📌 In This Deep Dive
The new Estée Lauder commercial features Oscar-nominated actress and multi-platinum recording artist Hailee Steinfeld, who performs her own vocal rendition of the classic anthem “Feeling Good.” Bridging her high-profile screen presence with her music career, this campaign highlights female confidence in an urban setting. Read on to explore Steinfeld’s career trajectory, the theatrical origins of the iconic song made famous by Nina Simone, and how this advertisement is elevating modern pop culture.
The new Estée Lauder commercial commands attention from the very first frame. That mood of refined luxury, that striking elegance, and the magnetic confidence radiating from its protagonist completely steal the scene. And the more you watch it, the more questions start surfacing, pushing you to discover what lies behind the glamor.
First, there is that familiar face. Plenty of viewers recognize her right away, but just as many find themselves searching their memory—or Google—trying to pinpoint where they have seen her before. Was it a critically acclaimed drama, a major Marvel series, or perhaps that Super Bowl commercial everyone was talking about last year?
Then comes the soundtrack. She sings “Feeling Good,” a timeless classic covered by generations of iconic artists that we have all heard in movies, talent shows, and radio spots. But her performance makes you want to dig deeper into its roots: when was the song created, how did it become so legendary, and where did we first hear it?
In a lot of ways, this campaign is inviting you to level up your pop culture knowledge. And that is exactly why we are here: to break down everything you need to know about the actress in the new Estée Lauder spot, the story behind the song, and the facts you can show off in your next conversation about the TV and music world.
The return of Hailee Steinfeld, the new Estée Lauder commercial actress
The star commanding the screen in the 2026 Estée Lauder commercial is Hailee Steinfeld. And if her face feels intimately familiar, it is because she has been quietly dominating our screens across multiple mediums for years.
Even staying strictly into the commercial world, you certainly caught her during last year’s Super Bowl in the viral State Farm campaign alongside Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key. State Farm spent weeks teasing the big reveal, and when Steinfeld finally appeared as the elegant surprise face of the main ad, she instantly stole the show.
Outside of the advertising world, movie and series lovers know her as one of the most versatile talents of her generation. She first exploded onto the scene in 2010, at just fourteen years old, earning an Oscar nomination for her breakout role in the Coen brothers’ True Grit. Since then, she has anchored major pop culture staples: starring in the coming-of-age hit The Edge of Seventeen and the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, voicing Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Verse trilogy, bringing Vi to life in Netflix’s Arcane, playing Emily Dickinson in Apple TV+’s Dickinson, and joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Kate Bishop in Hawkeye.
What some casual viewers might forget, however, is that Steinfeld is also a multi-platinum pop star in her own right. After showing off her vocal chops in Pitch Perfect 2, she launched a music career that produced massive global hits like Love Myself and Starving. She still releases music from time to time, but her fans make no secret of how much they wish to hear her voice more often in a proper musical release.
And that desire is becoming even more urgent now that we have all heard the power of her performance as she sings “Feeling Good” in the commercial.
“Feeling Good”: An anthem of female pride, freedom, and soaring high
Long before it became a mainstay of luxury advertising, “Feeling Good” was born on the theatrical stage. It was originally written for the 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, but the song truly took flight when Nina Simone recorded her immortal version in 1965. In her hands, it evolved into a powerful civil rights anthem and a declaration of female liberation. Its lyrics paint a vivid picture of shedding physical limits, aiming straight for the sky.
Birds flying high, you know how I feel
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel
Breeze driftin’ on by, you know how I feelIt’s a new dawn, it’s a new day
It’s a new life for meAnd I’m feeling good
It’s a song about aiming high, rising above our earthly constraints, and getting closer to the birds and the sun. And that’s a message that feels like a natural extension of Hailee Steinfeld’s own career; ever since her debut single “Love Myself,” her music has triggered widespread conversations around female independence. She built her musical identity on the confidence of a woman who needs no one else to validate her worth or make her complete, and “Feeling Good” mirrors that exact spirit, capturing the self-assurance Steinfeld has continuously shown both on screen and in the studio.
Part of what makes “Feeling Good” so captivating is that most of us discovered it through a different door. It’ rank’s one of the most covered songs in music history, constantly shifting shapes across genres and generations. Rock fans might have first fallen in love with Muse’s explosive version, pop audiences know Michael Bublé’s big-band arrangement, and even electronic music lovers have stumbled on it through Avicii’s modern rework.
“Feeling Good” is a song that can assume many forms and be appreciated by entirely different audiences. We hear it again in the new Estée Lauder commercial, and it’s natural to acknowledge that the beauty brand managed to create a little masterpiece of female pride: a protagonist who confidently shows off her acting and singing talent, a context that highlights her elegance in an urban setting, and a song that reminds us we can all aim for the sky. Because there are no upper limits to how good we can feel if we embrace our power.
