Chappell Roan’s HOT TO GO video spotlights hot spots for tourists, fans

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — “I think ‘HOT TO GO!’ is this generation’s YMCA,” Jordan Ryan says as she stands outside the World’s Largest Fork in Chesterfield Village.

The fork is just one of the local landmarks featured in Chappell Roan’s ‘HOT TO GO!’ music video, which has amassed over 15 million views on YouTube.

The Willard native has made national television appearances after national television appearances, not to mention reports of the largest attendance for a Lollapalooza set in history.

This doesn’t shock Ryan.

“It’s very exciting. She’s got a really good team behind her, but for the fact of she didn’t have professional help helping her with her image or anything like that until most recently, she really is like what the epitome of like hard, hard work and dedication to like your craft and can produce,” Ryan said.

Ryan was part of bringing Roan’s crew to the fork.

“I work for the people who own this building and I got a phone call and they asked if they could go ahead and film in front of the fork,” Ryan said. “My claim to fame is that I’m one degree of separation from Chappell Roan because I got to speak with her team and then they sent me that email with the video release on it.”

Other landmarks featured in the video include Andy’s Frozen Custard, the mural of horses on the back of Alamo Drafthouse, Fun Acre Mini-Golf, The Gillioz Theatre, and Gary’s Gay Parita, a tourist attraction in Lawrence County on Route 66.

“I’m really proud of Springfield. This is a place that’s wonderful to live and I love that she has that connection to us. I’m also part of the LGBTQ community. My wife and I, we followed Chappell’s rise and wish we could have gone to the show at The Gillioz because now you can’t get even tickets to the one in Fayetteville,” Ryan said. “I love that we got to see like the mural of the horses on there as well and all the different local landmarks and Andy’s Frozen Custard. It’s nice to see that she’s calling our hometown hers as well.”

Ryan isn’t the only one who noticed the foot traffic at the fork.

“The foot traffic here is plentiful. Every day, all day long, we see people coming up doing her ‘HOT TO GO!’ dance and seeing just people from all over the world actually coming here. I’ve met people from England, all over the country, and they’ve come here specifically for the world’s largest fork, and because of Chappell Roan. It’s been really interesting to see the different types of people that have come here,” Ashley White said. “They come as groups, they come on busses, they come dressed in shark suits. Being able to view it from our break room has been really enjoyable on our end and really fun to watch.”

“We used to get just people with their selfie sticks or their RVs, driving through, stopping by, taking a picture,” Ryan said. “Now most of our visitors are coming and doing [the dance] in front of the fork, so that’s been really fun.”

White also works behind the fork, and with Ryan, they both are rooting for Roan’s success.

“I always love to see people, especially who come from a small town, bringing those roots back into what they’re doing, so it was really refreshing to see,” White said. “You can just see how certain things resonated with her that she was bringing along in her journey and her story.”

Roan will be on national television again in September as she’s expected to perform at the MTV Music Video Awards and is up for two awards.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR - OzarksFirst.com.