Pop icon Chappell Roan released her highly anticipated single, “The Giver,” months after its first performance. The song, which she performed on Saturday Night Live in November, had been teased for weeks on billboards all over the country before it’s Friday release.
“The Giver” is an upbeat country song, poking fun at “country boys” and celebrating queer relationships. In the chorus, Roan croons, “Ain’t no need to hurry/ ‘Cause, baby, I deliver/ Ain’t no country boy quitter/ I get the job done.” The song is filled with fiddles, banjo, and other signature country elements, which is quite a departure from her usual pop sound.
The song was a collaboration with her longtime producer, Dan Nigro, who has also worked alongside star Olivia Rodrigo. The song had contributions by several of Nigro’s friends and Roan’s past collaborators: Paul Cartwright, who performed strings on this song and her previous track, Femininomenon; Ryan Linvil, one of Nigro’s longtime friends; Jonathan Wilson, a performing artist with five albums under his belt; Wes Hightower, a long time country music background singer; and Lily Elise, a “The Voice” alumni who also performed background vocals for Roan’s “Good Luck Babe.” Roan made an effort to use Nashville singers and musicians when creating the song.
The single’s cover, which pictures Roan in an orange hard hat, is strikingly similar to her earlier single, “Good Luck, Babe!,” with the same blank backgrounds, up close shots of the artist, and filter on the photo. This could indicate that they’ll end up on the same album, but no news about any full length releases is currently out.
The singer appeared on Apple Music’s Today’s Country Radio and said about the song, “I wanted to write a country song, because I just thought it would be funny. It’s campy and fun. Country music is so incredibly camp, and I don’t know if people want to admit that.”
With the song, she said that she intended to acknowledge that, “Yes I am gay, yes I am ultra-pop, yes I am a drag queen, that can also perform a country song. There’s a lot of drag queens that do country music all over the world.”
Junior Maeve Marthinsen said about the song, “I think it’s a really good representation of sapphic women. A lot of the songs we have sound like regular love songs with the ‘he’ changed out for a ‘she,’ but this is a real queer, female anthem. It’s really sticking it to the man.”
“My favorite part of the song is the country music in the background because the country vibe with the sapphic content is a juxtaposition that I really find interesting,” Marthinsen said.
Now that Roan has proven she’s “The Giver,” fans are anxiously awaiting the announcement of a new album from the popstar.
