Chappell Roan Details Getting Rejected by ‘The Voice’ & ‘America’s Got Talent’

Chappell Roan is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet right now, but her journey to Grammy awards and sold-out concerts wasn’t an easy one.

In a recent profile with W Magazine, the 27-year-old singer revealed how she auditioned for both The Voice and America’s Got Talent when she was younger. Neither audition was televised, and she didn’t make it to the next round for either show.

“When I auditioned for The Voice, I was 15, and I sang ‘Stay’ by Rihanna,” Roan shared. “That was when the Bruno Mars song ‘When I Was Your Man’ was really big, and I thought I was so unique in switching it around and singing, ‘When you were my man’ and making it about gender. But every girl was like: ‘I’m switching it around.”

She added that during her Voice audition, “the producer or whoever the f*** was watching did not even look up from his phone. He was like, ‘Okay, next.’ And I went up there and sang a cappella, the scariest thing ever. He never really looked at me.”

The Voice wasn’t the only singing competition Roan tried out for as a teenager, as she also revealed she auditioned for American’s Got Talent.

“With America’s Got Talent, I was 13, and we flew to Austin, Texas, and waited in line with thousands of people at 4 a.m.,” she said. “I sang ‘True Colors’ by Cyndi Lauper. Did not make it either.”

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This isn’t the first time Roan has opened up about her reality show failures. Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast in March, the “Good Luck, Babe!” hitmaker talked about auditioning for The Voice, saying, “I didn’t make it on the show, obviously. Thank god!”

After the messy start to her career, including being dropped by Atlantic Records, Roan eventually carved her own career path. She signed a publishing deal with Sony in 2022 and gained a new fanbase after supporting Olivia Rodrigo on tour.

In August 2024, she drew the biggest daytime set and largest crowds ever seen at the Lollapalooza festival, and in February 2025, she won her first Grammy Award for Best New Artist.