The More They Say Stella Lefty Isn’t a “Nepo Baby,” The More I Think She Is
Is Stella Lefty an “Industry Plant”? Was her career “Astroturfed”? Is she a “Nepo Baby?” What do any of these damn Gen Z terms even mean? Frankly, I really don’t care. Is her music any good? And since she’s calling herself country, is her music country? That’s what I’m most concerned about. Everything else should be secondary, if not superfulous.
But the more the legacy media tries to convince me that Stella Lefty isn’t a Nepo Baby and the byproduct of privilege who’s been unfairly foisted to the front of the line in a completely inequitable manner, the more I believe that’s exactly what has happened, and the more I do care about it, and feel like making it my business.
On August 16th, Vanity Fair released a massive spread about Stella Lefty with the title “‘Boston’ Singer Stella Lefty May Be a Billionaire. But She’s Not a Nepo Baby.” This aggressively stone blind title had the internet up in arms, and for good reason. They have since changed the title, but the damage was already done. And truly, the fawning profile itself is just as bad.
You always know when a supposed “journalist” is just working as a 3rd party clearinghouse for whatever narrative an artist or their handlers want to push whenever it starts off with one of these puff piece “slice of life” observances.
“For 24-year-old singer-songwriter Stella Lefty, performing in front of thousands at Lollapalooza was nerve-wracking. Even more harrowing was what she did the next day: get an IUD. A visit to the gynecologist isn’t how anyone would choose to celebrate their first major music festival appearance, but it’s been a busy summer. Lefty—born Stella Lefkofsky—only had one free day in her hometown of Chicago, and she much prefers her doctor there to the one she sees in Los Angeles, where she lives.”
The story goes on to assert that sure, Stella Lefty’s dad is the billionaire founder of Groupon who now runs an AI company. But hey, Stella Lefty works really really hard at making TikTok content every day, and people just don’t understand what kind of time commitment that really is. And even though her dad is a billionaire 5 times over, since he’s not exactly “famous,” that means Stella Lefty isn’t exactly a nepo baby. Technically. By their definition.
Meanwhile, you have many of the actual women of country music out there literally shoveling shit as they’re growing up, even ones like The Castellows and Noeline Hoffman who’ve found some viral success, and somehow, they’re not getting puff piece spreads in Vanity Fair. It’s not fair to disqualify anyone from being able to make country music just because the come from privilege. If that was the case, we’d never have Gram Parsons or Townes Van Zandt.
But don’t try to sell me on the idea that Stella Lefty’s life is much harder than it looks on paper. Nobody wants to hear that shit, even if it’s true frankly, especially in 2026 when so many are struggling. It’s not just that it rings hollow. It’s that it’s aggressively insulting and classist. And for the most part, it is the upper class and elite who see Stella Lefty as one of their own, and are defending her because they feel she represents them.
Marissa R. Moss of Rolling Stone is a perfect example. Her Stella Lefty puff piece from back in June starts off perfectly on cue with,
“Finally, someone has succeeded in getting Sella Lefty a snack. ‘I gave her a Fig Newton!’ one of her team members proclaims as if they’d just handed off the baton to win Olympic gold. Lefty, rushing so quickly between the three appearances she is making at CMA Fest in under two hours, barely notices that something is even in her hand. ‘Oh!’ Lefty says, taking a bite and smiling big, as she almost always does. ‘I love these!'”
This is “journalism”? This is what’s supposed to humanize Stella Lefty to us? I’d include more of the feature here, but it’s paywalled, so I can’t read it. Only the privileged can partake, because that’s who it’s for. Everyone else is stuck reading Saving Country Music and fighting through the excessive ads on Whiskey Riff.
Even worse is the defense of Stella Lefty’s hit song “Boston,” which this week sits at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 right behind Ella Langley. The song borrows heavily from Noah Kahan’s hit “Stick Season,” just like how Shaboozey’s big hit and Lil Nas X’s big hit also borrowed parts from other songs heavily. In the Vanity Fair piece, Stella says she wasn’t thinking about “Stick Season” when she wrote it. In fact she says, “When I was writing the song, I wasn’t thinking about Noah Kahan. I was literally thinking about nothing at all.”
