"Boston" Hits No. 2 in America — Why Stella Lefty Gave Noah Kahan a Writing Credit

A song blows up on TikTok first, then climbs into the top two of the Billboard Hot 100 — yet listeners can't shake the feeling they've heard that melody before. That's exactly what's happening with Stella Lefty's "Boston." Born Stella Lefkofsky, a Chicago native and heir to the Groupon family fortune, she's only been in the country-pop scene for less than a year, and this track has already made her a breakout name. The problem: that chorus sounds nearly identical to Noah Kahan's signature hit "Stick Season."

"Boston" appears on Lefty's EP Is This Heaven?, released earlier this year. Following the release of her debut album Long Way Home last Friday, she sat down for an interview with Vanity Fair. The piece notes that she doesn't quite fit the "nepo baby" label, even though her family background and the speed of her rise make the comparison tempting.

Addressing the melodic similarities, Lefty told the outlet she wasn't thinking about Kahan at all while writing the song: "I truly wasn't thinking about Noah Kahan when I wrote this song — honestly, I wasn't thinking about anything." She said that after "Boston" blew up on TikTok but before it was officially released, Kahan's team reached out to point out the resemblance between the two songs. Lefty's response was to retroactively add Kahan as a co-writer: "I didn't want to step on anyone's toes, so if it sounds like that song, then it is what it is — it's all good."

No lawsuits, no public feud — just a quiet conversation and a retroactive credit. Whether the similarity was coincidence or simply a byproduct of the creative environment, the available details don't say.