Chappell Roan Backtracks on Brigitte Bardot Praise After Discovering Far-Right Views: ‘Holy S—, I Did Not Know… Very Disappointing to Learn’

Pop singer Chappell Roan has retracted a social media post honoring the late French actress Brigitte Bardot, following immediate backlash from her followers. The initial tribute, shared on Sunday, read "Rest in peace Ms. Bardot" and acknowledged the actress as the inspiration behind Roan's hit song "Red Wine Supernova." By Monday, the artist had posted a correction on her Instagram Stories, stating, "Holy shit I did not know all that insane shit Ms. Bardot stood for. I do not condone this. Very disappointing to learn."

The incident underscores the deeply problematic legacy of Brigitte Bardot, a figure whose public image is sharply divided. While she remains an iconic symbol of 1960s cinema—celebrated for films like "And God Created Woman" and "Contempt"—and a vocal animal rights advocate, her later years were defined by convictions for inciting racial hatred. According to French newspaper Le Monde, Bardot was found guilty on five separate occasions for hate speech, frequently targeting Muslim communities, and became an open supporter of France's far-right political movement. Her political alignment was further cemented by her decades-long marriage to Bernard d'Ormale, a key adviser to Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the nationalist Front National party. This complex history means that any contemporary reference to Bardot inevitably carries heavy political connotations beyond her cinematic allure.

Roan's original post was almost certainly prompted by a direct lyrical reference in her own music. Her track "Red Wine Supernova" opens with the line: "She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot / She showed me things I didn’t know." This reflects a common pattern in pop culture where Bardot is used as a shorthand for a specific, liberated femininity, often without critical examination of her beliefs. Similar invocations appear in songs by artists ranging from Olivia Rodrigo to Bob Dylan, who referenced her in a 1963 lyric. As cultural historian Dr. Anya Petrova observes, "The automatic deployment of Bardot as a symbol of beauty or rebellion is becoming untenable. Today's artists are operating in an environment where audiences demand a more informed and conscientious engagement with the legacies they reference, scrutinizing the alignment between an artist's values and their influences." This expectation represents a significant shift from earlier, more uncritical eras of celebrity homage.

The swift fan-led correction and Roan's subsequent apology highlight a key dynamic of modern fan-artist relationships. For Roan, whose music and public persona are built on themes of queer inclusivity and empowerment, the inadvertent endorsement of a figure with a record of bigotry created a stark dissonance for her audience. Her rapid retraction demonstrates the intense pressure on public figures to immediately address such perceived misalignments in an age of real-time scrutiny. This event is part of a broader, ongoing cultural reckoning where the personal histories and political actions of iconic figures are being rigorously separated from their artistic output, forcing a continuous and often uncomfortable re-evaluation of their place in the cultural canon.