So she was thinking about “nothing at all” when she wrote her hit song? And she was completely blind to the Noah Kahan similarity? Even though she’s covered “Stick Season” previously in multiple videos? Seems a bit too convenient. Lefty goes on to say that fans started pointing out the similarity, and then her “team” decided to bestow Noah Kahan a writing credit on it just to cover their bases. So it was an after-the-fact decision, so to speak.
The flimsy origin story of “Boston” are the kinds of details that Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair need to be attempting to scrutinize from their interview subject instead of running interference for them, or being a stenographer.
But even though none of this stuff specifically seems like it should be a scathing indictment of Stella Lefty or “Boston”—or should be a barrier to her making music any different than any other artist—cumulatively it all adds up that she’s exactly the thing she’s trying to distance from. The way you confer credibility to a country performer is not by giving her a feature length spread in Vanity Fair, or have her written up by Marissa R. Moss in Rolling Stone. That validates all priors that she’s a product of privilege, if not an agenda.
And all of this of course feeds into the concern that Stella got her start on TikTok, which is a completely corrupt system where you can pay for exposure, either for yourself or through others via the “influencer” network, and nothing seems fair, equitable, organic, and most assuredly, transparent.
This is the underlying problem Stella Lefty faces. Now that 3rd party media plays such a secondary, if not insignificant role and is unwilling to question the authenticity of anyone, we don’t know what is legitimate or not in music, and it becomes easy to assume every artist is “astroturfed” or an “industry plant,” fair or not. Ironically, all the media is doing for Stella Lefty right now is making the matter worse. She tried to pay for positive promotion, and it’s backfiring. Better go back to TikTok and the paid influencer avenues yet again.
This is not just about Stella Lefty. It’s about the integrity of the entire music ecosystem, and how it seems to be eroding in front of our very eyes. We don’t even need AI to come in and destroy music. At this point, AI might just knock over the lifeless, fatally-infected carcass of an industry that if it had any vitality, could perhaps fend it off. Everything your being pushed in your algorithm feels forced and paid-for. All the popular artists seem to be the product of a corrupt system. Everywhere you turn, its the privileged who are benefiting as the rich get richer, and the have-not’s fight for table scraps.
Stella Lefty’s music itself is fine and inoffensive. It’s not that especially great, and it’s not that especially country either. But it’s also not bad. It just kind of “is.” But since it’s what’s getting pushed, it’s rising to the top. But at what cost? For Stella Lefty and her team, spending a few thousand on TikTok campaigns and publicists to get you into Vanity Fair is a drop in the bucket. After all, as they proclaimed, she’s a billionaire.
But for the truly talented and world-beating performers out there trying simply to be heard and seen beyond their local bar who used to make their way up through local radio, opening gigs, and a nationwide talent search for the next great artist, they’re the ones that are losing out in this system.
Stella Lefty can’t help that she comes from money. It also doesn’t feel fair to discriminate against her just because she does. But she’s not a victim of public sentiment like the fawning media is trying to portray. The true victims are all the performers not getting their deserved opportunities because Stella Lefty is hogging the spotlight, and specifically due to her privilege, which ironically, is getting her even more press due to the intrigue behind it.
For so many other artists, the only option they have is “too stubborn to quit.”
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August 27, 2026 @ 11:51 am
And already two nights at The Ryman…
August 27, 2026 @ 11:58 am
The report I read said Noah’s team reached out to note the similarities between the songs, so they proactively gave him writing credit. Someone posted a mashup of the dozens of times she covered Stick Season before releasing Boston, and she is lucky they didn’t sue her into oblivion with how blatant the interpolation is.
At the very least I think it is odd, if not lazy, to heavily interpolate someone else’s very recent breakout hit for your own breakout hit.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:45 pm
I looked up Stick Season on youtube and I agree with the top comment there:
“Came to see if was similar…. I’ll be damned”
August 27, 2026 @ 1:45 pm
These interpolations happen regularly in the hip-hop world. When Shaboozey did it with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” there was no question he needed to credit the original writers.
When Stella Lefty says, “When I was writing the song, I wasn’t thinking about Noah Kahan. I was literally thinking about nothing at all,” that comes directly from a lawyer. Of course she was thinking about “something.” She was writing a song. Instead of remarking on Fig Newtons or IUDs, these journalists talking to Stella should challenge that notion. Noah Kahan is credited on the song and receiving royalties, so good for everyone. But it does speak to credibility when Stella tries to pass it off a coincidence.
August 27, 2026 @ 2:10 pm
It’s possible that she unknowingly “borrowed” the melody when she wrote Boston and didn’t catch the similarity until it was too late. It’s been proven with her online footprint that she posted videos of her singing ‘Stick Season but amateur songwriters can make the mistake of reusing a melody that they already know. This is assuming the backstory that she was an amateur that wrote some songs that blew up online AND THEN she had a production team, producer, etc around her who gave her this direction to credit Noah.
August 27, 2026 @ 2:54 pm
Sure. It’s possible. Miranda Lambert said she didn’t mean to rip off “I’m Alright” with Kerosene, but she clearly did. Almost the same situation. She ended up giving Steve Earle songwriting credit.
August 28, 2026 @ 8:54 am
I just mentioned the Miranda Lambert/Steve Earle thing before I read this. You actually had the correct information though.
August 28, 2026 @ 8:52 am
yep. Long time ago that happened with a Miranda Lanbert song, I believe Kerosene, and she ended up giving Steve Earle a writing credit. Then Corb Lund admits he accidently did that with one of his songs. I can’t remember what song, or who it came from, some Canadian traditionalist I think, but it happens.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:04 pm
The thing is you can make great music as a nepo baby. The origin story of Hank 3 is a judge told
Him to get a job so he asked for a record deal and got one just because his name was Hank Williams III. Which is certainly an easier road to success than others have had. He also then went on to make great music.
But it’s becoming more and more common that the supply of talented artists far outstrips the demand so nepo babies keep taking a bigger and bigger piece of the attention and money people have to support artists. You literally can be a huge DJ without your dad owning an AI company or being CEO of a defense contractor. More and more movie stars. Cause why not? The nepo babies aren’t even bad. They have had a lifetime of comfort to taking acting and singing lessons and to write and try and fail and get better. They never needed a job or even to do well in school.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:15 pm
Something something eat the rich something something.
August 27, 2026 @ 6:27 pm
Country music has always had nepo babies except they call them “legacies.” There must be dozens of them working in some part of the industry today with varying degrees of success.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:06 pm
Beyonce is a certified country star.
Country music as we once knew it, from Hank sr. to Strait and a few years into the 90’s are dead and gone from the mainstream, whatever that is these days. The younger folks listens to the algorithms of streaming – good luck getting Lefty Frizzell on any of those lists – the rest of us does a bit of everything, from dials to satellite, nobody tunes in to a certain show at the same time anymore.
Country music will live on independently, outside the award shows, outside the big online magazines, sticking to the fate of being mostly regional acts.
Back to start, in many ways. After all, the “country music” that became really big – Jim Reeves among the few – could hardly be described as anything but pop.
Just like today. But, unlike today, ol’ Jim could sing with the best of them.
August 27, 2026 @ 1:48 pm
“Beyonce is a certified country star. “
No she’s not, and few actually believe this.
I hate these negative comments because not only are they not true, they try to sap people hope for a better future in country music. The mainstream of country is MUCH better than it was during the peak of Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt, and by a long shot. And who knows, maybe with Ella Langley, it will continue to get even better. I’m going to hope and work towards those ends, while also helping to build an alternative to the mainstream that hopefully continues to influence what the mainstream does.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:12 pm
It wasn’t “thousands at Lollapalooza,” because she was at the Grove / Airbnb stage, which is the 6th smallest stage of the 8.
Was there for the first 1/2 of the set on the rail, as the stage is in the path when you are heading to the southernmost stage [the fest is a mile in length] from the north. She was okay, but nothing special. And I say that having a little bias against her due to growing up in the middle class suburbs that rival [in high school sports and everything else] the rich suburbs she comes out of . Around me were the really excited 20 somethings who had gone to the same h.s. as Stella, and adult people from her neighborhood. The latter subtly dressed like they had money, without being pretentious about it. I assume the band on stage were all Nashville pros or semi-pros, but didn’t look it up.
I disagree that she herself is a billionaire, but she certainly has access to enough billionaire money to market and promote her career in a way other folks don’t.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:16 pm
Yes, the Western AF youtube channel! Lots of music and musicians to discover there.
For the “Jeremy Pinell rips”-commenter (and others possibly interested): There is an over 13 minute long video featuring Jeremy Pinell on there as well!
And some other names I have seen being mentioned in the comment section here can be found featured on the Western AF youtube channel as well (e.g. Vincent Neil Emerson, Nick Shoulders, Charlie Marie, Riddy Arman, Charlie Parr, The Red Clay Strays, Jesse Welles, John R. Miller, etc.)
August 27, 2026 @ 12:20 pm
The music just is.
Oh boy. There is local band in my area that used AI to see if it could write them a song in their style.
And it wrote a song music and all that they plausibly could have written.
This is a LOCAL ACT that plays to crowds of fifty-100 at best.
Problem with the song was that it just…. was. It was a bland average if their sound.
So these days when a song or music just is…. I wonder if AI was involved.
Like write me a song like Noah Kahan.
This is all lowering the standards of mainstream music. Bleech.
With AI nobody has to problem solve a lyric rhyme or a riff.
I’m not saying her music is AI. Buuuuutttt….It might as well be. It reels of somebody who never went on a depression bender and wrecked a car. Or at the very least got cheated on and dumped at gas station or some such.
A lot of the viral artist have music that sounds totally sheltered. And this sounds totally bland IMO.
August 27, 2026 @ 11:24 pm
“Like write me a song like Noah Kahan.”
Given your comment, and another comment here that mentions the Noah Kahan Stick Season song, I listened to both songs to try and see whether I can spot anything which might help explain some listening experiences.
When I heard the Boston song for the first time recently I thought it was very repetitive and didn’t have a strict enough verse – chorus format. I am not a musician, and I don’t know what words or terms to use to indicate what I mean, but I wondered about it at the time. Having now listened to Stick Season, I wonder whether the following aspects might further point to why I like Stick Season better than Boston:
– Stick Season seems to introduce some new instruments and arrangement at points in the song (e.g. minute 1:15, 2:04) better or clearer than Boston
– Stick Season has a musical intro (very short, but still) and Boston jumps straight into singing (which I personally don’t like I think most of the times)
– Stick Season has 153 unique words and Boston 104 (if I did the online calculator thing correctly)
– Stick Season starts with a verse and Boston starts with the chorus
– Stick season repeats the chorus three times and Boston repeats (a part of) the chorus four times (and has two additional sections which are similar to the chorus and have identital final two lines)
Perhaps the combination of these features mentioned above help explain why I find Stick Season a better song than Boston, and why I find Boston to be more repetitive and annoying than Stick Season.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:28 pm
I don’t see people asking this question but why is there such a market for ‘mid’ female singers? I get that Stella Lefty has a likable image and that she eeked past the line of being hot enough to pop singer, but her vocal ability is just so average.
Not sure if I agree that she’s facing a problem with the revelations of her being a Nepo baby who gamed the algorithm because for one it got her into the public’s ear and she found fans, and two is that her fans will feel pressured to defend her as well as other women and some men who feel she’s being unfairly targeted. Any degree that her supporters will view her as a victim will be worth more than the publicity that she is a villian.
August 27, 2026 @ 2:41 pm
If folks want to “attack her”, I would say playing up the “Billionaire’s Brat” is the way to do it.
Fans are gonna fans, but it’s one thing to defend her as being more than “mid” as a singer/talent. But folks start pointing out she is the child of a Billionaire and all bets are off. This country is frothing at the mouth to go after the wealthy. Rightfully so.
You don’t pick your folks – and you can’t exactly blame her for not saying “I’m gonna go live poor” willingly, but that uber-rich kid revelation is gonna haunt her WAY more than her copying Noah Kahan ever will.
August 27, 2026 @ 3:43 pm
The problem isn’t necessarily that Stella Lefty comes from an extremely wealthy family. The problem isn’t her, at best, mediocre talent. The problem lies with the “journalists” mentioned by Trigger – those who want to sell us stories about the girl who has it so tough. “Journalists” unwilling to take a critical look at the music business. “Journalists” whose attention toward artists is not based on their actual talent, creativity and genuine art. These “journalists” are destroying the credibility of music and journalism.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:29 pm
The frustration with her is mostly about the velocity at which she has been imposed upon the public. Most people would ignore her financial status IF her popularity grew commensurate to her talent/ songwriting ability (which is low level college dorm room drivel)
In the conscious public’s brain, we all know something isn’t right with her meteoric rise in such a short period. Her music isn’t revolutionary or culture shifting – which would be the only thing that could warrant this level of popularity growth (in a meritocracy). It’s something we’d skip over on social media if she was someone we went to high school with.
Unfortunately, she will be enshrined in American culture for however long she wants because she’s catchy/ cute enough to charm the inattentive/ careless and can afford to be in front of their faces for eternity lol.
August 28, 2026 @ 12:56 pm
No idea who she is, but she is being promoted on top of my youtube feed. That tells me it is pop crap. Plus, if anyone anyone is gonna go around calling themselves a Lefty in this day and age, I’m not listening!
Even though I do appreciate the clever writing of Stick Season, and yes, I know, many of the artists I love are lefties…
August 27, 2026 @ 12:31 pm
Yeah she’s totally authentic and has come up in the trenches. Get her reptile looking ass out of here with her annoying whiny cadence and shit voice.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:32 pm
She looks like Ella Emhoff. They even share the same first name.
August 27, 2026 @ 2:48 pm
Um, no. Ella’s name is Ella and Stella’s name is Stella.
Stella looks kind of attractive, but rather unremarkable. Ella is not very attractive and, in my opinion, tries to make herself look even more unappealing. Ella’s personality is similarly unappealing, but given her father’s history of treating women like shit, I’m not surprised that she doesn’t seem happy or well-adjusted.
August 28, 2026 @ 5:36 pm
I was going to say a skinny Paula Cole.
August 27, 2026 @ 12:44 pm
Is this a whole lot different than all the Tyler Childers impersonators that came out after his rise? Intentional or not, a lot of those kids were at the very least imitating his singing style. As for this song, I’ve never disliked Noah Kahan, but I’ve also never understood the hype. He’s harmless, if not exceptional. I can hear the similarities but don’t think that similarity between two songs is all that uncommon in music.
As for Stella Lefty, she is 100% a nepo baby. Is she talented? Sure, but how many talented people have given up on dreams because they were scraping coins together to pay bills each month and got tired of that financial instability and subsequent stress? She has not once in her life known financial strain, not once seen an account balance go under $50, shitting bricks until the next payday, only to start the cycle all over again.
But that doesn’t mean she can’t be an artist, or even a successful one. As long as she’s not going on about hardship in her music, I don’t mind. As a father of young daughters, I do hope she embraces a few things, such as a bit more modesty, but I also realize that is an unpopular opinion in 2026. So, whatever.
August 27, 2026 @ 1:27 pm
Thanks for this article, Trig. I find it incredibly frustrating and shameful that outstanding young artists like the Castellows and Noeline Hofmann – whom you mentioned – work their asses off for years and still can’t release albums, while this mediocre nepo baby gets to record an album immediately and land features in major magazines. The Castellows and Noeline Hofmann have more country feeling in their little toes than Stella Lefty has in her entire being. Lily Balkcom and Noeline Hofmann possess magnificent voices – voices that Stella Lefty’s doesn’t even come close to match. Stella Lefty is light-years behind the Balkcom sisters and Noeline Hofmann when it comes to songwriting, musical talent, charisma, and stage presence. But perhaps the problem isn’t so much Stella Lefty herself as the so-called “journalists” who hype her up without a shred of critical judgment. “Journalists” for whom money and influence – rather than outstanding artistic talent – are the deciding factors in why they report on artists. Influential media outlets in the country scene, such as “Country Central” or – even worse – “Holler Country,” apparently play also a questionable role in this regard. Thank goodness for you and SCM.
August 27, 2026 @ 2:25 pm
Life is very different for the very rich. Been around a few of them lately, and they all act the same.
All the people at the top know each other. If your dad is a billionaire, you are a nepo baby.
August 27, 2026 @ 2:56 pm
Is Shooter Jennings a nepo baby?
August 27, 2026 @ 3:32 pm
Yes, but has definitely proved he’s the real deal.
August 27, 2026 @ 5:57 pm
What’s to say that Stella Lefty can’t prove that she’s the real deal?
August 27, 2026 @ 8:10 pm
I met Shooter in 2002 when he had moved to LA with his rock band and was living in an apartment with some of them while playing local clubs. They were selling albums out of the back of his truck.
When Shooter decided to go solo, he used the experience he had gotten over the previous years to make his own album with the then-unknown Dave Cobb and shop the finished product to labels.
He built what he has now over 20+ years so maybe some of the current nepo babies will do something similar. Or maybe they won’t.
August 28, 2026 @ 4:14 pm
That’s a nice memory. I saw him right before he went on stage at a show around 2007. Drea De Matteo grabbed his crotch through his jeans and gave him a kiss before he went on stage.
