Are stories about a former foster child named Lily Tran getting into Stanford and being called on stage to sing with their celebrity idol real? No, that's not true: There are several versions of the story circulating on social media in which different celebrities keep a promise to sing together if she got into Stanford. Lead Stories found versions with Eminem, James Hetfield, Adam Lambert, George Strait, John Foster and Morgan Wallen, most of which also used AI generated images.
One example of the story appeared in an article (archived here) published by a website named "News" on August 16, 2025. It was titled:
A Promise Kept: Emiпem Stops Detroit Show to Rap with Former Foster Child Who Got Iпto Staпford...
The story was heavily promoted though posts on Facebook with the link to the full article added to the first comment by the poster, a trick that evades some moderation and content filters on Facebook that only look at the content of a post itself. Here is an example of such a post (archived here), which read:
The crowd at Detroit's Ford Field fell into a hush as Eminem lowered his mic mid-verse, his eyes locking onto a weathered sign held high in the front row: "I got into Stanford. You said we'd rap."
The arena held its breath as a young woman stepped up onto the stage -- Lily Tran, once a foster child, now a full-scholarship student at Stanford University, one of the most prestigious institutions in America. At just 9 years old, Lily had met Eminem at a backstage meet-and-greet.
Back then, she told him her dream: to escape hardship through education and music. Eminem had crouched down, hugged her, and said: "When you get into college, if I'm still rapping, we'll do a track together."
Today, she kept her promise. And so did he. Together, they performed an emotional rendition of his classic "Lose Yourself." Lily's voice was shaky at first as she took on the verses he'd given her, but with each line, her confidence grew -- as if every memory, every struggle, and every hope she'd carried had poured straight into the beat.
The stadium, usually roaring with energy, fell silent, wrapped in the raw power of the moment -- and then erupted into cheers, tears, and applause. As the final note hit, Eminem leaned toward her and whispered: "You didn't just keep your promise... you reminded me to keep mine."
The audience rose to their feet in thunderous applause -- not just for a performance, but for something far rarer: a moment where hip-hop became more than music -- it became hope, resilience, and a promise fulfilled.
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The image used in the post and the article was generated using AI according to several detection tools. This was the image in question:
(Image source: post on the "Marshall Matters" Facebook page)
According to AI detection tool Hive, the image was 99.9% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.
(Image source: Hive results for the image above)
Searches on Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) for stories mentioning "Lily Tran" and "Stanford" did not return any news articles about the events described in the story and the Facebook post.
Searches on the internet and social media did bring up several variations of the story, mostly using the same wording but changing out the celebrity and the venue. Lead Stories found copies about:
- Morgan Wallen at San Francisco's Chase Center (archived here)
- John Foster at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville (archived here)
- George Strait at the AT&T Stadium (archived here)
- Adam Lambert at San Francisco's Chase Center (archived here)
- James Hetfield & Metallica at San Francisco's Chase Center (archived here)
(Image source: collage made by Lead Stories)
