A year ago, Chappell Roan marched through Springfield, Missouri with a new dance befitting of the Birthplace of Route 66: the Hot to Go Dance. Now the artist, who grew up nearby, is releasing a behind-the-scenes clip of how she got the town to move in her hit music video for “Hot to Go!”
The three-and-a-half–minute clip finds her bantering with locals and lip-syncing à la carte. In one shot she’s fielding questions about whether she’s “in a band or something” and in another, she’s squirting ketchup on a tray of fast food and desperately speaking the words “hot to go” with as much enthusiasm is necessary for a music video. She also tells the camera that her sequined MC outfit is horribly uncomfortable.
The discomfort was worth it, though, since the song elevated her rise as a Midwest princess. The fact that she’s walking around most of the video with nobody recognizing her speaks volumes about the way she became practically an overnight success. The song eventually became a Number 17 hit on Billboard’s Hot 100.
In one scene, she meets with drag artists to teach them the dance. “I’m very lucky to have queens and trans people, like, a part of this,” she said. “It’s such, like, such a big honor. Let’s learn the stupid dance.”
She also spoke about the pressures of burgeoning fame. “Sometimes the more people on set, it’s more stressful than just to have a small team,” she said. “And also, in my hometown, I feel so much less stressed. … I never thought that this would be possible because it’s really hard to get everyone on board and come out here.”
By the end of it, though, it’s clear that she was able to win over the people who didn’t know her in Springfield … just like she’s done everywhere else for the past year.
From Rolling Stone US
