Stella Lefty is on a meteoric rise to the top of the Billboard charts. However, her hit song ‘Boston‘ sounds a lot like ‘Stick Season‘ by Noah Kahan.
She claims it is a coincidence.
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Stella Lefty came out of nowhere.
Stella Lefkofsky, known professionally as Stella Lefty, is the daughter of Billionaire Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky. Although she rejects the “nepo baby” label, she understands how her family’s wealth gave her the gift of time when it comes to music.
After years and years of posting on social media, Lefty first caught fire with her song ‘Thinking ‘Bout You.’
And then it was ‘Boston.’ Her biggest hit — by a large margin — recently climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The viral explosion of Stella Lefty reached its pinnacle over the last week. She released her debut album on Friday and announced a headlining tour on Monday with some pretty big venues that are already sold out for next year.
The 24-year-old Chicago suburb-native also did a feature interview with Vanity Fair. It finally addressed the elephant in the room.
Noah Kahan got a songwriting credit on ‘Boston’ because it sounds like his song ‘Stick Season.’
I do not care what the haters say, Stella Lefty’s soft rasp scratches an itch deep in my brain. I don’t know if she has the long-term staying power of artists like Ella Langley or Avery Anna, but I enjoy the sound of her voice and I’m not going to apologize for it. She was fun to watch perform live (three different times) at CMA Fest. Her boyfriend, Vincent Mason, seems like a cool guy.
With that being said, I can understand the criticism— especially when it comes to ‘Boston’ and its similarities to another artist.
Stella Lefty gave Noah Kahan a songwriting credit on her smash hit even though he was not involved in the songwriting process. His reps heard ‘Boston’ on TikTok and reached out over its similarities to ‘Stick Season.’ Her song is now described as a “sweet interpolation” of his biggest song. An interpolation is defined as the “re-recording or re-performing a melody, lyric, or chord progression from an older song instead of copying the original audio.”
Here is Stick Season:
Here is Boston:
I’ll be honest. I hear the similarities. Some people think they are identical melodies. I don’t think they are the exact same.
Nevertheless, Stella Lefty gave a songwriting credit to Noah Kahan. She told Vanity Fair that she did not want to cause any conflict and did not have his song on her mind while she wrote her song.
“When I was writing the song, I wasn’t thinking about Noah Kahan. I was literally thinking about nothing at all. [His reps said], ‘We think this sounds similar.’ I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes, so I’m like, ‘If this sounds like that, whatever, all good.'”
That may not be true. Even if it was subconscious, Lefty might’ve been thinking about Kahan during the songwriting process. She is a very big fan of his.
Her old TikTok videos seem to disprove the claim of ignorance when it comes to the interpolation. Lefty used to post a cover of ‘Stick Season’ on an almost daily basis.
It was a very frequent thing. She even said she was going to do it “a little bit different” or “her way.”
sure you weren’t lol https://t.co/rujKML5YJf pic.twitter.com/NusxVTYpTO
— cat 🕸️ (@sadboispidey_) August 26, 2026
Like I said before, I think ‘Boston’ and the original ‘Stick Season’ do sound different. But I do think ‘Boston’ sounds a lot more like “Stella Lefty’s version” of ‘Stick Season.’
If you sing “on a train back to Boston and we’re jumping the gun, and I’m telling you baby, this the part where I’d run” on top of the above video, it totally fits. Even if it wasn’t intentional, it sure seems like Stella Lefty had Noah Kahan in the back of her mind.