Stella Lefty’s “Boston” has taken the charts by storm — currently sitting at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and its hook is owed to an unintentional interpolation of Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season.” In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Lefty explained how the song’s melody came to be, and why she gave Kahan a retroactive writing credit.
According to Lefty, borrowing Kahan’s “Stick Season” chorus melody was unintentional: “When I was writing the song, I wasn’t thinking about Noah Kahan. I was literally thinking about nothing at all.” Apparently Lefty didn’t even register the resemblance when fans pointed it out from its use on TikTok, but when Kahan’s team reached out saying, “we think this sounds similar,” Lefty opted to give Kahan a writing credit before the song officially dropped. “I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes, so I’m like, if this sounds like that, whatever, all good,” Lefty said.
So, if you are one of the thousands who have heard “Boston” for the first time recently and thought, “wow, it’s kind of like ‘Stick Season’ but country,” Lefty wants you to know that it was a bit of a happy accident. Elsewhere in her Vanity Fair chat, Lefty talked about her ‘nepo baby’ perception (Lefty’s father is Eric Lefkofsky, the multi-billionaire co-founder of Groupon), discussed her rather recent pivot to country music, and dove into the making of her debut album Long Way Home, which was released on Friday, August 21st.
Lefty also announced a major 2027 headlining tour today, kicking off in Detroit on January 9th and running until February 20th.
