GIRL CRUSH: Lennon & Maisy Stella of NASHVILLE

You all are watching Nashville, right? The freshman series is my favorite new drama from this season, a confection of soapy plots and beautiful people and surprisingly good music (I say “surprisingly” because that’s not the country music I remember disliking as a child) that is imminently watchable. It’s not perfect, but occasionally the show goes from good to fantastic, like in a recent episode when the young actors who play superstar Rayna James’ (Connie Britton) daughters took the stage and knocked a cover of The Lumineers “Ho Hey” out of the park.

I’d been curious about the girls playing Maddie and Daphne, but distracted by everything else happening on the show and hadn’t looked them up, until that musical spotlight. I promptly hearted them big time. The on-screen sisters are played by real-life siblings Lennon and Maisy Stella (my girl crush spiked when I found out their very cool real names; props to Mom and Dad Stella!) who have been performing covers of songs for their YouTube channel for a couple of years and gained quite a following. Their sweet voices have a slightly vintage quality that add a depth of emotion to songs about topics beyond their years (Lennon is 13, Maisy just 9), and a natural way in front of the camera that’s rare in such young performers.

Daughters of country duet The Stellas, Lennon and Maisy’s YouTube videos quickly got noticed and landed them appearances on talk shows, attention from other artists (OMG HARRY STYLES!), an audition for Nashville that brought them to network television, an audience with Kid President, and they put out a single for Christmas, the infectiously happy “Christmas Coming Home“. In the midst of all of this, the girls seem to be full of excitement and appreciation for the attention, yet still grounded. It’s clear from their latest YouTube uploads that they haven’t lost their joy in performing, despite having it turn into actual work, which makes this fan very happy for future projects from both girls.

To recap: great names, brilliant voices, natural acting ability, general adorableness

Nashville returns this week with an all-new episode. Catch up with Lennon & Maisy on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.