Making Sense of Stella Lefty and New Song “Boston”

It’s not just Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” that is setting music on fire here in the summer of 2026. Granted, nothing can rival what Ella’s doing with the song, even going back into history. It’s already the most successful song from a woman in American music according to it’s tenure at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It’s clearly one of the biggest songs in the history of country music. And when all is said and done, who knows, it might be minted as an all-time song in the history of recorded music, period.

All of the Ella Langley accolades and attention have somewhat overshadowed the rather incredible success of another song, Stella Lefty’s “Boston.” Whether it deserves to be or not, it has also been assigned to the domain of “country,” and has been surging throughout the summer to where it sat at #3 last week on the Billboard Hot 100 itself, only held out of the top spot by Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” and another questionably country song, Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You.”

This week, “country” sweeps the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in history, with Ella at #1, Morgan Wallen’s new song “Been By Now” at #2, Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” at #3, Wallen and Ella with “I Can’t Love You Anymore” at #4, and Stella Lefty at #5 with “Boston.”

So who is Stella Lefty, and how did her song get so high on the charts out of nowhere? This has been a big discussion point in certain circles for a while now. For many, she is the perfect symbol of how affluence and privilege are the primary drivers behind celebrity and success in America at this point. Since her father is the billionaire co-founder of Groupon who now owns a healthcare AI company called Tempus AI, a lot of people have surmised that Stella was able to skip the line and go straight to the top.

Well-respected music producer and commentator Rick Beato had a video a couple of months ago titled “Why Only Rich Kids Make It In Music Today” that sort of coincided with Stella Lefty’s rise, and this furthered the discussion. Does it feel like this hypothesis is true—that unless you come from money or a connected family, you can’t rise to the top in music? It most certainly helps. But that might be a little overly cynical. Ella Langely didn’t come from a particularly affluent or connected family.

But Stella Lefty did, and it’s not just that her family had money—or that it comes with the double strike of being involved with AI—it’s that her hit song “Boston” kind of feels like the product of affluence. Stella and “Boston” fit the profile, while the appeal behind Ella Langley and “Choosin’ Texas” is that they don’t, and drip with lived experiences and that element of real world authenticity.

Is “Boston” a country song? It’s definitely interesting they decided to texturize the song with steel guitar, which certainly allows it to be open for that discussion. It’s a bit similar to the music of Megan Moroney where it comes with heavy pop influences, but the pronounced steel guitar puts it in the country music conversation.

But except for the pedal steel, “Boston” just feels like a fluttery bop. Unlike Megan Moroney’s rather involved writing, “Boston” is basically one big chorus, with the song beginning and ending on the chorus, and a post-chorus thrown in there as well. The two quick verses come and go, and there’s not a lot of depth there. Stella doesn’t really deliver any twang in her vocals either, and unlike “Choosin’ Texas,” it’s distinctly urban geography that is evoked in the lyricism of “Boston.”

This brings us to perhaps the most important wrinkle to the song, which is that it strongly interpolates the massive hit “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan, which is very likely where the viral appeal for the song comes from. Kahan is credited as a co-writer on the track. Similar to Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” and others, “Boston” is the musical version of a film remake. Noah Kahan has gone out of his way to say his music is not country. So has Zach Bryan. So should “Boston” be considered country?

All of this music feels more the domain of the contemporary folk, or the indie folk realm. “Boston” has been specifically characterized as “indie folk” in the past. This is a massively surging category of popular music with these huge hit singles like “Stick Season” and “Boston.” This is one of the reasons the Grammy Awards made a new category this year for Contemporary Folk specifically.

In some respects, the experience of “Boston” reminds you of Colbie Caillat’s “Bubly,” which people really didn’t regard as “country” when it was blowing up the charts, or even something like Shawn Colvin’s “Sunny Came Home.” Colvin was very much a known quantity in the roots world when that song exploded. It’s still considered folk rock, not country.

Another big question about “Boston” is what its staying power will be, and for Stella Lefty in general. Ella Langley and “Choosin’ Texas” have proven to be incredibly sturdy, and the only reason Langley doesn’t have multiple #1s under her belt at this point is because it’s her own song (“Choosin’ Texas”) keeping them out of the top spot. “Boston” feels like it could be similar to Dasha’s “Austin,” which was also not really country. Even though Dasha’s had some other big songs, she’s failed to sustain something that feels like a broad appeal beyond one hit.

If you listen to Stella Lefty’s EP “Is This Heaven?,” which also features her boyfriend and fellow performer Vincent Mason, is it overly offensive? No, not at all. Just like “Boston,” you understand the appeal, even if that appeal doesn’t feel distinctly country. But when you take a step back and ask yourself if some no name from the sticks had posted a song like “Boston” on the internet, would it have blown up? And the answer is probably “no.”

Yet if you start eliminating people who come from affluence from being able to make good music, you eliminate the catalog of Gram Parson, of Townes Van Zandt, and many more. Nobody should be foisted to the front of the line in music. But at the same time, performers shouldn’t also be summarily discounted just because they come from privilege. Ultimately, the music should be the most important consideration.

Unfortunately for “Boston” though with it’s rather thin writing, borrowed melody, and generally passing appeal, it just feels like another pop song, despite the roosty sound behind it. What Stella Lefty does next will prove if she’s a one-hit wonder, or has staying power, in country or popular music in general.

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