The Subway

Album

Single

Label

Island Records

Genre

Dream pop

Composer(s)

Dan Nigro;ayleigh Rose Amstutz

Entered Chart

Aug 16, 2025

Peak Date

Aug 16, 2025

Released

July 31, 2025

B-Side

I Hate It Here" (demo)

"The Subway" is what happens when heartbreak catches the 6 train and refuses to get off. Chappell Roan's power-pop ballad turns an everyday run-in with an ex on the subway into a full-blown emotional spiral. Chappell Roan co-wrote "The Subway" with longtime collaborator Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo's producer-in-chief and Roan's creative partner since her Atlantic Records days). Nigro and Roan first started working together in 2018, shortly after she moved to Los Angeles and before we got to hear future favorites like "Pink Pony Club." Roan debuted "The Subway" live at the Governors Ball on June 9, 2024. A week later at Bonnaroo, she performed it again, calling the song a "cousin" to her no-holds-barred breakup anthem "Casual." It lingered in her live set for months, becoming a fan favorite, but Roan hesitated to release a studio version, feeling the track thrived best in a raw, stage-lit context. Eventually, she relented, releasing it as a single on August 1, 2025. There's no definitive confirmation from Chappell Roan that "Casual" and "The Subway" were inspired by the same ill-fated romance, but if they aren't about the same person, then fate owes her an apology for sending her two heartbreaks so eerily similar. "Casual" is all sharp ache and emotional limbo, capturing the misery of pretending not to care when your heart's doing cartwheels. "The Subway" adds a new layer to the torment: the brutal randomness of bumping into an ex in a public space you used to share, and trying very hard not to fall apart in front of strangers. Taken together, the songs form a kind of emotional sequel: first the slow death of the almost-relationship, then the ghostly aftershocks that hit you months later in a subway car. Whether or not they're about the same person, they live in the same neighborhood of heartbreak: aching, raw, and terribly relatable. In the music video, directed by Amber Grace Johnson (Rihanna, Jorja Smith), Roan appears as a crimson-haired Rapunzel figure in downtown Manhattan, dragging a never-ending strand of scarlet hair through subways, sidewalks, and litter-strewn city corners. The hair represents the emotional baggage she can't quite shake. The video includes a cameo by the "Green Lady of Brooklyn" (real name Elizabeth Eaton Rosenthal), a local fashion icon known for her head-to-toe monochromatic green outfits. Chappell Roan's musical persona is a case of dual citizenship: one foot in the glittering kingdom of camp, the other firmly planted in the soggy terrain of heartbreak. On one side, there's the winking, provocatively queer showgirl: songs like "Femininomenon," "Hot To Go!" "My Kink Is Karma," "Pink Pony Club," "Red Wine Supernova," and "The Giver" are all sequins, struts, and sexual bravado: glamorous, surreal, and knowingly outrageous. These are the glitter bombs of her catalog, often laced with humor and a touch of theatrical self-awareness. Then there's the other Chappell Roan, the earnest, emotionally bare balladeer who writes like she's just been handed a journal and a bottle of wine. Tracks like "Casual" and "Good Luck, Babe!" are little melodramas, full of longing, self-doubt, and the aching clarity of hindsight. This is Roan at her most vulnerable, embracing main-character energy with a trembling heart and a sharp pen. "The Subway" is another bruised addition to her emotional balladry, a power-pop elegy about running into an ex on public transport and unraveling in real time. "The Subway" debuted at #1 in the UK, becoming Chappell Roan's second UK chart-topping single, following "Pink Pony Club." In "The Subway," Chappell Roan sings, "Well, f--k this city! I'm movin' to Saskatchewan" as a way of expressing her desire to escape heartbreak, even though she has never actually visited the Canadian province. She admitted to Apple Music's Zane Lowe she "just liked that it rhymed." Once Roan discovered the capital was called Regina, she was sold.

I saw your green hair
Beauty mark next to your mouth
There on the subway
I nearly had a breakdown
A few weeks later
Somebody wore your perfume
It almost killed me
I had to leave the room

It's just another day
And it's not over 'til it's over
It's never over
It's just another day
And it's not over 'til it's over
It's never over

'Til I don't look for you on the staircase
Or wish you thought that we were still soulmates
But I'm still counting down all of the days
'Til you're just another girl on the subway

Made you the villain
Evil for just moving on

I see your shadow
I see it even with the lights off
I made a promise, if in four months this feeling ain't gone
Well, fuck this city, I'm movin' to Saskatchewan

It's just another day
And it's not over 'til it's over
Oh, 'til it's over
It's just another day
And it's not over 'til it's over
It's never over

'Til I can break routine during foreplay
And trust myself that I won't say your name
But I'm still counting down all of the days
'Til you're just another girl on the subway

She's got, she's got a way
She's got a way, she's got a way
And she got, she got away
She got away, she got away
She's got, she's got a way
She's got a way, she's got a way

She got, she got away
She got away, she got away
(She's got, she's got a way)
(She's got a way, she's got a way) she got away
She got, she got away
She got away, she got away
She's got, she's got a way
She's got a way, she's got a way
And she got, she got away
She got away, she got away