Stella Cole Was a "Glee "Fan. Then Darren Criss Asked Her to Collab on Instagram: 'If My Middle School Self Knew' (Exclusive) Marina WattsAugust 23, 2025 at 12:45 AM courtesy Shore Fire Media; John Lamparski/Getty Stella Cole; Darren Criss Singer Stella Cole was a Glee fan long before she got to col...
- - Stella Cole Was a "Glee "Fan. Then Darren Criss Asked Her to Collab on Instagram: 'If My Middle School Self Knew' (Exclusive)
Marina WattsAugust 23, 2025 at 12:45 AM
courtesy Shore Fire Media; John Lamparski/Getty
Stella Cole; Darren Criss -
Singer Stella Cole was a Glee fan long before she got to collaborate with Darren Criss
The musician, whose powerhouse vocals rival Judy Garland and Rosemary Clooney, connected with the actor on Instagram
Cole's album It's Magic is available to stream
Stella Cole went from a Darren Criss fan to one of his collaborators.
The singer, whose new album It's Magic is out on Aug. 22, tells PEOPLE about how her collaboration with the Tony Award-winning actor came to be and how her love of old movies influenced her career.
Cole, 26, shares over a Zoom call from her Upper West Side apartment that she was a "huge fan" of Criss' "watching Glee when I was in middle school."
"If my middle school self knew that we had sung together on the TODAY show, I don't know what she would do, probably have a heart attack or something," she quips about their December 2024 performance of "Snow" on the morning talk show.
Today
Stella Cole and Darren Criss on 'TODAY' in New York City in December 2024
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They first connected on Instagram in November 2022 when a clip of her singing "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" ended up on his feed.
"He saw me singing a Christmas song and he commented on it like, 'Oh my gosh, this is so great. How about you come sing with me at The Carlyle?' And I was like, what are you talking about?" Cole accepted his invitation and joined him at the Upper East Side hotel.
"He had a couple of other young musicians, a trumpet player and a saxophone player also just sitting in, and I just think that describes very much who he is," Cole continues of Criss, 38, who won his first Tony Award in June for Best Actor in a Musical starring in Maybe Happy Ending.
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"He is so generous with his platform and so excited about uplifting up-and-coming musicians. So I was so excited to sing with him that night, such a nice guy."
After her appearance at The Carlyle, Cole, whose powerhouse vocals rival Judy Garland and Rosemary Clooney, asked him to be part of her Christmas album. "He's the best," she gushes. "He's just so talented, I respect him so much."
Courtesy Shore Fire Media
Stella Cole
Cole, whose musical tastes are more retro than not, has been enamored by classic movie musicals her whole life. She grew up watching The Wizard of Oz and had been captivated by the classic movie musical genre and dreamt of being a musician her whole life.
"There's something really magical and sentimental and wonderful about those old movies, and carrying on the music is such a dream, exactly what I want to be doing," she says of her love for movies like Singin' in the Rain and Meet Me in St. Louis.
The Springfield, Ill. native got her start after college during the COVID-19 pandemic and went viral for her rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." She cites Judy Garland as one of her biggest influences.
"I think it was a bit of an escape for people during lockdown and everything, during times of sickness," Cole reflects.
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Since moving to New York and breaking through online for her covers of classic songs like "Moon River" and "Cry Me a River," she caught the attention of artists like Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox, who took her on a serendipitous whirlwind tour in 2023.
"I was a huge fan when I was in middle school, so again, just [a] crazy full circle moment story," she said of the spontaneous invite to tour years after her initial reachout.
She's also performed at storied New York venues Birdland, Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden.
It's safe to say that her music taste hasn't changed. With her new album, It's Magic, she covers standards such as "Till There Was You" and "Fools Rush In."
"I wanted to create this world of magic that feels like the first time you're falling in love, or like an impressionist painting, or like the beautiful magic of old Hollywood," she says. "That name just really encapsulates everything I was trying to do with this record."
Cole also hopes her new album opens up a new genre for a younger audience who might not be as familiar with the Great American Songbook.
"For a lot of my young listeners especially, I hope I can introduce people to some new repertoire... So I think that if I can just be a pathway to discovering more music from this time, discovering these beautiful songs and keeping them alive, that's always a big goal as well."
Courtesy Shore Fire Media
Stella Cole - 'It's Magic'
Up next for Cole are tour dates kicking off in September. She will be performing in support of It's Magic in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, San Antonio, Nashville, Atlanta and other cities throughout the U.S. before heading to Europe in October.
Cole will also perform at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, Calif. for a limited number of shows in January 2026 before wrapping things up in Napa that month at the Blue Note.
It's Magic is available to stream.
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