Pop star Chappell Roan released her single “The Subway,” which came out in late-July 2025 as a stand-alone single. It is Roan’s highest charting song, ranking at No. 3 on the “Billboard 100” song charts, and is Spotify’s largest debut for a single song by a female artist in 2025 (until Sabrina Carpenter’s “Tears” in late-August). This begs the question: why is “The Subway” so successful, and how did it become popular without an album attached to it?
When Roan first performed the song, she was still a rising artist and performed it in June 2024 at the Governor’s Ball music festival in New York City, New York. Soon after, she included the song as part of her setlist at every festival and concert she performed at, becoming a favorite among Roan’s fan base. While her fans wanted her to release a studio version, she publicly expressed her struggles with formally recording the song.
In an interview on Bowen Yang and Matt Roger’s “Las Culturistas” podcast in April 2025, Roan said, “I’ve been banging my head against the wall with ‘The Subway’ because songs can work live, certain things can work live, and they do not work in the studio.” According to Vogue magazine, Roan initially planned for an April release (after her single “The Giver,” which had released in March), before delaying it to June, then finally landing on its late-July release.
The hype is also in part to what the song is actually about and how relatable it is for Roan’s fans. It details the heartbreak of an ex-girlfriend and being reminded of her on New York’s subway system due to her distinctive “green hair.” Throughout the song, she expresses the pain as so gut-wrenching that she will do anything to avoid thinking about her.
It has some lyrics that fans chant and scream. One is where Roan describes wanting to get away from her ex-girlfriend that she wants to move far away from New York, where she sings, “I’m moving to Saskatchewan!”
The most recognizable part of the song is its outro, where Roan alternates between the lyrics of “She’s got a way” and “She got away” serving as a double meaning. “She’s got a way” signifying that her ex has something about her that’s so memorable, while “She got away” signifies that her ex has left for good.
Sonically, the song has a ’90s vibe to it, like the ending of a romantic movie, even if the lyrics are somber in tone. As a Chappell Roan fan myself, I am personally biased toward this song due to the fact that I too have been waiting for this song for so long. It’s primarily the reason this song is so popular, because fans have been waiting over a year for this song.
You can listen to “The Subway” by Chappell Roan on Spotify:
