Explosive, elegant, and irresistibly larger-than-life, Stela Cole’s music radiates the kind of unbridled confidence that leaves a long-lasting impact. But for the Georgia-bred singer/songwriter, the bold energy of her immaculately composed pop comes from years of fighting for her vision and refusing to compromise the elaborate depth of her artistry. Newly signed to Ultra Records on the strength of hit singles like 2021’s “I Shot Cupid,” the Los Angeles-based artist is now set to deliver her most extravagantly realized body of work yet, showing the full force of her soulful voice and fearless authenticity for the very first time.
On songs like her hypnotic new single “Rhapsody in Pink”—a sublimely swaggering twist on Gershwin—Cole reveals the wild expanse of inspirations that have informed her musicality: Motown girl groups, big band jazz from the roaring ’20s, the hyper-inventive hip-hop of artists like Outkast, iconic pop queens like Fergie. Growing up in the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree City, Cole took up piano at age seven but devoted much of her childhood and adolescence to her role as a star soccer player. When a brutal back injury ended her athletic career, the then-16-year-old turned to music as a coping mechanism. “I’d go down to the piano in our basement and just play until about three in the morning,” she recalls. “Eventually I started writing my own songs, and music flipped my world upside-down in the best way possible.”
As she experimented with her sound and sharpened her songwriting voice, Cole experienced a major creative breakthrough with “You F O”—a raw but rapturous breakup anthem spotlighting the fiery personality of her lyrics (from the chorus: “I go like Cinderella, laser gun like Barbarella/’Bout to blow your mind like I’m interstellar”). “That was the first song I wrote that felt 100 percent authentic to me, and it’s shaped every record I’ve made since,” says Cole. Self-released in 2018, “You F O” instantly gained traction online and landed her a deal with a major record label. But while the deal led to such milestones as the release of her debut EP (2018’s Throwing up Butterflies), Cole quickly grew frustrated with her lack of creative control and parted ways with the label the following year. Newly emboldened to pursue her own creative path, she went back to the lab and immersed herself in her next body of work, then dropped her magnetic single “Woman of the Hour” in late-February 2020. “The world shut down right after that song came out, but I put everything I had into keeping things going and building my audience,” she says. With the Woman of the Hour EP arriving in late 2020, Cole soon caught the attention of Ultra Records, signed to the label in 2021, and set to work on her most ambitious output yet.
A powerful introduction to the next era of her music, “Rhapsody in Pink” marks the fulfillment of a longtime dream for Cole. “I’ve been scheming this song for over five years, since I first saw the party scene in [Baz Luhrmann’s] Great Gatsby and got the idea to take the melody from ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ and flip it in some way,” she says. Opening on a glorious burst of horns, the glammed-up and gritty track emerged as Cole reflected on the push-and-pull of relationships. “I’d gone through a breakup and just gotten back in the dating scene, so I was in a place of redefining my standards and rediscovering my independence,” she says. “I wrote ‘Rhapsody in Pink’ about knowing your worth, especially as a woman, and I love how it’s fun and playful but also sends the message that I won’t be fucked around with.” In sculpting the song’s maximalist production, Cole worked closely with producer Alex Veronneau to dream up a high-energy collision of doo-wop and hip-hop and left-field pop that fully showcases the stunning range of her vocals. “I’m very involved in every aspect of making my songs come to life, because I need the sound to be completely specific to who I am as an artist,” notes Cole, who writes all her songs alone on piano.
Now at work on her debut album, Cole hopes that songs like “Rhapsody in Pink” end up inspiring the same sense of self-celebration she’s discovered through the creative process. “When people hear my music I want them to feel empowered and to embrace what makes them unique, because that’s what this music does for me,” she says. “Over the years I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘Do this, don’t do that,’ but I’ve just stayed true to myself and focused on making the music I want to make—and the more I do that, the better songs I write. No one ever makes a huge impact by replicating something that’s already been done before, so I’m just going to keep pushing and keep creating what feels good to me.”