Remember back in the “good old days” when the only way we were introduced to a new song was over the radio? When we liked one enough, we rummaged through the couch cushions for enough lost change to buy a 45 (born after 1980? Google it). From there, over the years, we moved to LPs… 8-tracks… cassettes… CDs… Honestly, how many different ways have we paid for “Rumours” over the decades? 

Point is, we met music over the radio; and we had to listen to song after song – and commercial after commercial – waiting to hear our favorite tune.

Thankfully, just like boiling hot dogs, those days are over. Now you can sample something with just a few words. Say “Hey Google (or Alexa or Siri), play…” and you hold the entire musical world in your next three or four words. In the modest confines of our own home, aren’t smart speakers the most life-changing invention we’ve enjoyed since microwaves and DVRs?

But no, we’re not selling smart speakers. This is simply the easiest way to encourage you to sample the music of a rising music sensation who, less than a decade ago, graduated from Taylorsville High School.

Turn to your smart speaker now and finish that sentence: “Hey Alexa (or Google or Siri), play Stella Standingbear Home Runs.” Or, if seven words are too many, try six: “Hey Siri (or Alexa or Google), play Stella Standingbear Paradise.”  

Go ahead – do it now, before reading any further. 

Why? Because Standingbear’s music is described in a lot of places as “rap” or “alt-rap” (whatever that is). She’s also won some very prestigious “hip-hop” awards. But for a lot of us who still remember Casey Kasem and the first 45 we ever bought, those kinds of words scare us off. Slam that door shut; “That music is for my grandkids.”

But again, before you slam it, sample it.

Born in the Salt Lake Valley in March 1999, Standingbear attended eighth grade at Eisenhower Jr. High… ninth at Granger High School… and tenth and eleventh at Taylorsville High. She graduated a full year early, in spring 2016, already knowing exactly what she wanted to do.

“I caught the music bug at a very young age,” Standingbear begins her life story, with the old fogey on the flip phone interviewing her. “My mom says I was dancing and trying to sing as a baby. By first and second grade, I was switching through radio stations, searching for music I liked. In fourth grade I began writing poetry. Making music has been a lifelong dream.”

Somewhere along the way, Standingbear took guitar lessons for a single semester in school. “But I am mostly self-taught,” she said.

During her last year at THS, Stella wrote music reviews for her school newspaper. Before that, at age 14, she recorded her first song, in a home studio at a friend’s house.

But unlike another young, female musical artist – the one who’s now a billionaire and dating a three-time Super Bowl champion – Standingbear has faced a built-in challenge: her native American heritage.  

“When I was growing up, the other kids were always asking me questions about my name: Esparanda Stella Standingbear,” she said. “When I first tried to start my music career, I used a different name. But I did some soul searching. I began asking myself, ‘Who am I? Why am I going by the wrong name?’ So, in November 2022, I released ‘Home Run’ under my real name – and my career has taken off since then.”

 That was just one year after Standingbear made another big change.

“My mom was a single mom, raising four kids (Stella is the oldest), while my dad was living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota,” she explained. “I decided to move onto the reservation in late 2021 in order to learn more and connect with my culture and traditions. My grandmother gifted me three acres of land. I also participated in my first sweat lodge ceremony. And I’ve connected with my great grandmother who is fluent in the native language and knows all about native medicines.” 

Standingbear does return here to the Salt Lake Valley to visit her mother and siblings as often as her always-getting-busier music schedule allows.

“(Last year was) the first year I supported myself completely through my music career,” she said. “It was a great year. I have performed before audiences with several thousand people a few times. Many of my shows have been in Canada; in fact, I am looking into getting dual citizenship for both countries.”

Perhaps Standingbear’s biggest career milestone came at the 2023 Indigenous Hip-Hop Awards, when she became the first Lakota artist to earn a pair of historic wins. Standingbear was named Best Female Hip-Hop Artist and also won Music Video of the Year.

About the same time she was winning those awards, the Utah native was also profiled in “Teen Vogue” magazine, in an article entitled “Hip-Hop Artist Stella Standingbear is Shattering Stereotypes about Native American Sound.”

“It’s easy to understand why Stella Standingbear’s ‘Home Runs’ is earning accolades galore and making her a TikTok sensation,” author Kat Nelson begins her article. “The catchy, relatable song serves as an affirmation anthem for anyone who has proved the haters wrong by achieving their dreams – a common them for Native Americans, who face outsized obstacles like ongoing discrimination, education gaps and high rates of poverty, disease, addiction and suicide.”

Back in August, Standingbear was the first-night featured entertainer at the second annual “Westside Culturefest,” hosted by the Utah Arts Alliance and Salt Lake County Arts & Culture division. A standing-room-only audience enjoyed her concert inside the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center next to Taylorsville City Hall.

“That show was my first time to perform with a live band,” she said. “I normally perform with a DJ. But it was so much fun. I will definitely perform with a band again. The crowd was great; very welcoming.”

Standingbear is proud to have 60,000 Instagram followers and 140,000 TikTok followers. But, again, those numbers may throw up your “she’s-for-my-grandkids” red flag one more time.

Don’t let it; not until you ask your smart speaker for a sample of this Taylorsville High School graduate’s work – her life’s dream.

You can also learn more at stellastandingbear.com or on her Facebook page. λ