More than two weeks after American pop star Chappell Roan released a song with the lyrics “I’m moving to Saskatchewan,” the province — and the singer— are still buzzing.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week, the singer revealed why she chose to include the Prairie province in her latest single, The Subway.
“It rhymed,” she laughed, going on to say that it is about time Saskatchewan gets global recognition.
“I’ve never been there, but I promise I will perform there one day.”
Since Roan released the song July 31, there has been a spike in the number of Google searches that include the word “Saskatchewan.”
The pop culture moment isn’t lost on the province’s tourism industry.
Leanne Schinkel, Discover Saskatoon’s director of marketing, said they’ve noticed an uptick in social media interactions and DMs since the song came out.
“We definitely can’t get this kind of attention on our own,” Schinkel said.
“You’d have to spend millions of dollars to be able to create this kind of awareness.”
On Thursday, the attention caught the eye of late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon.
“Chappell Roan’s new song, The Subway, has sparked a tourism boom in Saskatchewan,” Fallon said before jumping into a bit where he inserted the word ‘Saskatchewan’ into several well-known songs.
Schinkel said this kind of international attention would be considered the awareness stage of a campaign. Discover Saskatoon is batting around ideas to leverage the spotlight in possible tourism ads, something the group Tourism Saskatchewan is already doing.
“It’s an opportunity to be playful and just have a good time and not take ourselves too seriously,” Schinkel said.
It’s too soon to say if the boost in attention will translate into more visitors, but travel marketing experts say it is not uncommon for pop culture to influence tourist destinations. Visitors flocked to Croatia and Northern Ireland where Game of Thrones was filmed, and Wyoming and Montana saw a surge in tourists thanks to the TV series Yellowstone.
“It’s a similar thing for music,” said Amir Eylon, president and CEO of marketing research group Longwoods International.
“The performing arts have an emotional connect with us and travel is a very emotional thing. When you think about the reasons why … you pick certain destinations over others, it’s because you have some type of connection that you feel.”
Roan’s connection to Saskatchewan might be a clever rhyme, but fans of the Pink Pony Club singer say it means more than that.
“It’s really cool to have that queer joy in the political climate that we’re in,” said Saskatoon Pride Co-Chair and Chappell Roan fan Blake Tait.
Saskatchewan’s government passed a controversial bill in 2023 that requires parental consent for students under the age of 16 to change their preferred name and pronouns at school.
“It’s important that we’re so much louder about our queerness,” Tait said.
“I think having a lesbian anthem that mentions the province is a great way to do that.”
