UMG launches industry mental health fund after Chappell Roan Grammy speech

The label is trying to prove they got their artists.

By Emma Keates | February 13, 2025 | 12:45pm

Screenshot: Recording Academy/GRAMMYs/YouTube

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UMG launches industry mental health fund after Chappell Roan Grammy speech

It looks like Chappell Roan really is the “agent of change she aspires to be,” despite suggestions to the contrary. In his viral “Chappell Groan” column earlier this month, music industry executive Jeff Rabhan reacted to Roan’s incisive call to action at the Grammys by suggesting that the Best New Artist winner was too “green” to understand how reform in the music industry works and needed to display “a willingness to leave blood on the floor and to put [her] money where [her] mouth is.”

It took Roan hardly a week to begin proving him wrong—in more ways than one. Today, Universal Music Group (UMG) announced an extended partnership with the Mental Health Alliance (MHA) to launch a new initiative called the Music Industry Mental Health Fund, per TheWrap. The fund aims to “provide comprehensive, high-quality outpatient mental health resources for music industry professionals nationwide,” the two organizations wrote in a joint press release. Services, which will be available to both “current and former musicians,” will include mental health counselors, psychiatrists, grants, and more.

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While the release didn’t specifically mention Roan, the timing of the announcement is obviously notable. “It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have healthcare,” the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer shared in her speech. “Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”

One label providing exclusively mental health care isn’t the sweeping change Roan was calling for, but it’s certainly a start. It’s also not the only movement she inspired this month. In response to Rabhan’s criticism, Roan challenged the writer to match her $25,000 donation to Backline, a nonprofit that provides mental health and wellness resources for musicians and their families. He hasn’t, but fellow industry professionals like Charli xcx, Noah Kahan, Sabrina Carpenter, and even some corporations like Live Nation and AEG Global Touring have heeded the call.

Even then, Roan won’t back down until “leaders of the industry… step up, help us make real change and protect their investments in a sustainable way,” as she wrote in an Instagram post clarifying that her speech wasn’t meant to inspire a “crowdfunded bandaid,” but real, top-down action. “Fans, y’all don’t have to donate a damn penny,” she continued. “This is one of many opportunities for the industry powers to show up for artists. There is much more work to be done.”