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    1. Celebrity

    Leighton Meester's Music Climbs iTunes Chart After She Loses Home She Shared With Adam Brody in California Wildfires

    The 'Gossip Girl' star is following in Heidi Montag's footsteps.

    Amy Mackelden's avatar
    By Amy Mackelden
    Published 16 January 2025 In News

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    Leighton Meester has long brown hair and bangs while wearing a white V-neck T-shirt and a white jacket, and she poses on the cover of 2014 album Heartstrings
    (Image credit: Valentina S. Frugiuele/Getty Images for Cultural Influence/Vagrant/Hotly Wanting)
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    So many people have been affected by the devastating California wildfires. As well as finding charitable ways to help individuals who have lost their homes, the internet has worked its magic in unexpected ways. After Heidi Montag's 2010 album Superficial surged to number one on iTunes, Leighton Meester's criminally underrated music is being buoyed by fan support, too.

    Alongside her acting career, which includes her unforgettable turn as Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl, Meester released several singles and her 2014 album, Heartstrings, which is simply breathtaking.

    Following the news that Meester and her husband, Adam Brody, had lost their home in the Pacific Palisades fire, fans began downloading the singer's music.

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    On Wednesday, Jan. 15, rapper Flavor Flav took to TikTok to promote Meester's 2009 collaboration with Robin Thicke, "Somebody to Love." "Starting to hype up my girl Leighton Meester and help her family recover from the fire," the rapper wrote on his video.

    Meester's other singles include featuring on Cobra Starship's 2009 song "Good Girls Go Bad," her 2011 solo release "Your Love's a Drug," and the lead single "Heartstrings" from her 2014 solo album. She also sang tracks including "Words I Couldn't Say" and "Give in to Me" in the 2010 movie Country Strong, in which she starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow.

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    Upon the release of her 2014 single, Meester told Billboard, "[The single] 'Heartstrings' speaks to vibe and encompasses a lot of the themes of the rest of the album...It's been a long time coming and I’m very excited to finally release it."

    Speaking to Teen Vogue about her inspirations for the album, the star of Netflix's The Weekend Away said, "Growing up, some of my favorite records were Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and Kate Bush. Just female artists I really admired." She continued, "This is a long time coming. I've been working on it for a couple of years. But really, it's my whole life."

    Marie Claire Newsletter

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    As for how she balances a career that includes both acting and recording music, Meester told the outlet, "I don't really have any control over where my acting goes. It really is the type of business nowadays where something good comes, and you have to take it." She continued, "But as far as my music goes, I have a lot more control. So I can time it, and I can commit as much or as little as I want. Right now, I want to commit most of my time to that."

    Amy Mackelden
    Amy Mackelden
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    Weekend Editor

    Amy Mackelden is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity and royal family news. She was the weekend editor at Harper’s BAZAAR for three years, where she covered breaking celebrity and entertainment news, royal stories, fashion, beauty, and politics. Prior to that, she spent a year as the joint weekend editor for Marie Claire, ELLE, and Harper's BAZAAR, and two years as an entertainment writer at Bustle. Her additional bylines include Cosmopolitan, People, The Independent, HelloGiggles, Biography, Shondaland, Best Products, New Statesman, Heat, and The Guardian. Her work has been syndicated by publications including Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Delish, Oprah Daily, Country Living, and Women's Health. Her celebrity interviews include Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Chastain, the cast of Selling Sunset, Emma Thompson, Jessica Alba, and Penn Badgley. In 2015, she delivered an academic paper at Kimposium, the world's first Kardashian conference.

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