Chappell Roan Celebrates ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ Reaching One Billion Plays

Roan initially dropped “Good Luck, Babe!” in April. The single was written with Daniel Nigro and Justin Tranter, and is “about wishing good luck to someone who is denying fate.”

“I was just wanting to write a big anthemic pop song,” she told Rolling Stone. “The song was a bitch to write.” The trio worked on the tracks for months before finally writing the bridge, a big Nineties pop moment from Roan that predicts the regret her negligent partner will face one day. “I knew exactly what I wanted. I wrote it in three minutes,” she said. “I felt so much anger. I was so upset. It all came out and I didn’t add anything when I wrote it all done. It was a perfect storm.”

The song has taken off in the months since its release, cementing Roan as a fixture in pop music despite never making a music video for the single. The singer told Rolling Stone she spent a lot of her summer pushing back on her label’s request to film a music video for her big hit, mostly because she didn’t really have time to make a good one. “I’m too tired,” she said. “Do you know how hard it is to do a music video when you’re this exhausted and burnt?” She added, “It’s a hit without a video. I have a Top 10 hit with a lyric video.”

Numerous artists have covered “Good Luck, Babe!” in recent months, including Muna and Franz Ferdinand. “It’s just an amazing song by an incredible artist,” Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos said. “It’s funny, you get some artists that have a moment — often, it’s kind of divisive. Some people absolutely love them and some people hate them. But I’ve not come across anybody I know, none of my friends, nobody I know, who doesn’t like this artist. They’re just so good. This song’s incredible, so we’re going to play it.”