A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Chappell Roan's Legendary “SNL” Debut

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Being a best friend means seeing your closest confidantes conquer life through thick and thin. For artist and creative director —and when your bestie just happens to be Chappell Roan, one of the decade’s most promising new pop stars—that includes witnessing their meteoric ascendance on and off the charts.

Sattar has been by Roan’s side for her biggest moments over the last year, including culture-shifting sets at Coachella and Governor’s Ball, winning Best New Artist at the , and, most recently, helping her shape two easily unforgettable performances for her debut. For the sketch comedy show’s anticipated pre-election episode on Saturday, Roan performed one of her most popular hits, “Pink Pony Club,” and debuted a new single titled “The Giver,” whose cheeky lyrics had all of Twitter blushing over the weekend. For both songs, Roan brought her signature flair to the SNL stage; while “Pink Pony Club” was designed to evoke a post-spooky season speakeasy of sorts, Roan went full cowgirl for “The Giver,” sporting her best pink plaid disco shorts and matching crop top, a big wig, and even bigger vocals.

For Sattar, shaping the world of Chappell Roan means not being afraid to play, a creative strategy that she followed for her previous work contributing art for Tavi Gevinson’s Rookie Mag and Chani Nicholas’s cult-favorite astrology app. Ahead, Sattar (along with Roan’s photographer ) shares with Harper’s Bazaar an exclusive peek from behind the scenes of Roan’s SNL debut and gets real on what it means to create pop history with your bestie in real time.

You’re not only Chapell’s creative director, but also one of her best friends. How has your real life friendship evolved into this ongoing creative collaboration?

It’s really special getting to work with a friend because it never feels like work. It’s a joy to do. It’s been really fun to get to experience the rise of all of this together, but I also get to be there as a friend, as well. People say it’s hard to work with friends, but if the foundation of the friendship is strong and is there, then it doesn’t feel hard.

We actually became friends through work, but then it very quickly turned into play and it’s just been so fun to be there for all the big moments this year and get to see together how much everything is changing and navigating it together.

Was there a specific moment over this last year where you both thought, “Wow—something has shifted,” in terms of her fame?

A big one for me was honestly Coachella weekend one. It felt massive and it is massive, but looking back we were like, “Wait, we were able to just walk around Coachella without security and we went and rode the ferris wheel and waited in lines?” It was all fine but we could just never do that now. That festival was such a turning point because of how big the crowd was and the tent was so full and getting to just see the fans and everybody there dressed up. But also seeing the response from the internet was crazy—it really seemed like everyone at home was also watching the set and it just felt like, Oh my gosh, there’s so many eyes on this right now. Another one was Gov Ball, of course, with the Statue of Liberty day—that’s when we knew, Okay, we’re officially on everyone’s mood board. It reminded me of so many of my own favorite performances over time that I’ve revisited, like from Dolly Parton or TLC or Stevie Nicks. It was pivotal—that’s what that felt like.

Tell me a little bit more about how your artistic style translates into the work that you do with Chapell.

Designing is a lot like crafting. I love doing a lot of things by hand, like printing out a photo and painting on it rather than just editing it in Photoshop, or actually printing out all the collage pieces and rescanning them in to get different textures. Crafting is something that always shines through and that’s a big part of Chappell’s vinyl design. When we did the , we wanted everyone to get to have a second to play with the little design world around it. Playfulness is really big too—that’s the fun thing about pop music. Nothing has to be that serious or you can make it as serious as you want to be. You can plant a lot of little Easter eggs or details or it can just be like how a hamburger was like the main visual for the “Hot To Go” stage visuals. It’s fun to get to play with it and give things as much meaning as you want to give it.

Saturday Night Live is obviously a new milestone for everyone involved. How did you help Chappell prep and plan for what we saw onstage?

It’s so fun to walk in and see how it all happens when it all just starts with silly little ideas. did a whole amazing set design and she’s just so good and is always so amazing. This is kind of the grand finale of the year—it’s like, We made it to nationals! We keep making jokes about this being like we’re on a cheer team—like the night before the VMAs we were like, “If we get this, we’re going to regionals!” It’s silly, but it’s what it feels like. After this, we’re back to LA and it feels like the perfect way to end the year.

I love that comparison to cheerleading—it’s very Bring It On.

That’s how my brain works! It’s like when you’re at a competition and you’re out of state and you’re in a hotel room all together—that’s what the vibe is. Like we’re here and we’re going to make the most of it.

How is preparing for SNL different than your run-of-the-mill festival or concert?

SNL reaches a totally different audience. Your parents could be watching! When it’s TV, people at home are just tuning in and it’s almost like doing an elevator pitch; you have three minutes to show this audience what is the brand and what they can take away from the artist. It’s almost like a talent show—what is the audience going to remember if this is their first time seeing the artist?

And I know you obviously can’t say too much, but we did see Chappell that new music is coming. How have you two been plotting and planning for what’s to come?

We’ve been putting together some silly ideas and it’s fun to know because we did it all from scratch the first time. We know now that we have the resources to do more, but also there’s power in knowing we could also strip it all back. We can do anything and it feels like the world is our mood board.

We’ve had so many silly ideas and the teaser we posted with the little Easter eggs—we weren’t planning that. We were just on a bike ride and thought, “Oh wait, let’s do this and post it.” It was exactly how we used to do the first album run, too. It’s been fun to get back into the mode of, okay, we have some things we can show that no one has seen yet. And the new music is so good. It’s fun to DIY it all because you can make exactly what you want and get really intentional with every detail—and it really helps set the standard for what you’re trying to make.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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