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The star voiced her support for the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement which her fans were happy to see, but was met with criticism. During the protests in honor of George Floyd Lana could be seen on the streets of Los Angeles going along with the crowd however, she shared this with her Instagram followers in a video that happened to show looters in stores. Other stars requested that she took the video down which she did, but it seemed that this overpowered the fact she supported the movement.

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Lana Del Rey faces backlash for ‘dangerous’ Instagram post amid Black Lives Matter protests

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‘Do NOT endanger people with your massive platform’

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We don't see much of Lana nowadays since she took her life offline for the most part, a few weeks ago she revealed her car was broken into and thieves took her laptop containing new music as well as a draft of her next poetry book. Meaning whilst she has confirmed that she is currently in the studio recording her ninth album, it may be a while before we hear anything new from the star. She occasionally posts on her private Instagram account but other then that she is fairly silent. She appears to be happy living out her life privately and seems content with where she is at in her career.

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Interesting article that discusses Lana's authenticity which is key when trying to understand her star image because a lot of it has been built on her being authentic. The author talks about what it is about her that has helped her have such a successful career

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View of Voices That Matter: Authenticity, Identity, and Voice in the Musical Career of Lana Del Rey

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Return to Article Details Voices That Matter: Authenticity, Identity, and Voice in the Musical Career of Lana Del Rey

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Lana Del Rey says Trump is “a reflection of our world’s greatest problem – sociopathy and narcissism”

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Lana Del Rey has called Donald Trump “a reflection of our world’s greatest problem” in a new interview with BBC Radio 1.

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Lana has never been very open about her stance on politics however, this changed post-2016 when Donald Trump started his run for the presidential race. She voiced her dislike of him publicly and even called out rapper Kanye West when he voiced his support for him. In 2020, she was accused of being a 'white Republican' and she did not like this one bit, clapping back at Twitter users accusing her. Trump is a widely hated man, as he should be, so her publicly speaking about him and branding him as someone that needs an intervention was important to her fans. It also made people look at her differently, in a good way which helped her star image for the better.

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Lana Del Rey Responds to Fans Who Accuse Her of Being a Trump Supporter

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Lana Del Rey was not suffering anyone calling her a Donald Trump supporter on election night, rejecting two fans who tried to paint her as a Republican.

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Lana volunteering for Imagine LA at The Vintage Club in Los Angeles, CA - March 8th, 2022

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Earlier today, Lana Del Rey helped volunteer for Imagine LA at an event held at The Vintage Club in Los Angeles, California. Imagine LA is a nonprofit that aims in reducing family poverty and homelessness.

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Lana's fans often refer to her as their queen, hence why we can see them bowing down to her poster campaigns.

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Fans have always supported the stars work with brands

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Screenshot: "Fuck It I Love You / The Greatest", via YouTube

'Norman Fucking Rockwell' is a masterpiece from an artist whose greatest gift to her listeners is the total submission of thought to feeling.

This article originally appeared on VICE UK

Lana Del Rey's currency has always been escapism. Creating worlds from a cocktail of fatalism, romance and nostalgia, every album - and every aesthetic overhaul that has come with it - has been an immersive experience guided by a character of her choosing, from the moody "gangster Nancy Sinatra" of her formative years to the flower child on the cover of 2017's Lust for Life, pictured smiling in front of a pick-up truck like the last shot of someone's daughter before she ran off to join a cult. With that sense of escape, though - unmoored as Lana's albums have often felt from their times of release - came a critical insistence on trying to ground her in reality.

Norman Fucking Rockwell provides the clearest line of communication to date in as much as it contains hope and reason tethered, however loosely, to a socio-political climate desperately seeking both. "The Greatest" and "Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it" in particular are full of allusions to recent cultural changes. But Lana Del Rey isn't an artist who deals in grand, definitive statements. Rather, an artist whose music is driven almost entirely by pleasure.