Do you think he’s had the career he’s had if his last name wasn’t Jennings and he wasn’t Waylon’s son?
August 28, 2026 @ 5:44 pm
“Do you think he’s had the career he’s had if his last name wasn’t Jennings and he wasn’t Waylon’s son?”
I know this was for Linda, but if the question is: Do you think he would be where he is now without his last name? I would say no. But his last name did help him, and in return we got some good music. I’m still partial to his debut album, Put The “O” Back in Country.
August 28, 2026 @ 6:42 pm
That’s hard to say because his career has had so many changes of direction. He could definitely have had a band of his own at 20 but they probably sounded better than most because of the the knowledge about making and recording music that Shooter picked up from growing up with Waylon and having access to more professional equipment than the average kid.
When he moved to going solo, he had the advantage of knowing how to make his own album and sell it to a label instead of just going from label to label trying to get a deal.
Here’s where the nepo part kicks off because when his first album came out he had the cachet of being Waylon’s son along with the tabloid appeal of dating a famous actress, so he definitely got more press than the average newcomer.
In spite of all this, the music he chose to make wasn’t as marketable as he wanted so he started using his technical expertise to pick up producing projects. Over time, it became obvious that his producing career was more successful and lucrative than his singing career so he cancelled his upcoming dates to concentrate on the studio full-time.
While Waylon’s name might get the attention of potential clients, it’s Shooter’s track record and four Grammys that get him the work.
I think Shooter’s career shows what a nepo baby can do if they have the savvy to know when to leverage their famous name for attention while backing it up with hard work and good decisions.
August 28, 2026 @ 8:07 pm
@Jimmy
I should also say that I’m actually a pretty big Shooter fan. Not all of his stuff, but his first 3-4 albums are really great and albums that I can listen to all the way through.
That said, I don’t think he has the career he’s had if he doesn’t have the name. I’m not saying he didn’t work hard at his craft, he absolutely did. But I’m willing to bet he had the same advantages that the “nepo baby” crowd had…in other words, he could afford to try to make a career in music without having to struggle. Add his last name and his famous father to the mix, I do believe doors opened for him that wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s harder to say “no” to Waylon’s kid.
I get the arguments about the “nepo baby” musicians but I also think it’s a mountain out of a molehill.
August 28, 2026 @ 9:35 pm
I think the 25-year trajectory of Shooter’s career shows that having a famous name can be an advantage but you have to know how to use it.
August 29, 2026 @ 4:47 pm
@Linda
Like I said, I really do like Shooter.
I agree that having a famous name is an advantage, but you still have to know how to use it. To me, that’s not that different from being the son or daughter of someone with a lot of money who can help launch a career.
The difference is that Shooter selling records out of the back of his car feels romantic and authentic. TikTok and Instagram don’t. Once algorithms enter the picture, I think people start to get squirrely, especially fans of a type of music where authenticity is one of the first lenses that an artist gets judged.
That’s where I think this argument gets out over it’s skis. It’s fair to say Stella’s background makes you suspicious that money or connections helped. Her father is a billionaire. TikTok can be gamed. Influencers can be paid.
But did that actually happen here? Maybe, I don’t know. Neither does anyone else as far as I can tell and saying “come on, it’s obvious” isn’t evidence.
Music has never been a pure meritocracy anyway, famous names opened doors long before TikTok existed. So did money, connections, labels, radio, managers and plain old luck.
Shooter had a really big advantage and then spent 25 years proving what he could do with it. Maybe Stella does the same thing or maybe she’s gone in two years. I don’t know why we need to decide that for everybody right now.
August 27, 2026 @ 3:10 pm
I’ve only heard enough of her stuff to know I don’t need to listen to anymore, but one thing caught my eye. Astroturfed actually is much older than gen Z. In 1985, Senator Lloyd Bentsen got a huge amount of postcards and letters as part of a campaign organized by insurance companies to get him to vote one way or another. He said “a fellow from Texas can tell the difference between grass roots and Astroturf”.
To paraphrase another quote of his, I know gen Z, and Lloyd Bentsen is no gen Z.
August 27, 2026 @ 5:14 pm
It was a dumb headline by Vanity Fair, Stella is not a billionaire, her father is. Her meteoric rise does make one question if daddy’s money and contacts were behind it. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. These days fame is bought and sold daily, and not just the super wealthy benefit.
