"California" by Chappell Roan // Song Review

- June 08, 2026

"California" is a strikingly candid reflection on Chappell Roan's life and early career, written right as she was on the cusp of her music breakthrough she had spent years chasing. It captures the pursuit of making a name for herself, and the fear that everything she wanted most might still be just out of reach.

The weight of disappointment is at the center of this song - both the disappointment in herself, and in the fear that she's letting others down by walking away from the version of her dream she had always imagined. There is a distinct heartache to her performance as she captures the loss of hope and in wondering whether the thing she poured her heart into simply isn't going to work out. If her story in the years that followed says anything, it's that no dream is ever too far out of reach.

The way that "California" was written as a moment of reflection is so relatable, especially for anyone chasing a life in the arts, and endlessly trying to make something of themselves. She writes about the crossroads she was at in this point of her life with such clarity and vivid emotion, as she feels the dream she built so much of her life around slipping away and asks herself if its time to leave it behind or not.

"'Cause I was never told that I wasn't gonna get the things I want the most, and people always say, 'If it hasn't happened yet, then maybe you should go,'" Chappell sings in the pre-chorus.

"I questioned everything I knew the second I moved to California," Chappell said in a 2020 interview with A1234. "It was terrifying because I felt very lost and alone. Although it was scary, I grew into a person I now love. I still struggle with feeling out place and making friends in Los Angeles, but releasing music and knowing that I can help someone with my songs proves to me that I must keep pushing forward."

She wrote the song in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 while quarantining in her Missouri hometown. Chappell released her first ever single, "Pink Pony Club", just a few months prior, but experienced a series of setbacks soon after. She ended up getting dropped by her record label at the start of the pandemic and soon moved back home to the Midwest. "California" as a result ends up living as one of the most important songs she has ever written for many reasons. It feels so deeply linked narratively to "Pink Pony Club". as they both reflect so much of what The Rise and Fall of the Midwest Princess represents in the context of Chappell's personal journey - and also that of so many artists who are chasing a wild, larger‑than‑life dream that seems so far out of reach for so long. "Pink Pony Club" and "California" largely represent two sides of the same coin in those ways.

The journey she has taken in the music industry leading up to her music finally taking off years later in 2024 is one of the most inspiring stories, because after so many pivots and setbacks she spent years being just on the precipice of achieving everything she once dreamed of, only for it to be pulled away at the last moment.

"Come get me out of California, no leaves are brown, I miss the seasons in Missouri, my dying town," she sings in the chorus. "Thought I'd be cool in California, I'd make you proud, to think I almost had it going, but I let you down".

As the saying goes, it really does take ten years to be an overnight success, and Chappell's story is the prime example of that. "California" has aged so beautifully in that context, thinking she was going to have to leave behind her wild dream of being a pop star, only for her career to undergo a massive shift and her audience to grow exponentially in a way no one could have ever predicted. It's so powerful to look at the trajectory of her career now and see the ways it took off in a way very few artists ever experience. It becomes even more symbolic when thought of again as a kind of bookend to the arc of "Pink Pony Club" and the winding path that song led her down, long before the rest of the world caught up.