Sun, sea, food, drink, physical intimacy - all of these things have become staples in Lana Del Rey's lyrical repertoire, serving as sensory touchstones for things greater than themselves. Even bad relationships are rarely spoken of in terms of regret. It's not that she ignores pain or sadness - or romanticises them, as she's been accused of in the past - but she does luxuriate in fleeting moments of bliss. As an approach it isn't particularly remarkable, but is completely antithetical to the present world, which has never been more defined by pain and suffering. Given her propensity to do whatever she wants, it isn't surprising that, in 2019 - when everyone is constantly furious and artists like Lizzo and Billie Eilish have ushered pop into an experimental new frontier - Lana Del Rey would release an album comprised almost entirely of gorgeous piano ballads, as well as a psychedelic cover of Sublime's 1996 hit "Doin' Time".

Lana Del Rey has always been tricky to pin down as a narrator because she often performs inside a vortex of reference points. The identity of each of her albums is created by cherry-picking material cues (beaches, peaches, cars, guns, wine) and cultural icons (James Dean, Vladimir Nabokov, Sylvia Plath, Iggy Pop) and arranging them into a mood board; the specific combinations often alluding to emotions and states of mind more emphatically than if they were spoken about directly. The rock-and-roll legacy of the late-60s looms large over Norman Fucking Rockwell, with its references to John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Dennis Wilson and Tommy James and the Shondells. But their collective presence is an act of world building more than anything else, contributing in some small way to the album's expansive, luxurious, classic rock-inspired slow jams.

Most of the songs are built upon simple chord progressions, then padded out by fuzzy electronica and sweeping orchestration. Jack Antonoff's production is so lush and so clear you can practically feel the furniture in the room - the dark wood, shag pile rugs, leather sofas, wine glasses with a splash of red left drying at the bottom. The intimacy is such that you get the feeling that Lana is playing to no one here. Like she's stepping up to the piano at an afterparty once everyone has fallen asleep, or performing a series of closing time ballads to a thin crowd at some dead cabaret bar.

Songs about infatuation are often wrapped up in imagery of fast cars and backseats, anchoring emotion to something more tactile ("Love Song"), while songs about unsatisfying relationships are wrapped up in the abstract, with sadness arriving in the form of colour ("Norman Fucking Rockwell"). "California" reaches out to a struggling friend by conjuring a big party full of all of their favourite indulgences ("I'll pick up all of your Vogues, all of your Rolling Stone s, your favourite liquor off the top shelf"), while "Bartender" presents indulgences associated with the social lives of the rich - wine, Bacardi, black dresses to house parties and white to tea parties - as trappings, spoiled somehow by their ties to formality. In Lana's world, pleasure also rubs up alongside longing - usually for stability when pleasure feels fleeting, and for escape when it becomes too commanding.

It's impossible not to fall down multiple wormholes offered up by the references on just one song of any Lana album. On Norman Fucking Rockwell, for example, "Bartender" references Ladies of the Canyon - a true story of women who, in pursuit of a life beyond Victorian high society, left the safety of their well-to-do lives and ran off to the American Southwest. The title "How to disappear" is cribbed from Doug Richmond's 1986 book How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found - a "how-to" guide on starting a new identity, which advocates assuming the identity of a dead person as the most reliable route to success.

You could spend ages trying to decide which references are purely aesthetic and which point to something greater - and Lana knows that. She has always worn her influences on her sleeve in her music while being vague about her intentions. In a radio interview from 2014 she described Ultraviolence as "atmospheric", with "more of a general vibe going on" than a running theme. When asked if the lighter, more optimistic Lust For Life was a way of saying that she wanted to be happy, the spirit of Penny Lane jumped out in her reply: "No. It's just that something is happening." Most recently, she described Norman Fucking Rockwell as "a mood album".

This has, in the past, led to dismissal and over-mystification. The beginning of her career was dominated by a preoccupation with her "authenticity", which seemed to be up for debate because she previously failed to take off under her own name, Lizzy Grant, joked about dying young in interviews and possibly had some nose jobs. Her very presence in the cultural landscape of the early-mid 2010s was antagonistic. At a time when women in pop were playful, vigorous and futuristic (see: "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, "Starships" by Nicki Minaj, "Oblivion" by Grimes), Lana was tragic, languid and retrospective. At a time when publications craved earnest, cookie cutter quotes about feminism, Lana Del Rey said, "I have slept with a lot of guys in the industry, but none of them helped me get my record deal. Which is annoying."

This constant interrogation created a large amount of smoke and mirrors around an artist whose compulsions are actually very straightforward. "I'm really simple," she said in a 2017 interview. "I love nature. I like hikes. Being by the water - I don't always get in. I love the elements. Playing an outdoor festival. Love that feeling."

