Leyla Ebrahimi Releases New Single and Video 'star'

Rising alternative artist Leyla Ebrahimi has released 'star,' a new song that pits the messy desperation of love against the desire to pursue your dreams. Out now on Deerfield Records / Interscope Records, the single is the New York City-based artist's first since dropping her debut EP Planet You Forgot Me.

'star' pairs Leyla's exposed poetry with bursting rock that surges in time with her explosive feelings. She once again teams with producers Alexander 23 (Olivia Rodrigo, Reneé Rapp) and Shane Pielocik to create a dynamic, live-band sound: grinding guitars, crashing drums, and vocals that go from a whisper to a scream. With her heart on her sleeve, Leyla moves between fragile passages of longing, and lyrics that would cast her as a wrathful rock god whose omnipresence is a constant reminder to her lover never to stray too far.

'Why can't I be in love without falling apart? / Where do you go when you're not in my arms?' she sings over a chorus that's equal parts demand and plea. 'It makes me sick, it makes me angry that I don't have your heart.'

The grainy, casually shot 'star' music video captures that mix of raw emotions — and also Leyla's playfulness — as she dances in her apartment, smokes on the fire escape, and rocks out in an alley alongside some pigeons. She's both a star in the making, and every young person ever letting her feelings run freely while no one is watching.

The new single is a fitting follow to Planet You Forgot Me, a genre-blurring six-song set that documents love's dissolution in all of its chaotic, crushing, cathartic glory. Two of the EP's tracks have since surpassed 1 million streams on Spotify: her original independent breakout 'planet you forgot me,' a striking six-minute tribute to unshakable post-breakup yearning; and her scream-along single 'I'm Sorry Maria,' which Stereogum raved, 'packs a whole lot of dynamic changes into its classically structured 3 minutes and 47 seconds. Check out the f*cking bridge on this thing! That's how you do it!'

Planet You Forgot Me also includes the singles 'i'm a little flower,' with all of its manic energy, and the dreamy, brokenhearted 'I Know You're The Moon.' The project races through genres and textures — synth-pop, dance-punk, indie fuzz, intimate acoustics, soaring rock — often within a single song, while Leyla moves between conversational runs and searing shouts, delivering unvarnished yet poetic lyrics full of recurring thematic motifs.

Leyla has also been building a reputation as a live act. After playing her first-ever headliners late last year — at Hollywood's School Night and Brooklyn's Union Pool, where she used to barback while secretly working on music — she performed at Del Water Gap's New Haven homecoming concert, New York's GIRL NOISE festival, and Wet Leg's sold-out Las Vegas show. Over the summer, she joined Holly Humberstone's Cruel World Tour. Next up, in December, she heads to Australia for the Spilt Milk festival series and select dates opening for Remi Wolf.

Leyla Ebrahimi Live Dates

Dec 12 – Canberra, Australia @ Spilt Milk ^

Dec 13 – Gold Coast, Australia @ Spilt Milk ^

Dec 15 – Sydney, Australia @ Enmore Theatre *

Dec 17 – Melbourne, Australia @ Forum Melbourne *

Dec 19 – Geelong, Australia @ Spilt Milk ^

Dec 20 – Perth, Australia @ Spilt Milk ^

* supporting Remi Wolf

^ festival

About Leyla Ebrahimi

New York City based artist Leyla Ebrahimi is only a year into a blossoming career, and she's already proven the power of her genre-fluid approach, unvarnished yet poetic lyrics, and gift for transmitting raw emotion. With a voice equally suited to conversational runs and searing shouts, she freely traverses dark synth-pop, dreamy dance-punk, blaring indie fuzz, and intimate acoustics — often within a single song.

It all began, fittingly enough, in a moment of joyous chaos two summers ago when Leyla was back home in Reston, VA, having dinner with her large Persian-American family as they laughed, bickered, and spoke over one another in English and Farsi. It hit her: She was hearing the soundtrack of her life. So she slyly recorded the meal, then snuck upstairs to her childhood bedroom, picked up a guitar, looped the audio, and made her first song, 'if there is a light it's burning out.'

Leyla hasn't looked back since and while her methods continue to evolve — she often works with co-producers Alexander 23 (Olivia Rodrigo, Reneé Rapp) and Shane Pielocik — her music is infused with an almost kismetic sense of intimacy, urgency, and realness. After signing with Deerfield Records / Interscope Records in 2025, she has released a series of singles, each of which races through a beautifully intense, powerfully cathartic tumult of feelings and sounds in a mad rush toward revelatory personal truth. Leyla's debut EP, Planet You Forgot Me, is out now.