u2019d always hoped for a big-budget Roan visual? Should the song\u2019s outro have actually been a bridge? What are our expectations for the song\u2019s chart performance? Is it really going to be another five years <\/em>until we get Chappell Roan\u2019s sophomore album?<\/p>\n