That's basically how her albums are best approached. Pleasure is literally a built-in facet of Lana's work, which is like a ripe piece of fruit in that it should be devoured rather than inspected. Because she treats her songs like a cork board in a university bedroom, that's also how her fans come at them. Speaking to Billboard, Adam Hall - the fan behind the Twitter account Lana Del Rey info, says Lana stans aren't as concerned with "sales and chart entries" as other fandoms. For them, the pleasure is less in seeing her emerge victorious after some fabricated dog eat dog fight over streaming numbers, and more about "the music - the lyrics, the aesthetic, the mystery".

While Norman Fucking Rockwell still feels more like a hot bath to soak in after a long day than turning on the TV to engage with current affairs, there is something of this world about it. While Lana Del Rey's previous albums have felt somewhat inward-looking, divorced from the zeitgeist, Norman Fucking Rockwell is right on the money in terms of mood. It shares a similar doomsday energy to the one currently being perpetuated by the news cycle; it's difference is that it's a step ahead in attitude. It is, in comparison to the rest of us manically #threading about podcasters and going to therapy to deal with climate change, at peace with its problems; a farewell from someone who has already sailed off into the horizon.

In a certain light, Norman Fucking Rockwell lands like an album of eulogies for things that haven't yet reached their end, with premonitions for what's to come gestured towards but never explicitly articulated. In that sense it feels fitting that the biggest chunk of references come from the late-60s, a period of intense cultural polarisation marked by an ideological conflict between war and peace. If the mood board for Norman Fucking Rockwell is the Summer of Love, then it's been put together with the knowledge that Altamont is coming.

That's how it feels, at least. The likelihood of that actually being the intent behind it is pretty slim. When asked about "The Greatest" in an interview, particularly in regards to its implication that rock-and-roll is dead, Lana said: "It's more about the concept of actually just chilling and listening to music for no reason" with her first boyfriends. And why not? Lana Del Rey's ability to draw you into her reverie is such that you can be struggling down the M5 in a Megabus and still feel like you're hanging your legs over the side of a pool somewhere in LA, holding burning eye contact with a stranger who will ruin your life in five months.

Regardless of how much you want to ascribe to it, it's worth noting that her strongest album to date is named after an artist often derided by critics for passing over the uglier aspects of American culture in favour of more sentimentalised portrayals. Rockwell's line of defence was, famously: "I paint life as I would like it to be." You could easily argue the same for Lana Del Rey, although anyone left questioning her auteur status after Norman Fucking Rockwell will probably never be convinced of it at all.

Art that without a "serious" motivation or social intent behind it tends to be scrutinised more closely, as we try to ascribe meanings that are considered to be more logical - more complex - than emotion. This doesn't really work with Lana Del Rey, though, whose greatest gift to her listeners is the total submission of thought to feeling.

In an interview in the lead up to Norman Fucking Rockwell's release, Lana said, "I feel that writing is not my thing: I'm writing's thing," as if it's an act of possession. When she's not writing, she says, she's "just in Starbucks talking shit all day". This image of her as a basic bitch, torn from her desire to meander down boulevards drinking iced coffee by the inconvenience of having to make some of the greatest records of the 21st century, jars with our idea of art as some tortured and laborious process. But if that's truly the case, it's no wonder that her music, hung up on heartache as it can be, hits like an afternoon cocktail with a muscle relaxant chaser. In times of hopelessness, there is no greater pursuit than pleasure.
@emmaggarland

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The Revolutionary Pleasure of Lana Del Rey

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Screenshot: "Fuck It I Love You / The Greatest", via YouTube 'Norman Fucking Rockwell' is a masterpiece from an artist whose greatest gift to her listeners is the total submission of thought to feeling. This article originally appeared on VICE UK Lana Del Rey's currency has always been escapism.

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The year of self-destruction for the star, some even found her acts unforgivable from the mesh mask to her controversial Instagram post this article explains the star's downfall in 2020.

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Lana Del Rey has faced consistent backlash since early 2020.

It all started when Del Rey posted an unprompted public statement, defending her own reputation.

After repeatedly doubling down, she's since been described as "the epitome of white woman feminism."

