Chappell Roan's "The Giver" gets the job Done!
- Caresse Liang
- Apr 2
- 3 min read
BY: CARESSE LIANG / STAFF WRITER
Fans of Chappell Roan—or spunky, dancey country music—are finally able to soak in the excitement of the Grammy-winning artist’s latest single, “The Giver.” Released on March 13, 2025, it invites listeners to a special tune through how a queer woman can “get the job done,” through subtle themes and sexual innuendos through little fiddles.
As teased through four months of vibrant promotional advertisements, Roan regards this single as an approach towards country music, with her own playful flair. On the announcement page on her Instagram, her answer towards fans with lingering questions is, “right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on ‘cuntry' xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre.”
Chappell Roan, known for her creative artistry as a queer musician and her debut studio album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, treats this song as a message to the audienceon how a woman can always get the job done. In NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where she performed the song for the first time in drag, she says, “Well, only a woman knows how to treat a woman right!”
As a queer woman myself, I was blown away from the song during the first listen. It was the chorus that immensely resonated with me. With a strum of a banjo, Roan takes it away with:
Before completing it with a quick stroke on the violin. Like I said, it’s spunky. I love how it feels like I’m riding on a horse like a cowboy!
Now, what the song alludes to throughout the verses is that a woman is successfully satisfying her sapphic lover in more ways than one. Accompanied by a vivid music video that brings in true retro realness, I feel as though Roan has brought herself to the charts with a storm.
According to Pitchfork, she cites, “Big & Rich’s ‘Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)’ and Alan Jackson’s ‘Chattahoochee’ as influences.” In an interview with People, Roan talked about being motivated by her upbringing as a closeted lesbian from Missouri and her drag influences.
“And so to kind of honor that part of myself by making a country song where it's like, 'You know what? Yes, I am gay and yes, I am ultra pop. Yes, I am a drag queen. You can also perform a country song.”
While the subtext of “The Giver” talks about one message, Roan also regards this song as queer representation through lessons she’s learned from living in the South, silenced by conservative voices.
She says, “Every person in the Midwest and South, especially these tiny towns, are taught to not only keep it down, but hate it away or pray it away. And I'm not mad at myself for doing that. It's all I knew what to do. That's all you're told to do.”
Compared to The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, I found this song to be electrifyingly fun—a deep contrast against the chart-popular single, “Good Luck, Babe!” and a continuation of the rhythmic happiness of “Pink Pony Club.” “The Giver” is a symbol of the spontaneous fulfillment that Roan experienced through her journey as a lesbian emerging from the South, and it serves as her voice to other sapphics that are stifled by it.
The influence of Chappell Roan, and now with this song, is what motivates the current and future generations to continue to speak about queer experiences and embrace the culture that surrounds both country and LGBTQ+ history. Overall, I rate this song an astounding 9/10, and hope that Chappell Roan’s plans with this upcoming album can deliver the same as she can as “The Giver.”
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