Chappell Roan Finds Hope, Heartbreak On ‘The Subway’

Chappell Roan at the 2025 Grammy awards (photo: Maya Dehlin Spach / FilmMagic).

Chappell Roan offers a valentine to the Big Apple on her new single, “The Subway,” which is out now in tandem with an Amber Grace Johnson-directed music video. “This song encompasses everything I love about New York City — with the hope, heartbreak and healing that it has to offer us all,” the artist said of the track, which she’s performed live nearly 30 times since it debuted at the 2024 Governors Ball festival in New York.

Fans may hear musical nods to vintage alternative acts such as Cocteau Twins and the Cranberries in the production, as Roan equates overcoming a breakup with the anonymity of riding the underground train: “Til I can break routine during foreplay / and trust myself that I won’t say your name / but I’m still counting down all of the days / til you’re just another girl on the subway,” she sings.

“The cliche of ‘the girl that got away’ barely scratches the surface for me with this song,” Roan also said. “I wrote it as I was stumbling around New York with a broken heart and I kept envisioning us on every street, fire escape, coffee shop, park and yes… the subway.“

“The Subway” is the follow-up to “The Giver,” a non-album single released in March. Roan wrote both with producer Daniel Nigro, a key contributor to her 2023 breakthrough album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

As previously reported, Roan will complete a touring victory lap this fall with newly announced shows in New York, Kansas City, Mo., and Los Angeles. Dates begin with a Sept. 20-21, 23-24 run at Forest Hills Stadium. Beforehand, the artist will play a mix of headlining gigs and European festivals starting Aug. 6 in Oslo.