At the dawn of a new decade, Lana Del Rey seemed poised at the summit of the indie-pop mountain.

The songstress, now 37, was still riding the high of "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" - her career-topping sixth album, which was named the best release of 2019 by Pitchfork and nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards.

As 2019 neared its end, Del Rey's first two albums, "Born to Die" and "Ultraviolence," both landed on several decade-end lists. She was named one of the decade's defining artists by Insider.

But shortly after, Del Rey's behavior began to make more headlines than her music.

Her reputation suffered a rapid downturn, thanks to a string of controversial public statements, questionable mask choices, and her tendency to double down.

Many fans even say they've "lost respect" for the singer, and she's increasingly described online as a "problematic white woman." Below, we broke down all the backlash Del Rey has recently received.
Note: This article has been updated since its original publish date.
May 2020: Del Rey posted an unprompted public statement about her own reputation

It all began on May 21, four months after she attended the 2020 Grammys, when Del Rey shared a lengthy open letter on Instagram.

Posed as a "question for the culture," Del Rey praised her own legacy and broadly described her critics as "pathetic."

"Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating etc," she wrote, "can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money, or whatever I want, without being crucified or saying that I'm glamorizing abuse?"

"I'm fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse," she continued, "when in reality I'm just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world."

She defended writing songs about being "submissive" in relationships, despite "a long 10 years of bullshit reviews."

"I also feel it really paved the way for other women to stop 'putting on a happy face' and to just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music," she wrote, "unlike my experience where if I even expressed a note of sadness in my first two records I was deemed literally hysterical as though it was literally the 1920s."

Del Rey concluded her statement by plugging her forthcoming poetry books, mentioning that she donates to "Native American foundations," and announcing a new album.

-Cazzy Star (@Cazzy) May 21, 2020

It remains unclear what triggered Del Rey's statement, or why she felt compelled to defend her music after months of glowing reviews.

Early in her career, Del Rey was seen as a controversial figure, but largely because of accusations of inauthenticity and artifice - especially because she orchestrated an aesthetic pivot after releasing a "flop" album under her birth name, Lizzy Grant.

Del Rey's tragic-glam persona that she introduced in the "Born To Die" era, which leaned heavily on images of white Americana, received far more scrutiny than her lyrics. She was also criticized in 2014 for telling Fader, "feminism is just not an interesting concept."

Del Rey may have been reacting to a 2019 article from The Independent, in which writer Helen Brown "examines how easy it is to misread her lyrics as 'antifeminist'" - although Brown actually defends Del Rey's "sharp" songwriting and roundly praises her newest album.

Whatever Del Rey's motivations may have been, her 2020 statement was poorly received.

While some agreed she's been unfairly judged as "antifeminist" in the past, many were angry that she name-dropped other artists to make her point.

-yasmin (@COSMlCVALKYRIE) May 21, 2020

-kenzie (@StylesDepressed) May 21, 2020

Additionally, six out of the seven people she mentioned were women of color, which sparked accusations of racism.

As Tulane University's Christine Capetola wrote, in addition to her reductive descriptions of their music, Del Rey "failed to recognize Black female artists' decades-long - and ongoing - struggle to express their sexualities on their own terms within the realm of pop music."

Del Rey also implied that she's more "delicate" than her peers, and claimed that feminism is intolerant of "women who look and act like me."

"The optics of Lana, a white woman, complaining about feminism lacking space for her while critiquing the acclaim allotted to several Black pop artists is mortifying," Ashley Reese wrote for Jezebel.

-Zito (@_Zeets) May 21, 2020

-Black Fat Queer (@FlamingFatQueer) May 21, 2020

YouTuber D'Angelo Wallace said Del Rey's album announcement was amplified by media coverage of the controversy.

"Was Lana Del Rey profiting off Black outrage to sell her album? Yes," he said in a video titled, "Lana Del Rey has Lana Del LOST IT."

"I don't think she did it on purpose," he said. "But once she realized who she was making mad, and that it was getting her even more attention than she initially was looking for, she made four follow-up comments. And they were all about the outrage."

He added: "I'm just gonna be honest. This is where my respect for her started to dip."

Shortly after, Del Rey doubled down and insisted she's not racist

Del Rey's response to the backlash focused on her reasoning for naming specific artists.

