Chappell Roan has frustrated fans by canceling shows. PR experts explain why that’s OK.

Roan, who’s been open about living with bipolar disorder, is hardly the first performer to cancel a show over mental health concerns. A-listers like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Shawn Mendes have all done just that, as have indie darlings like Arlo Parks, Wet Leg, and Santigold in recent years. A 2021 peer-reviewed report from the Journal of Psychiatric research found that touring musicians had elevated levels of clinical depression and suicidal ideation compared to the general population.

As the social tides have shifted toward transparency, openly discussing mental health has not only become normalized, but celebrated. According to Erik Bernstein, a communications and reputation expert, this shift is reflected in the modern approach to entertainment PR.

“If you want to be responsible, and let’s be real, if everybody involved wants to keep making money, we need to help people stay healthy,” Bernstein said.

A key responsibility for a PR professional is weighing the potential outcomes of every decision, Bernstein said.

When Roan decided to drop out of All Things Go, perhaps her team warned her that it could fuel the backlash. But on the other hand, if an artist is panicked about getting onstage, that could have far more dire repercussions.

“If she’s really feeling bad, sometimes it’s better to say, ‘Let’s just take the hit and cancel the show,'” Bernstein said. The hope is to get her recharged and refocused, so it doesn’t happen again. “Canceling shows all the time, that’s a bad look,” he admitted.

Bernstein said he would look at real metrics — have her streaming numbers dropped? Have her album sales plummeted? — to guide this kind of decision, rather than reactions on social media.

“Obviously, the internet today is crafted to make you feel like everyone’s yelling at you,” Bernstein said. “Sometimes, when we look at the data, it’s people who were never our customers or our target demo to start with. It’s maybe not as significant a number of people as we thought.”

Indeed, this week, Roan hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Artist 100 chart for the first time in her career. “Midwest Princess” also reached No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart.

It’s possible that Roan has reached the rare level of success and acclaim where alienating her loudest dissenters wouldn’t ruin her career.

“I think, especially when you’re that big, who cares, right? You can lose a few,” Bernstein said. “If these people are actually fans, they want you to keep making music, but they should also want you to keep living as a human being. And if people just want you to grind yourself down to nothing for their sake, then maybe those aren’t the fans you want or need.”

Carter agreed that some complaints are not worth engaging with, adding that concert cancellations are “inevitable” for any artist.

“Yes, there are consequences to canceling things. But I think the thing is, whenever you do cancel a show, no matter if it is the purest intention or the most selfish intention or whatever, there is always going to be somebody who does not understand,” she said.

“That’s the reality of having such an open book of social media,” Carter added. “You are going to get hate, and sometimes, those people don’t even live in that city or didn’t even have a ticket. They’re not affected in any way.”

Ultimately, Carter said her job as a PR professional is to get the client to learn from the situation and adapt so they can “get ahead of it moving forward” — even if that just means prepping them to better handle backlash in the future.

“Every case is so different when you’re looking at online hate, show cancellations, et cetera,” Carter said. “Sometimes, you have to just say, ‘This is how it is,’ and wave the white flag.”

Maybe Roan should pull back from social media — but that’s ultimately her call

Roan has developed the habit of confronting every critique head-on, which tends to make the backlash cycle worse. As a result, many fans have suggested a simple solution to Roan’s plight: log off.

Bernstein agreed that it helps to be discerning about real outrage versus routine internet drama, and it’s generally better to let the latter slide.

“I do hope that the people around her are helping her recognize that you’re just going to have your haters no matter what when you’re a public figure,” he said, suggesting that Roan’s PR team could filter what she sees online.

“None of us should be sitting there at four in the morning just scrolling through hate,” he said. “It’s just not healthy and it’s not sustainable. And then the temptation to post something dumb gets real high.”

Plenty of celebrities have taken this “don’t read the comments” approach, working with stricter and arguably savvier limits. Swift turned off Instagram comments years ago, Gomez has said she deleted the app from her phone, and others have quit posting on social media altogether.

Still, it’s not a publicist’s decision whether Roan should reduce her online footprint or polish her public statements going forward. She already said she’s “not afraid of the consequences for demanding respect.”

Roan’s brand has become synonymous with raw emotion and off-the-cuff honesty — and maybe that’s how she wants to keep it, even if it continues to invite scrutiny.

“You’re hitting the heart of a side of PR that doesn’t get talked about much, and that’s the people side of it,” Bernstein explained. “It’s not just about how we get you in the media, how we shape your image, but also, how do you want to be seen?”

“Does she want less discussion around these areas? There are strategies we can employ there,” he continued. “Does she want to continue to give her authentic self in public? Maybe we tweak some messaging and find an in-between. But if this is what she wants, maybe we just get people used to the idea that this is what they’re buying. Take it or leave it.”