A friend of mine recently asked me what I thought of Stella Lefty, and I was like, “Who?” He said, “She’s really blowing up.” I meant to check the song he told me about (“Boston”) out, but forgot until I saw this article. I listened to it and a few other tracks. It does nothing for me, but then I’m not the target market.
Music like this gives me a headache, but kudos to those who like it.
August 27, 2026 @ 8:52 pm
I have never grown sicker of a song than “Boston”. It seems media driven in a lot of ways to me. And good lord you’d think being a billionaire’s daughter she could afford at least one bra.
August 29, 2026 @ 1:06 pm
Yeah, the no bra thing is really off-putting.
August 31, 2026 @ 7:15 am
To you.
August 28, 2026 @ 5:15 am
I have no difficulty believing Stella thought the song was her own even though it sounds like Noah and she probably wrote it with other people. After all, she was born a billionaire princess on third base but for sure thinks she hit a triple. That’s why she’s also sure she deserves all the fame and meager fortune she’s getting; she is pretty sure she is the best.
August 28, 2026 @ 7:53 am
Last week, I gave her an album a listen not knowing about her background. I am not sure her background has any real impact on whether she will be successful or not in the long term. My view not country or as country as Kahan. It is not bad. It is ok. Not one, that I can see myself returning to as there others I would much prefer to listen to.
August 28, 2026 @ 8:26 am
They will keep throwing these folks at country music until it is utterly unrecognizable.
August 28, 2026 @ 6:46 pm
They can keep throwing them at us but we don’t have to catch them. Unfortunately, much of the stuff coming out of Nashville now is already unrecognizable.
August 28, 2026 @ 8:42 am
She may not be an industry plant but she certainly is part of the mainstream media’s effort to redefine (hi-jack) country music into another vehicle for progressive messaging, just as was successfully done to rap and hip-hop music (people who listen to Kendrick Lamar etc. are unaware of how conservative rap music was in the 1980s and 1990). Jelly Roll and Maren Morris (not a “plant” per se but very enthusiastically became the stick that the media used to bash the industry and its performers and fans from the inside) predictably imploded, Beyonce and Lil Nas X had no legitimate interest in being country music artists so now they’re onto their next project. Except that it is beyond parody at this point: “Lefty” is literally her stage name, her song shares a title with a famously progressive northern city with a DSA-adjacent mayor, she is pushing the androgyny look in an industry where the female performers promote femininity – seriously her picture in this article and the picture from the Shaboozey article … have the same vibe – and they make a point of putting her social progressivism front and center.
Good grief, Dolly Parton was a lefty too – no point in denying it considering that her public positions generally tracked the Overton window instead of staying more fixed or even trailing it and few if any legitimately right of center positions can be attributed to her – but it was packaged for her actual primary audience. These folks don’t care about the audience. It seems like they are trying to cultivate their own group of artists, define them as “country music” and then go about the project of defining actual country musicians and their fans as extremists and whatnot. The crazy thing: there is no need for it. There will never be another Toby Keith (Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton by the way, not that these people care) or Jason Aldean (who we should point out only got political because the aforementioned Morris publicly attacked his wife) let alone Marty Robbins. Most country musicians are apolitical these days. The idea that country music is MAGA-land is their own fever swamp. Especially the younger bubble types who are unaware that the policies that they now refer to as “fascist” were supported by like 85% of Americans as recently as 25 years ago.
The question is to what degree these artists are willing parts of this “redefine” thing. I don’t believe that Jelly Roll was. And whatever problems anyone may have with Shaboozey, I still honestly think that the guy is just making music that he personally likes. But the kid of a POLITICAL ACTIVIST billionaire? Far more likely
August 28, 2026 @ 11:16 am
Post of the year
August 29, 2026 @ 1:08 pm
Stella Lefty does not push an androgynous look. I think that’s a bit of a stretch.
August 30, 2026 @ 10:59 am
I don’t even think she’s really pushed a political agenda either.
Lefty rolls off the tongue far more than Lefkofsky does, and I’m sure that’s all she really thought about at the time she came up with that name.
August 28, 2026 @ 9:59 am
I literally never heard who this person was before 48 hours ago and now shes here, all over social media, even being made fun of by the Onion. Either im old or that happened fast.
