“Pink Pony Club” may be one of the biggest hits of 2025, but Chappell Roan ’s anthemic ode to gay bars was first released five years ago. Roan co-wrote the song with producer Dan Nigro in 2019 and spent a year begging Atlantic Records to put it out. Eventually, the label relented, making it the lead single on what was meant to be Roan’s debut album. But Atlantic dropped the singer before the end of the year, and she recouped ownership of the master recording.

Three years later, the song reemerged on Roan’s debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” and two years after that, it topped the charts and amassed nearly 1 billion streams on Spotify.

“It took five years and a ton of blood, sweat and tears from so many people to get this song to where it is now,” Roan says. “To see

See Full Page