Chappell Roan has addressed Brigitte Bardot’s problematic past after recently learning about the late French film icon’s controversial beliefs.
Bardot, who was once an icon of the sexual revolution, died Sunday at the age of 91. In the wake of her passing, Roan paid tribute to the cultural icon on her Instagram Story, writing: “Rest in peace Ms. Bardot.” She additionally confirmed her hit track “Red Wine Supernova” was indeed inspired by the Parisian actor and singer.
In the 2023 song, the 27-year-old pop star sings about an intoxicating crush. “She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot / She showed me things I didn’t know / She did it right there out on the deck / Put her canine teeth in the side of my neck,” Roan croons in the opening verse.
However, it appears the “Good Luck, Babe” hitmaker was unaware of Bardot’s outspoken views on Islam, #MeToo and homosexuality.
“Holy s***,” Roan wrote Monday on her Instagram Story. “I did not know all that insane s*** Ms. Bardot stood for. Obvs I do not condone this,” she clarified. “Very disappointing to learn.”
Following her retirement from acting in the 1970s, the And God Created Women star dedicated her life to animal welfare activism and became deeply involved in right-wing politics.
She was a fervent supporter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Rally party, and his daughter, Marine Le Pen, who’s currently appealing a five-year ban from running for political office after she was found guilty of embezzling funds from the European Parliament.
After news of Bardot’s death broke, Marine hailed her as “an exceptional woman”. “A woman who chose to break with an incredible career to devote herself to the animals she defended until her last breath with inexhaustible energy and love,” the disgraced politician wrote. “She was incredibly French: free, untamable, whole. She will be greatly missed by us.”
Bardot was also fined and convicted five times by French courts for inciting racial hatred and discrimination toward Islam and Réunion islanders.
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“I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population [the Muslim community] which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts,” she once said.
In 2019, she was sued by officials from the French island of Réunion after writing in an open letter that its inhabitants were “aboriginals who have kept the genes of savages.”
In one of her final interviews, conducted in May 2025 on French television, she disparaged the #MeToo movement, defended Gérard Depardieu against sexual assault allegations, and declared: “Feminism isn’t my thing. I like guys.”
Still, Roan isn’t the only musician to name-check her. Bardot has also been mentioned in songs from Bob Dylan, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Olivia Rodrigo.