Topline<\/p>\n
Stella Lefty, a singer-songwriter whose country-tinged breakout hit \u201cBoston\u201d surged to new heights on the Billboard charts this week, has billionaire roots as the daughter of Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky\u2014though some have questioned whether she\u2019s an \u201cindustry plant,\u201d or if she\u2019s ripping singer Noah Kahan\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n
Stella Lefty earned her first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. (Photo by Tibrina Hobson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
\u201cBoston\u201d surged to No. 6 on this week\u2019s Billboard Hot 100<\/a> singles chart, marking Lefty\u2019s first-ever appearance in the flagship chart\u2019s top 10, partially thanks to TikTok virality and radio airplay. <\/p>\n Lefty\u2019s breakout hit has garnered more than 120 million streams on Spotify, by far her most-streamed song since she started releasing music in 2024. <\/p>\n Lefty is the daughter of Eric Lefkofsky, co-founder of Groupon and founder and CEO of healthcare startup Tempus AI, who Forbes<\/a> estimates is worth $4.8 billion as of Wednesday. <\/p>\n In interviews<\/a>, Lefty has credited her father with influencing her music taste and work ethic, and joked he\u2019s a big fan of fellow billionaire Taylor Swift, but said she is aware people will have \u201copinions\u201d about her father\u2019s wealth.<\/p>\n Lefty\u2019s sudden rise has brought her both breakout success and criticism from some who have accused her of being an \u201cindustry plant\u201d\u2014and some have criticized \u201cBoston\u201d for imitating the melody of Noah Kahan\u2019s hit “Stick Season,” which Lefty says<\/a> was unintentional (she gave Kahan writing credits on the song).<\/p>\n Who Is Stella Lefty?<\/p>\n Lefty, a Chicago native, began releasing music in 2024, and she released her first EP, \u201cIs This Heaven?\u201d earlier this year. Lefty broke through on TikTok, where she often posts videos of herself singing and has amassed more than 670,000 followers. \u201cBoston\u201d has been used as a sound in more than 1.6 million posts within just five months of release. The song interpolates\u2014or, recreates the melody of\u2014\u201cStick Season,\u201d a hit song by singer-songwriter Noah Kahan. Lefty told The Line of Best Fit<\/a> she wrote the song\u2019s chorus herself and posted it, after which commenters said, \u201cThis sounds like \u2018Stick Season.\u2019\u201d She said she didn\u2019t mean to incorporate Kahan\u2019s song into her own, but after she posted the chorus, \u201chis team ended up reaching out and we had a conversation about it, and I was just like, \u2018I want to do whatever accommodates him.\u2019\u201d Kahan was given credit as a co-writer on \u201cBoston,\u201d a standard practice for interpolations. But some critics aren\u2019t impressed by Lefty\u2019s Kahan inspiration. A critic for Paste Magazine<\/a> dismissed her as a \u201cNoah Kahan copycat,\u201d calling her song a \u201cpoor imitation\u201d of the more \u201csonically complex\u201d song \u201cStick Season.\u201d \u201cMaybe originality and authenticity simply don\u2019t matter anymore,\u201d Paste critic Miranda Wollen wrote. On a country music Reddit forum<\/a>, users debated Lefty\u2019s rise to fame, with one popular post saying Lefty became famous \u201csuspiciously fast,\u201d criticizing her \u201cmass produced carbon copy folk sound\u201d and her similarities to Kahan. The most-upvoted post on the Reddit thread accused her of becoming famous \u201cclearly because of her dad.\u201d<\/p>\n What Has Lefty Said About Her Billionaire Roots?<\/p>\n Lefty told The Line of Best Fit in an interview<\/a> earlier this month she knows people online will say \u201cnegative things\u201d about her billionaire father, but she said she has a close relationship with him and credits him for introducing her to country music. \u201cThere’s going to be all these opinions that are thrown around and I totally understand that,\u201d Lefty said, adding she is \u201cvery, very close\u201d with her family and considers her father her \u201cfavorite person on the planet.\u201d She praised her family as \u201csuper hardworking\u201d in an interview with Billboard<\/a> in May, saying she learned a sense of \u201cgrit\u201d from her father. Lefty and her manager, Adam Alpert, acknowledged accusations some internet critics have made that she may be an \u201cindustry plant\u201d\u2014a term used as a pejorative against musicians who critics believe achieved their success through nepotism or wealth. \u201cIndustry plants don\u2019t exist,\u201d Alpert told Rolling Stone<\/a> in June, saying Lefty has become successful because she makes \u201cgreat songs that people like.\u201d Lefty told Rolling Stone the discourse surrounding her success feels \u201cunnatural,\u201d and acknowledged there are \u201calways going to be people who don\u2019t like me or my music, or something about me.\u201d<\/p>\n What Do We Know About Lefkofsky\u2019s Fortune?<\/p>\n Lefkofsky, a career entrepreneur, co-founded marketing company InnerWorkings in 1999 and Echo Global Logistics in 2005, before striking a fortune with Groupon, the discount e-commerce marketplace. He co-founded Groupon in 2008 and became a billionaire in 2011 when the company went public. At the time of Groupon\u2019s initial public offering, Forbes reported<\/a> Lefkofsky owned 21% of the company\u2019s stock. Shortly after becoming a billionaire, Lefkofsky told Forbes<\/a> he doesn\u2019t spend much time thinking about his fortune and instead spends his energy on helping the \u201cvarious businesses we have started or invested in.\u201d In 2015, Lefkofsky founded Tempus, later renamed Tempus AI, a healthcare startup that collects data to allow doctors to personalize cancer treatments. Lefkofsky told Forbes<\/a> in 2019 he started the company after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, leaving him \u201cjust perplexed at how little data had permeated her care.\u201d By 2019, Tempus had raised $520 million, including $100 million from Lefkofsky, and he told Forbes he hoped Tempus would be his \u201clegacy project.\u201d Lefkofsky took Tempus public<\/a> in 2024, at which time his stake was worth $2.2 billion. Lefkofsky is the No. 876 wealthiest person in the world as of Wednesday, according to Forbes estimates, and he ranks No. 246 on the Forbes 400<\/a> ranking of America\u2019s richest people. <\/p>\n key background<\/p>\n After a writing deal in Nashville fell through, Lefty told Rolling Stone she received a message from producer Jacob Hindlin, who goes by J Kash, known for making hits with Lady Gaga, Kesha, Katy Perry and more pop stars. She signed to Disruptor Records and moved to Los Angeles, where she still lives. Lefty made an appearance at the Stagecoach country music festival in April, and she has performed as an opening act for singers Jessie Murph and Cameron Whitcomb.<\/p>\n further reading<\/p>\n