Days after rising to No. 1 on country radio with her hit "Boston," Stella Lefty made her Bluebird Cafe debut.
Lefty sat down for a songwriter's round at the famed Nashville creative hub on Oct. 1, joined by her boyfriend and duet partner Vincent Mason, his co-writer Jack Rauton, Lefty's co-writer Grace Enger, and her producer Joe Reeves.
The 18-table cafe, which earned a special place in country music history as the place where Taylor Swift performed in her early days, was packed to the brim for the rising country-pop star's round.
Lefty performed her breezy songs "Why Wouldn't We," then "Something To Lose" alongside Mason, a duet version of "Thinkin' Bout You" with Enger, and a brand new unreleased song, "Badly."
Sharing stories between the songs,
Lefty opened up about her affinity for Nashville's songwriting scene.
"There's no other community like this in the whole entire world that cherishes the things that Nashville cherishes," Lefty said.
She then acknowledged songwriter and producer JKash, who discovered Lefty on TikTok and was sitting in the audience.
"It's all about a good song," she said. "That's the whole point of why we all do this. We just love to write songs."
Lefty, a 24-year-old singer born Stella Lefkofsky, skyrocketed to fame early this year when her song "Boston" went viral.
Her Bluebird debut arrived amid one of the most scrutinized moments of her young career.
Lefty has become a contentious character in the songwriting community, with her billionaire father, Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky, causing critics to imply she's an "industry plant" who has been able to pay her way to success.
Listeners have also flagged at least five tracks from Lefty's discography that sound remarkably similar to other popular songs, creating a social media firestorm.
That conversation reached a new peak only hours before Lefty took the Bluebird stage.
That same afternoon, "Saturday Night Live" released a cut-for-time sketch parodying her, with cast member Veronika Slowikowska portraying Lefty, who stops by the "Weekend Update" desk to address ongoing internet drama surrounding her songwriting credits and alleged plagiarism.
The sketch took some playful jabs at the singer's affinity for Boston, too, featuring a spoof song snippet titled "Take Me Home, Boston Roads."
Lefty took the parody in stride, sharing the clip via her own Instagram story and writing she was "so dead," adding, "Veronika, your voice is amazing."
Still, the controversy has done little to slow her ascent.
Lefty dethroned Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" — which stayed at the top for 22 consecutive weeks — on Sept. 24, marking the fastest climb to No. 1 by a solo woman on country airplay since Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman” in 2004.
At the Bluebird, Lefty's honeyed, feel-good vocals had audience members of all ages singing along.
In between Lefty's songs, Mason wowed with his hit "Hell is a Dance Floor" and Rauton performed a brand new track he wrote off of Gavin Adcock's new record.
Enger drew one of the night's biggest reactions with her unreleased track "Goth Rave," a witty, fast-paced song about ditching her friends on a night out in Atlanta to spend time with a boy.
Before ending the night with her biggest hit, Lefty addressed the crowd.
"This year has been weird because I released a song that did something I would have never expected it to do," she said.
"As someone who loves music and just wanted to be a part of it, no matter what that part looked like, whether that was writing for other people, I think it's crazy that I got to write a song that's done what it's done."
She closed with "Boston," the breakout hit she wrote about Mason, who sat just a few feet away.
As Lefty sang the opening lines, the intimate, 90-person audience joined in: "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."
Audrey Gibbs is a music reporter at The Tennessean. You can reach her at agibbs@tennessean.com. Follow her on Instagram at @audreyraegibbs.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Stella Lefty makes Bluebird Cafe debut after ‘Boston’ hits No. 1