August 28, 2026 @ 10:03 am
Her fake country accent is the real deal killer.
August 28, 2026 @ 11:47 am
A pointless article in my opinion but we already knew it was coming. I dont care if a person is rich or not, that has nothing to do with the music. Sure its nice when there is authenticity to a persons music through their life struggles but thats just one part of ir. Just remember johny cash sang about being prison when at that he had never been inside a jail cell in his life let alone in prison. Same can be said for a lot of other singers like hank jr. Great performer but never really lived way back in the middle of nowhere livin off the land without modern conveniences. Want to read about someone who did, read violet hensleys book and you will get an idea of what that looks like. Far as people robbing others melodies, i dont really care. I dont think music should be owned far as melodies and notes. Some of the best music ever made has relied largely on melodies and notes to other songs that came before. Obviously some credit should be given if you know you are using others but thats it.
Its funny how some songs ard performers are demeened as being industry plants but no such thought is given when a terrible song like choosin texas with below average vocals is given a record setting run on charts. Weve heard over the years here where a lot of these number ones by artist particularly by ones not popular here are somehow given those statuses by nefarious means but no such consideration here. I agree that boston is probably an average song but so is choosing texas. The number of weeks it sits on some kind of chart isnt going to change that.
August 28, 2026 @ 12:06 pm
“I agree that boston is probably an average song but so is choosing texas.”
But between those two, I’m choosing Texas.
August 28, 2026 @ 12:47 pm
Well im choosing neither
August 28, 2026 @ 12:37 pm
Just my 2 cents.
I think when people are nepo babies or super rich or super successful what sets them apart from being either likeable or unlikeable.
Eric Church doesn’t cultivate a particularly likeable image but he has a record of boosting deserving artists. Others have mentioned Shooter Jennings- it seems that he has used his industry connections to help a LOT of others. Miranda Lambert. Obviously the big one- Dolly. Few cared about how ridiculously wealthy she was because she used her wealth and influence to help others. Cody Jinks *made it* and then promptly started working to promote others.
In the country adjacent world of NASCAR look at how Dale Jr, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Elliot, as examples, have worked to use their generational platforms for good and for charity. Few have supported or boosted younger, scrappy drivers like Dale Jr. has.
To Trigger’s point- no one would care how much money this chick came from if she were using it to help others. If she were working to make life more comfortable for other gritty female artists. Instead her PR team seems to be trying to give her street cred and that simply doesn’t work so well these days.
August 28, 2026 @ 1:45 pm
The people you are referring to didnt start out helping people. You have to establish yourself before any of that. Why would you hold a new artist refardless of tbeir wealth to that kind of standard.
August 28, 2026 @ 2:56 pm
Welcome to America 2026 where EVERYTHING from the Presidency to a Country music career can be bought..
August 28, 2026 @ 5:37 pm
Taylor Swift did it first.
August 29, 2026 @ 8:30 am
>>>And all of this of course feeds into the concern that Stella got her start on TikTok, which is a >>>completely corrupt system where you can pay for exposure, either for yourself or through >>>others via the “influencer” network, and nothing seems fair, equitable, organic, and most >>>assuredly, transparent.
I’m almost missing the good old days of Payola. President Pardon, how about issuing one for Alan Freed and those local deejays from the Fifties/Sixties who took a little cash under the table? Or maybe I’m naive and Tik Tok and these modern algorithms are the same song but different words (something Ms. Lefty might know a little about).
August 29, 2026 @ 9:30 am
I have never heard this woman, ever. Had no idea who she was. I only see her mentioned in SCM articles. Guess I’m doing something right!
August 29, 2026 @ 2:45 pm
Taylor Swift left Country music to become a billionairess,boy-o !!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 30, 2026 @ 4:52 am
When I hear the word “Boston,” I hear a song by Dave Loggins that David Allan Coe covered so well.
Everything else, including this, is forgettable.
August 31, 2026 @ 6:42 am
I don’t even listen to much country music these days, but it is pieces like this that keep me coming back to this website! Great writing as always, Trig.
The thing about the legacy media is that they’ve walled it off so much that the only people that even pay attention to it anymore are the people in the same class that own it.
August 31, 2026 @ 1:49 pm
Stella Lefkofsky.
September 1, 2026 @ 9:34 am
That is her name. Why did you feel the need to post it when its already in the article?
September 3, 2026 @ 5:03 pm
He likes Polish women?