![\"2026](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/39d2e36b853859111e58a672e15334c42d-Stella-Lefty.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n Stella Lefty.
\n Photo: Joshua Applegate\/WireImage\n <\/p>\n
The \u201cBillboard Hot 100\u201d is awash with nice girls. Sitting atop a very pleasant chart right now is country crooner Ella Langley\u2019s \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas.\u201d<\/a> Below it, there\u2019s Taylor Swift\u2019s sweet \u201cI Knew It, I Knew You\u201d<\/a> and Olivia Dean\u2019s aptly titled \u201cSo Easy (To Fall in Love).\u201d The rest is filled out with two more Langley songs, another Dean track, some assorted easy-listening pop like Tame Impala and Jennie\u2019s \u201cDracula\u201d and \u2026 then there\u2019s \u201cBoston,\u201d by Stella Lefty.<\/p>\n Currently at No. 2, \u201cBoston\u201d has catapulted Lefty into the center of several of the most controversial topics in all of music discourse. Ironically, Lefty\u2019s track sonically fits in with her compatriots. A twangy, but not too-country, song about staying in a relationship despite your instincts to run, \u201cBoston\u201d seems almost chronically uncontroversial. Yet, Stella Lefty\u2019s rise has been hotly debated \u2014 conversations about nepotism, originality, and TikTok\u2019s influence on the music industry have taken over. Below, everything you need to know to argue about music\u2019s newest hitmaker.<\/p>\n Stella Lefty was born Stella Lefkofsky and raised in Glencoe, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She is not from the South but says she did grow up listening to country music. \u201cThat was the vibe in my house,\u201d she told Vanity Fair<\/a>. She\u2019s the daughter of the billionaire Groupon co-founder and current Tempus AI CEO Eric Lefkofsky. Because of this, TikTok has assigned<\/a> her the title \u201cnepo baby,\u201d even though that\u2019s a slightly imprecise moniker, because, although she grew up immensely privileged, Stella Lefty did not have family in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n While attending Tulane University in 2021, she began posting videos of herself singing covers on TikTok. She ended up getting signed by JKash, a writer and producer who owns Livelihood Music Company. Last July, she released the Tragic, Really EP. In March, she released \u201cBoston.\u201d<\/p>\n In the most 2026 way possible: \u201cBoston\u201d is entirely borne of TikTok\u2019s influence. She said she wrote the song about her now-boyfriend Vincent Mason, a fellow country singer, back when they\u2019d recently met. She started with the chorus, which she filmed herself singing and posted to TikTok. \u201cThen I got in the car and left,\u201d she told Songwriter Universe<\/a>. \u201cI didn\u2019t think anything of it.\u201d However, once the video started doing well, Lefty finished the song with her collaborators and released it. With the strength of an already-interested TikTok audience, the song became a hit on the app, which then brought it into the mainstream. Now, it sits at No. 2.<\/p>\n Among the six songwriters on \u201cBoston,\u201d one name sticks (ha) out because he was never in the room working on it: Noah Kahan. Kahan, the beloved stomp-clap New England hipster<\/a>, has a writing credit on the track because of an interpolation of his song \u201cStick Season\u201d on the chorus of \u201cBoston.\u201d It\u2019s pretty clear to anyone who listens to the chord progression of both tracks, although it wasn\u2019t written as a tribute. \u201cWhen I was writing the song, I wasn\u2019t thinking about Noah Kahan,\u201d Lefty told VF. \u201cI was literally thinking about nothing at all.\u201d But Kahan\u2019s representatives still reached out over the similarities, and Lefty and her team decided to give credit. Lefty explained that \u201cI don\u2019t want to step on anybody\u2019s toes, so I\u2019m like, if this sounds like that, whatever, all good.\u201d<\/p>\n Still \u2026 Lefty using \u201cStick Season\u201d may have been accidental, but it wasn\u2019t random. Since Lefty told VF that the interpolation credit was just because she didn\u2019t want to \u201cstep on anybody\u2019s toes,\u201d compilation videos have circulated on social media<\/a> of Lefty covering \u201cStick Season\u201d extensively throughout the years. She posted around a dozen since-deleted covers of the Kahan track. So whether she was thinking about it or not, he might have seeped in.<\/p>\n She\u2019s taking advantage of the moment. Despite already releasing her EP, Is This Heaven?, in May, Lefty put together a debut album, Long Way Home, which dropped on August 21. She also was originally scheduled to open for country singer Tucker Wetmore\u2019s upcoming tour but dropped out without an explanation. \u201cI just want to apologize to everyone for not announcing sooner that I\u2019m not opening on the Tucker dates,\u201d she posted on her Instagram Story this month. \u201cI love Tucker and I know the shows are going to be amazing. I wanted to announce that earlier but I was advised not to which was a mistake.\u201d Instead, she is going out on her own with her Long Way Home tour. After being announced on August 24, it completely sold out<\/a> in less than five days.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n