Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” takes a glimpse into comp-het, identity, and denying fate.

Roan had built a devoted fanbase with the release of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in September of 2023, but recently captured the world’s attention with her opening act in Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour. Shortly after videos of her performance went viral, Roan released a snippet of “Good Luck, Babe!” on a screen-recording of a note (featuring Renesmee Cullen) teasing the song’s April 5th release date. Its lyric video, posted on YouTube, contains 80s Microsoft-esque visuals: sparkly comic sans, 8-bit gifs, and PowerPoint presentation transitions. While the single ushers us into Roan’s next era, it retains her signature campy synth instrumentals and, as Pitchfork dubs it, “unserious pop” charm.

The song makes itself tonally clear from the first lyric: Roan is angry. She’s bitter. She’s hurt. The song, she tells Rolling Stone, is “about wishing good luck to someone who is denying fate.” It’s about loving someone who hasn’t yet come to terms with their own identity: “I don’t wanna call it off / But you don’t wanna call it love.” The chorus, in a lilting falsetto, is a sort of farewell, a sarcastic show of well-wishes: you can try to hide from this part of yourself, but your regret will always haunt you–good luck trying to escape it. 

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Roan, it’s that she can write a damn good bridge. Siren-like backing vocals follow the second chorus and lead into a taunting, cathartic show of resentment; “I knew exactly what I wanted,” Roan tells Rolling Stone, “It was a perfect storm.” The bridge builds and builds and builds, ending with one big, indignant, belting “I told you so!” launching us back into one final chorus.

Though Roan’s future plans for music are not set in stone, if the songs are anything like “Good Luck, Babe!” we can be sure to expect more pop-princess realness. The song is out now on all streaming platforms, and you can purchase tickets to The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess on iamchappellroan.com.