Photo Credit: Kat Thompson
[Chel](https://www.instagram.com/musicbychel/?hl=en) is a strong, body-positive recording artist here to uplift women all around the world. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Chel proves you don’t have to be limited to one talent: serving as a plus-size model, radio host, singer-songwriter, and even activist.
Having started taking music lessons at a mere five years old, Chel’s parents joke that she came out of the womb singing. Growing up in a musical household where her uncle was a musician and oftentimes invited her over to sing with the band, she’s heavily influenced by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Adele, and Rihanna — establishing her own unique sound with a crazy vocal range to shake mountains.
Now, she returns with her most powerful song to date: “Nasty Woman.” Inspired directly by her grandmother, the female empowerment anthem reveals what it means to be a strong, centered woman, while touching on society’s tendency to call females “nasty.” With a strong belief in equality, Chel is adamant on the fact that women are just as valuable as the men, reminding the masses that we need to all support one another.
Flaunt caught up with Chel via FaceTime, who was in high spirits from a photoshoot the day prior. Read below as we discuss her upbringing in Springfield, the turning point in her career, the empowerment within “Nasty Woman,” fashion endeavors, goals, and more!
Photo Credit: Kat Thompson
**Being from Springfield, Illinois, what were you seeing growing up?**
The home of Abraham Lincoln, cornfields and not a lot going on unless it’s budget season and all the politicians are in town. I lived in the woods and I liked to climb trees a lot. I have two brothers; it was a bit of a warzone growing up but they’re my best friends now. I've been singing since I was little and have known that it's what I wanted to do my whole life so I tried to be in everything I could be related to music. Springfield is small so that really came down to jazz choir, show choir, regular choir, and musicals. I'm very close to my family, and growing up we did big Italian meals with all homemade family recipes.
**Your dad used to drive you to St. Louis, what was the first concert you guys went to?**
My first concert was The B-52's. Most people know “Love Shack," but he used to play all of the songs for me. My favorite song is called “Hot Pants Explosion,” and I thought they were saying “hot pans.” \[laughs\] I remember right on the first song, there’s a guy on a walkie talkie and he called out the rest of the band members out. Next thing you know, people were coming down in cages and dancing. It was very cool.
**At what point did you realize this music thing was forreal?**
It's interesting. I’ve known for as long as I can remember that this is what I wanted to do. Obviously, I've had a few hurdles. Growing up plus-size in a small town in the Midwest, either people are telling you that 1) you don't look the part or 2) that it's unrealistic. When I said I wanted to be a pop singer, people said “why don't you actually try to be a doctor or a lawyer?” Do something more realistic, go to college. I did end up going to college, I actually have a Master's degree.
I let a lot of those things get into my head often: “you don't look the part, it's unrealistic.” I went to school thinking maybe it was unrealistic. I always kept a foot in, ie: I kept doing voice lessons. My senior year of college, I was in St, Louis and I heard a radio ad for Nelly. Nelly had opened up a school and I wondered if they gave voice lessons. It was called ex'Treme Institute and it was for recording, engineering, and music business. I called and they had one spot open for their voice lessons. I started taking lessons and two weeks later they asked me if I wanted to represent their school in their summer concert tour with Murphy Lee. I met a producer in St. Louis (Tech Supreme) who asked if I wanted to make music, I said that's all I ever wanted to do. I started recording with him and I never looked back.
**How’d you get your name?**
Chel is short for Michelle, it’s my middle name. My first name is Sarah. When you search Sarah Michelle on Google, it comes up with all Sarah Michelle Gellar information. My dad jokes he named me twice. He came up with Chel. He thought it was pretty and I thought it was great. We went with it for my artist name.
**“Nasty Woman” is so powerful, how’s it feel to be speaking up?**
I wrote “Nasty Woman” about a year ago. This past Christmas, my grandma gave all of her grandchildren a little bit of money. I decided to take that money and write a song in her honor. It's funny because she probably wouldn't say she’s a pioneer women’s empowerment woman, but I see her as that. She was in the first class of women to graduate from Wharton Business School, she went and had four children, then went back to get her law degree. She was 45. She continued to be a mogul: she did real estate, she worked for two presidents, she marched for the ending of the Vietnam War and for women’s rights. She raised three women who all have amazing careers.
She showed us that as women, we can if we choose, do whatever we want to do. That's been a huge message in my life. She still mentors people trying to get their businesses off the ground. I wanted to write a song in honor of her, but also a song that would empower all women. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we still have a lot of work to do! I was shocked when I found out that women Olympians still make half of what men Olympians make. Women actresses make substantially less than their male counterparts. It's not even about money, it's about women’s health. Periods are still taboo. As much as the body-positive movement is moving forward, we still have ways in which we’re expected to look. I know a lot of women with athletic bodies who don't feel accepted because they feel too masculine... but there's beauty in all forms. We’ve been told our whole lives it's one way. In my head I've always thought if I had a platform, it was my obligation to push the ball in directions that it needs to be pushed. Use it for something that is bigger than myself. This is something I feel strongly about. Especially with election season, it’s an important time to say something. Here it is! “Nasty Woman” is out.
**What does your grandmother think of the record? What’s the bond you guys share?**
She likes it. It has been a really tough time for her and our family as my grandpa passed away a couple weeks ago. She’s in recovery mode right now but she did send me a video of herself holding a Nasty Woman sign that had to make an appearance in my music video.
