Stella Lefty’s song blew up on TikTok — and sparked an internet pile-on

This billionaire’s daughter is a country-pop breakout star. Cue the “nepo baby” blowback.

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Earlier this week, the Grand Ole Opry posted a wholesome video to Instagram: New country-pop singer Stella Lefty, making her debut at the renowned Nashville venue, sitting backstage with two young patients from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. (St. Jude frequently partners with country music affiliates.) All three smiled as they sang along to Lefty’s breakout hit, “Boston”; Lefty held one girl’s hand while the other clutched a stuffed animal to her chest.

The comments were vicious.

“She shouldn’t be allowed on the opry stage.”

“The opry is dead.”

“Billionaire dad makes one song a hit and suddenly you can play at the Opry?”

“Stella Thefty gets to play at THE Grand Ole Opry?

I at least hope she thanks Noah Kahan during her set for ripping off his song.”

“Are we just all supposed to pretend like this is legit lol.”

While it might be startling to see such a negative comment section for a video featuring child cancer patients, this is just a typical day on the internet for Lefty. The 24-year-old musician, who released her first album last month, has one of the biggest smashes of the year with the peppy “Boston,” currently No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart — and has also sparked some of the most intense online vitriol in recent memory. Virtually every social media platform (including on Lefty’s own accounts) is filled with critical comments and posts, ranging from artistic criticism to personal attacks slamming Lefty’s music and existence.

Several issues are at play here, but the two that have caused the most consternation: Lefty, born Stella Lefkofsky, is the daughter of Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky. He’s worth an estimated $5.5 billion and is the founder of Tempus, an artificial intelligence-driven health care company — and in a time when many are struggling to afford everyday life, people have little tolerance for billionaire privilege. One of the most viral posts about Lefty compares her to another singer from a wealthy family: “Out of curiosity I checked out her Wiki and she is a level of Nepo Baby that makes Gracie Abrams look like an orphan.” (Gracie Abrams is the daughter of filmmaker J.J. Abrams.)

Then there’s “Boston,” the song that took Lefty from popular TikTok singer to bona fide rising star, and its similarities to Noah Kahan’s 2022 hit “Stick Season.” Lefty gave Kahan a writing credit before the song was released.

Throw in the fact that Lefty has now entered the country music world — “Boston” is near the top of the country radio charts; she performed at CMA Fest and Stagecoach — and that’s guaranteed to rile up even more listeners. Country fans are often suspicious of newcomers who don’t fit their definition of genre authenticity, and to plenty of observers, Lefty’s city roots (she grew up just outside Chicago and lives in Los Angeles) and wealth are disqualifying. Plus, her path to success involved blowing up on TikTok, not spending years playing bars and festivals and making connections in the Nashville songwriting community.

“Country music fans are protective of the connection we have with artists. And we appreciate grit and hard work,” read another comment under the Opry video. “You should have to earn it, like so many others.”

Upon seeing these critiques, several Nashville singers and high-profile industry names had enough and started defending Lefty on the Opry’s post. (Lefty’s representatives declined to comment for this article.)

“Y’all in the comments continue to not honor the people the actual opry house opens its arms to. it’s about celebration of all kinds of country music new, old, traditional, current, however you wanna say it,” wrote country star Kelsea Ballerini. “It’s all important, and it should all be able to be shared in our safest and most sacred stage in country music.” Shane Profitt also chimed in: “She can’t help who her dad is and hell I wish mine was a billionaire and I think we all do whether we admit it or not. What that dad can’t do with the money is what she’s doing in this video.”

“Success isn’t based on money, or every act I manage would be in arenas and stadiums because I would just buy it,” wrote Chris Kappy, Luke Combs’s manager. “That’s the problem with all of your arguments and stupid comments.”

Country radio host and TV personality Bobby Bones had a similar breaking point last month, shortly after he interviewed Lefty for his podcast “The BobbyCast.” His comments were inundated with people ridiculing her and calling her a nepo baby, the internet’s catchall phrase when a celebrity has rich and/or famous parents.

“I’m going to look at the camera and say this: Stella Lefty is not someone who is using nepotism to her advantage. Just because your parents are rich does not mean there’s nepotism involved. You also can’t force somebody’s music to connect with folks,” Bones said on his podcast in August. “Say whatever you want, but all the people in my comments going ‘nepo baby, nepo baby’: You’re all morons.”

‘You can’t buy that kind of crowd’

This has been a common pushback from the outnumbered Lefty defenders. Of course, they say, rich families can give singers untold advantages in a very competitive industry, such as funding marketing costs or an expensive legal team. Ultimately, though, you can’t pay people to like your music.

