Manchester, Tennessee USA - 06-16-2024: Chappell Roan performs for a huge crowd at Bonnaroo music festival.
(Photo credit: L Paul Mann / Shutterstock)
The rapidly ascending pop star Chappell Roan walked back her tribute to the late Brigitte Bardot after discovering the French icon's troubling far-right political legacy.
Roan initially honored the famed actress and animal rights advocate with a respectful post-mortem tribute.
The 27-year-old artist had referenced Bardot in her 2023 hit "Red Wine Supernova," including the lyric: "She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot / She showed me things I didn't know."
"Rest in peace Ms. Bardot," wrote Roan. "She was my inspiration for red wine supernova."
Roan swung a U-turn, however, after learning about Bardot's decades of ties to France's far-right movement and increasing gravitation toward extremist politics in her later years. She faced multiple fines for inciting racial hatred against Muslim immigrants and backed far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in her 1996 memoir.
"Holy (expletive) i did not know all that insane (expletive) Ms. Bardot stood for," Roan wrote Monday in a post on her Instagram Stories.
"I do not condone this," Roan wrote in her post, adding that it was "very disappointing" to learn about Bardot's political beliefs.
Bardot died at her southern France home at age 91.