Pop star Chappell Roan was recently garlanded with BBC Radio 1’s “Sound of 2025” award, after a year that saw the singer-songwriter move from cult status to global megastar. As part of this Roan sat down with Radio 1’s Jack Saunders for one of the most in-depth interviews she’s given, and partway through the conversation turns to what she considers a good time.
“If I want to have like a really good night I just eat an edible and play videogames,” says Roan. “But if I’m trying to have fun like, out, ‘shrooms.”
The videogame in question: “Fortnite.” At this point the interviewer mentions Ballistic, Fortnite’s new first-person mode, the idea of which seems to discombobulate Roan and with very good reason.
“But now I wouldn’t get to see my Ariana Grande character,” laughs Roan. “I would only be her shooter. No no no no no, I paid for that skin!” Asked how seriously she takes the gunfights, Roan has the winning response “well I play on Nintendo Switch so that’s how seriously I take them” before waving her hand dismissively with a kind of exaggerated frown.
So: Chappell Roan is running around in Fortnite as Ariana Grande. Welcome to 2025. Then we get to the real meat of when there might be a Chappell Roan skin in the game.
“That is what I’m going to use this interview for,” Roan says, changing her focus to look directly into the camera. “Please give me a skin. Please.”
Asked about the dance emote, Roan points out she’s already got one and reveals another is on the way. “There’s already HOT TO GO! HOT TO GO is already on there! And I don’t know if it’s out yet but I think Good Luck Babe is also gonna be a little dance on there.”
Lest you think this is just some offhand chit-chat, Roan then gets into what back bling and outfit her Fortnite character would have. “Oh my god. I don’t even know,” says Roan. “I’m just gonna let my Discord figure out what I should do. I think it would be really fun if I had a skin of me in the Statue of Liberty outfit, like being green, so maybe I’d have a little apple bong as the backpack.”
Roan’s star is in the ascendancy and she would be an obvious fit not just for a skin but one of the game’s bigger blowouts: Such as Ariana Grande’s big 2021 concert which, looking back now, was kind of bananas. If someone at Epic hasn’t already picked up the phone, I would be very surprised: Roan is pop royalty now and, when it comes to Fortnite, is definitely hot to go.