One of the most beloved Muppet songs, "Just One Person," waxes poetic about how being yourself can inspire glorious things in other people. "If just one person believes in you," it begins, "Before you know it / Someone else would think / 'If he can do it, I can do it.'" From there, the verses explore how "two whole people who believe in you" eventually become three. "And if three whole people," the song ponders, "why not four?"
This moving ditty feels incredibly applicable to the LGBTQIA+ community, where we inspire each other to try new things, to explore new looks, to shatter the rigid status quos society puts upon us. Someone undoubtedly inspiring Queer people all over with her idiosyncrasies is singer Chrissy Chlapecka.
Born in St. Charles, Illinois, in 2000, Chlapecka (she/they) exploded as a TikTok comedian in 2019. Her amusing antics there focused on things like carving out a new definition of “bimbo” for the modern world, making bigots mad, and offering creative words of encouragement to viewers. This was just the start of Chlapecka’s exploits, though, as she shifted into music in 2023 with memorably titled tunes like “Head Bitch” and “I’m So Hot.” Three years later, Chlapecka’s work has only grown more ambitious and toe-tapping.
Thanks to these sonic exploits, Chlapecka is now engaging in a multicity tour (including a Seattle gig on March 30). Her performances will be rooted in a world that inspired her love for performing in the first place: theater.
“Growing up, I was a theater kid, so I wasn’t super into pop music,” Chlapecka explained. Instead, what entranced her was the stage — and especially the prowess of her brother. “[Kevin] is my icon, he’s the reason I do everything… I wanted to be just like him! So, it was a lot of musicals that I was surrounded with when I was younger,” she wistfully recalled.
Once high school hit, though, Chlapecka discovered a whole new world of music, especially Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. One thought raced through her mind hearing their songs: “I would love to be like them one day.”
“A quick-witted girl”
Cut to 2026: Chlapecka is now brimming with life, a pop icon with pink hair, glorious lipstick, fierce eyebrows, and a buoyant personality. Perhaps that wasn’t the career trajectory expected by some who encountered her via humorous TikTok videos in 2020, but for Chlapecka, this has been a long time coming. “I’ve been in musical theatre, I played piano, I played saxophone, I did choir,” she recounted. “I was just so musical! I love what I did on TikTok, I love that girl… but it got to the point where I wanna be who I really am! And who that girl is, is a musician.”
Thus, the era of “Head Bitch” began, which kicked off a streak of lyrically cheeky, witty, and toe-tapping tunes. In the tradition of “Weird Al” Yankovic, The Lonely Island, and Rachel Bloom, Chlapecka’s earliest tracks combine laughs with genuinely good melodies and lyrics. These are songs you can bop your head to while giggling incessantly. It’s a mode Chlapecka revels in, as clearly seen by how she lights up when describing her latest, “Andromeda,” as “my silly, goofball song.”
While many media depictions of Queer people and marginalized genders are defined by either tragedy or exceedingly subdued yearning, Chlapecka subversively and wittily emphasizes overt sexuality and pronounced silliness. For her, this comedic element was a natural extension of all those TikTok videos that established her reputation to begin with. Chlapecka elucidated: “I’ve always been a quick-witted girl — it was the theater training!”
While Chlapecka is happy to have discography that “always has a wink in there,” she’s also excited about how tonally varied her musical exploits can be. “ ‘Girl on the Moon,’” Chlapecka explained, “that’s one of my favorite songs, because it’s so vulnerable, it’s so me… It just describes how we all feel. ‘I wanna get away!’ ‘I wanna go to the moon!’ ‘I wanna get away from all this!’” Contrasting such a melancholy, aching tune with the sunny, sex act–themed puns of “10 Boyfriends” vividly illustrates the immense range Chlapecka is already carving out for herself.
Binding these disparate artistic forays, though, is one consistent trait: maximalism. “I feel everything in the maximalist way, everything I do is maximalist,” Chlapecka proudly proclaimed. As an example, she mentioned the recent track “Aria.” “We originally had two key changes on that,” she recounted, “and I was like, ‘Why don’t we have a third? What’s stopping us?’”
Going for broke like that certainly fits in with an artistic influence rooted in the stage world. When you’re performing a live musical, you have to go big so that everyone in every seat of the house can hear you. That grandness in scope permeates Chlapecka’s discography.
There’s also, though, a deeply personal element informing this maximalism. This trait resonates profoundly with Chlapecka as a way of reflecting “my Lesbian identity, which is such a grand, beautiful thing.”
Embracing oneself is a glorious experience that truly feels enormous. It’s also one that can sometime be out of reach for people living in a late-capitalist society defaulting to homophobia and transphobia. Chlapecka’s intention of “translating that into my music” results in the perfect antidote to that reality.
Touring
By touring, Chlapecka hopes to “take the girls to the moon,” she said. “I want to take everyone away from everything for a second and just join me in this fun universe that I have created throughout the past couple months.” Expect to also hear previously unheard tracks and witness an exciting spectacle in what Chlapecka describes as “a fun little dream world.”
These events won’t just be about bringing patrons to realms that Chlapecka has freshly concocted, though. They will also allow the singer to venture to cities like Dallas and Seattle for the first time. “I am so beyond excited [for Seattle],” Chlapecka proclaimed before noting that her show was already nearly sold out, despite not having been here before. “Oh my god, I didn’t realize I had such a fan base there!” Chlapecka excitedly observed. “I’m so excited to see who comes, to see new fans I’ve never seen before… I love coming to the Queer areas and seeing the Queer people — that’s what I’m about.”
Evolution
Since the days of her online comedy back in 2020 or 2021, Chlapecka’s gone through a drastic evolution in just a few years’ time. The wit, craftsmanship, and unabashedly Gay spirit of those short-form bursts of comedy still endure, of course. However, those talents are now manifesting in songs like “Bitter with You,” exploring new terrain and tones compared to Chlapecka’s earliest creative endeavors.
Given how much her life has evolved recently, Chlapecka wishes she could impart to her younger self just four words: “be gentle with yourself.” “I’m so hard on myself,” she explained. “I’m such a perfectionist, sometimes I don’t live in the moments that I’m experience… Me six years ago, before everything happened… I think I would just [say], ‘You’re doing what you love, and that’s what matters, and you have to be nice to yourself in that process.’” That younger self, she added, “needs a hug and a gal like me to take care of her, and I’m happy to be there for myself in that way.”
Chlapecka’s music has fulfilled a similarly reassuring and humanizing purpose for countless listeners, including those Seattle fans who’ve nearly sold out her upcoming concert. In her delightful, rocking, and excitingly Gay lyrics, Chlapecka urges people to embrace their biggest emotions, dreams, and crushes. The world doesn’t have to be conformity and bleak colors. It can be anything we want it to be, including one where we live up to the Muppets and Chrissy Chlapecka in believing in each other. After all, there’s a lot of (Gay) power in that.
Chrissy Chlapecka will perform at the Nectar Lounge on 412 N. 36th St., Seattle, on March 30. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information, go to https://www.tixr.com/groups/hiddenhall/events/chrissy-chlapecka-w-special-guests-174058 .
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