**What can we expect from the music video?**
What’s funny is that releasing the song came about very quickly. I planned on releasing a different song in October, then… let's get political. Kamala Harris became the Vice-Presidential nomination, Trump very shortly after called her a nasty woman. If that wasn't a sign, I don't know what is. \[laughs\] Let me release this song right now. Once I made the decision to release it, I realized I only had a couple of weeks to get everything together. I very quickly called up a friend and asked if they could help. I called a few girls I know, asked if they could help me put it together. It was still quarantine so it was challenging to get too many people together, but I managed to get a strong group of girls.
Expect some powerful signage, some marching, some very strong references. I had my friend dress in an all-black bodysuit, push me and pull me in directions to speak on the fact that we’ve been pushed our whole lives to think certain ways. The imagery turned out beautifully. My favorite part of the video is the very end credit scenes where I had lots of different people send me iPhone footage or photos from around the world. One person sent me one from Germany, one from France, one from Canada, one from Spain and so on. All these amazing videos of different women who I admire, and love are saying how or why they’re a nasty woman.
Photo Credit: Kat Thompson
**What would you like to see happen with female empowerment?**
More than anything, I want to see community. One of my lines in the song is “women have been pinned against other women.” We’re very quick to put down other women or to be in competition. Moving forward I’d love to see more women uniting and lifting each other up, fixing each other's crown. There’s no right way to be a feminist and we can definitely be more compassionate and understanding in a lot of ways.
**How important is social media for your career? 1 million followers on Facebook is a lot.**
Honestly with Facebook, I don't know how that happened. About eight years ago, I started building my different platforms. I had my personal platforms, but you know what, I needed to make some music pages specifically for my artistry. I was working with someone originally who was managing this rapper Hi-Rez. He had a million something followers on Facebook at the time. He very kindly offered, in the beginning to repost some of my videos, then it spiraled from there. My mom got trigger happy: “I'm going to boost all these posts!” She thought they all needed to be super boosted, so she kept boosting them and boosting them.
**How much do you miss performing?**
I miss it. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was invited to do PrideFest in St. Louis a month or two ago. They rented out one of the really, really big venues and only one band or performer can come in at a time. You wore masks until you got to the stage. They live-streamed it. It wasn't until I went back home, got my band together and did that performance that I’m like oh man, that felt so good to be on stage and sing.
**3 things you need in the studio?**
I really need good energy, that's about it. I wouldn't be mad at some drinks and maybe one other person that can be a great hype man or woman. The studio is my favorite place in the world to be. I don't care if it's a home studio or we’re literally sitting on a laptop with a mic in hand in a shack somewhere. Maybe it is a really great big multimillion dollar studio, that's cool too. As long as the energy is good.
**You’ve worked with FabFitFun, Fashion Nova, GitiOnline, Good American, and even walked during New York Fashion Week. What’s your love for fashion?**
Well, I actually always loved clothes and fashion. Initially going to college, I went for fashion design. I didn't stay in that major very long. Growing up plus-sized and very top heavy, there wasn't much for me in terms of swimsuits and bras. With promwear, I had to find a dress five or six sizes bigger than what I am, so it’d fit on my chest, then we’d get it tailored everywhere else. Thank God when they started making swimsuits with underwire. \[laughs\] I wanted to go in and start making things for plus-size or top-heavy women.
When I moved to Los Angeles and started getting into being a brand ambassador, I took that as my opportunity to stop playing safe. In the past I’d always bought clothing that’s practical, that I’d wear every day. Once I started brand ambassadoring I thought , if people are going to send me free clothes, I might as well get the fun, crazy stuff I've always wanted to wear but haven't gone out and got myself. I started getting really fun stuff. At some point, that turned into me signing with a modeling agency. I never thought that’d be a thing for me. I'm 5’8”, I'm tall but I always thought you had to be 5’10” to be a model. Going into the fashion world has been really cool for me. The body positive movement is so important to me, so being a part of it and being able to represent body inclusivity in any way I can is great.
Photo Credit: Kat Thompson
**Goals yourself as an artist at this point of your career?**
One of the biggest goals I didn't even know had happened was being on a billboard in Times Square! Having something chart in the Billboard Top 100 would be very cool or doing a collaborative song with somebody that I idolize would also be a dream.
**What can we expect next?**
I’m independent and my team consists of me, my mom, a manager, and a publicist. They’re amazing and we’ve been trying to figure out ourselves over the last however many years. I'm very grateful that we’ve been able to do as much as we’ve done on our own with no clue of how to make it happen to this point. It's been interesting with quarantine and the pandemic, trying to figure it all out.
Within the music industry, there are quarters: first quarter, second quarter and so on. We’re coming up on the fourth quarter, the no-no zone of time to put out music and make new moves. It's about to be the holiday season where things get locked into place until the new year but we’re in weird times. Things are different. I'm in this mode where I've been making all this amazing music and sitting on it for a long time so why not ? I may or may not put out another single before the holidays. I'm in between doing that or putting out an EP at the top of the year.
**Anything else you want to let us know?**
“Nasty Woman” is out right now. I wanted to remind everyone to vote and it is so very important. I have a lot of friends who’ve told me “why would I vote?” I don't think my vote really matters.” It matters a lot so get out there, go vote. I hope you did.
Thank you for having me.
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