Jordy Cray, a content creator who covers country music and pop culture, attended Lefty’s June concert at CMA Fest in Nashville, a crowd that quickly reached maximum capacity. The audience went wild, a jarring contrast with those online who see the hype and say that Lefty — who announced a 2027 headlining tour that has already sold out — is an “industry plant” or that her father bought her career.

“Every single person there knew every word to her songs. Rich father or not, you can’t buy that kind of crowd or manufacture a genuine connection with fans,” Cray told The Washington Post. He has been listening to Lefty’s music on TikTok for a long time and thinks a big reason she’s drawn a fan base is that she pays close attention to social media, and understands what music is clicking with her followers.

Cray suspects that there’s some selective outrage going on, given how many new artists come from money or have powerful connections — and women country singers are easy targets for online rage. “I don’t think anyone would even be having this conversation if she were a man,” he said, pointing to the recent praise that 22-year-old Magnus Ferrell (son of actor Will Ferrell) has received as he’s launched a music career.

But he also believes that Lefty, who has largely shied away from addressing the specifics of her family’s money, could temper a lot of discussion if she directly addressed her privilege: “I think that will benefit her in the long run,” he said, adding, “People really do resonate with her music.”

Comparisons to Kahan

Even before “Boston” blew up, Lefty had lots of fans online. As she has described in interviews, she liked playing guitar and singing growing up, but it never occurred to her that could be a career. She went to Tulane University in New Orleans, and after seeing her mother and her friend get diagnosed with cancer, she decided to major in public health. During college, around 2020, she started posting performance videos on TikTok — cover songs and originals — and attracted millions of views. Music executives started reaching out, and one convinced her to move to Los Angeles after she graduated.

She started taking trips to Nashville to write songs, and landed a record deal with Atlantic’s country music imprint. Her first viral success was “Thinking ‘Bout You,” which she wrote with her close collaborator, Grace Enger, and Sadie Jean. “Boston,” as Lefty explains it, was pure happenstance: In February, she had some time to kill before her boyfriend, country singer Vincent Mason, picked her up for a date. So she sat down at a piano and a chorus spilled out: “On a train back to Boston and we’re jumpin’ the gun / and I’m tellin’ you baby, this the part where I’d run / But I like it when you’re nice, like it when you’re nice to me.”

She posted the clip and her TikTok followers begged for more lyrics. By March, Lefty had penned the rest with multiple co-writers. The song, currently hovering around 190 million streams on Spotify, rocketed up the Billboard Hot 100. As with any cultural phenomenon, there was scrutiny, such as mockery of the lyrics (with jokes about how she must have meant a “private jet” back to Boston) and skepticism of her country credentials (why does she have a slight twang?) — but particularly with the familiar sounds of “Stick Season.”

In August, she sat for a profile with Vanity Fair and described the sequence of events: She posted the song on TikTok and fans first noted the echoes of “Stick Season”; Kahan’s representatives eventually reached out, and Lefty and her team decided to give a co-writing credit to Kahan before the song’s release. “When I was writing the song, I wasn’t thinking about Noah Kahan. I was literally thinking about nothing at all,” Lefty told the magazine. Immediately, social media users contrasted that quote with clips of Lefty previously covering “Stick Season” many times over the years.

Then, around when Lefty’s debut album “Long Way Home” was released last month, listeners discovered she had interpolated the Chicks’ 1998 hit “There’s Your Trouble” in “Summer You Were Mine,” also crediting the original songwriters. Soon, some started speculating that her song “Why Wouldn’t We” sounded like Blake Shelton’s 2017 single “I’ll Name the Dogs.”

Now, the phrase “Stella Thefty” regularly pops up online along with variations of “wish I had billions of dollars to steal music,” with her defenders countering that musicians regularly draw inspiration from other songs, and at the end of the day, there are only so many chord progressions.

As the discourse persists on the internet, “Boston” continues to be a terrestrial radio hit. Randy Chase, the executive vice president of programming at SummitMedia, programs six country radio stations across America. He first heard a clip of “Boston” on TikTok and added the song to his stations before the label started pushing it as a single. Radio stations regularly do callout research to gather listener opinions, and he said that “Boston” is currently the highest-testing song across all of his country stations.

“I think people are relating to her music because of the lyrics,” he said, adding that “Boston” is about being with someone who makes you feel like you have something to lose, and that inspires listeners to reflect on their own relationships.

Chase doesn’t think that the Kahan comparisons are the driving force behind the song’s success; he has seen other artists who have wealth that “makes Stella Lefty’s family look like they’re poor” try and fail to break through with their music, even with massive marketing budgets. From his perspective, the online backlash can’t tamp down genuine enthusiasm for the song.

“You’ve got to connect. At the end of the day, there’s a consumer sitting out there in their car or in their bedroom,” he said. “And if you don’t connect with them and they go ‘That’s me!’ — it’s over.”