"To be clear because I knowwww you love to twist things. I fucking love these singers and know them. #that is why I mentioned them," she wrote. "I would like to have some of the same freedom of expression without judgment of hysteria."

"I haven't had the same opportunity to express what I wanted to express without being completely decimated," she continued in a second comment. "And if you want to say that has something to do with race that's your opinion but that's not what I was saying."

-Buzzing Pop (@BuzzingPop) May 21, 2020

"This is the problem with society today," she said in a third comment. "It's exactly the point of my post - there are certain women that culture doesn't want to have a voice it may not have to do with race I don't know what it has to do with."

"I don't care anymore but don't ever ever ever ever bro- call me racist because that is bullshit."

"And my last and final note on everything," Del Rey wrote in a fourth comment, "when I said people who look like me - I meant the people who don't look strong or necessarily smart, or like they're in control etc. it's about advocating for a more delicate personality, not for white women - thanks for the Karen comments tho. V helpful."

Del Rey's comments struck many people as overly defensive and unproductive, rather than illuminating.

"'Don't ever call me racist' is hands-down the single-most disappointing reaction to accusations of racism," Wallace said in his video.

-ً (@cwhitbred) May 22, 2020

-calling all trade (@codistweets) May 22, 2020

Black writers like Nichole Perkins and Roxane Gay, as well as their followers, pointed out Del Rey's use of "coded" language and self-victimization.

-we are never meeting in real life (@SunnyAde_) May 21, 2020

-Tantine P (@imanarchy_) May 21, 2020

Del Rey posted an additional statement on Instagram, accusing her critics of wanting a 'race war'

One day after her original post, Del Rey continued to insist that it "wasn't controversial at all," despite national news coverage and widespread backlash.

In her additional statement, she implied that Ariana Grande and Doja Cat reached out to express discomfort in her message.

But "despite the feedback," Del Rey doubled down once again.

"I want to say that I remain firm in my clarity and stance in that what i was writing about was the importance of self-advocacy for the more delicate and often dismissed, softer female personality, and that there does have to be room for that type in what will inevitably become a new wave/3rd wave of feminism that is rapidly approaching," she wrote, even though the third wave of feminism began more than 20 years ago.

"I'm sorry that the folks who I can only assume are super Trump/Pence supporters or hyper liberals or flip-flopping headline grabbing critics can't read and want to make it a race war," she continued.

-Affinity Magazine (@TheAffinityMag) May 22, 2020

She also accused her female critics of being "disassociated from their own fragility and sexuality" and wanting "drama."

"My aim and my message are clear. That I have control of my own story," she concluded. "If the women I mention don't wanna be associated with me that's absolutely fine by me."

Again, fans criticized Del Rey for dismissing feedback rather than engaging with it.

Many noted that Del Rey's repeated self-characterization as a "delicate" woman plays into racist stereotypes, which historically paint white women as more feminine or fragile - allowing them to escape accountability more easily.

It also highlights the idea that Del Rey is "playing the victim."

"Lana really wants to act like she's the most original artist playing the victim and honestly she's full of shit," one person wrote on Twitter.

She was also mocked for not-so-casually plugging her poetry book in the midst of her non-apology.

Del Rey made a further attempt to defend her open letter 3 days later - and compared herself to another woman of color

"In that post - my one and only personal declaration I've ever made, thanks for being so warm and welcoming - was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement," Del Rey said on May 25 in a six-minute video on Instagram.

"When I mentioned women who 'look like me,' I didn't mean white like me, I mean the kind of women who, you know, other people might not believe," Del Rey said in the video. "The difference is, when I get on the pole, people call me a whore, but when twigs gets on the pole, it's art."

She added: "The culture is super sick right now. And the fact that they wanna turn my post, my advocacy for fragility, into a race war - it's really bad. It's actually really bad."

She also expressed frustration that her letter received backlash, though she didn't address any of the specific criticism she received from artists and fans of color.

"It really, again, makes you reach into the depth of your own heart and say, 'Am I good-intentioned?' And of course, for me, the answer is always yes," she said. "I barely ever share a thing, and this is why."

-Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 25, 2020

In the midst of her video, Del Rey revealed the title of her forthcoming album, "Chemtrails Over the Country Club," causing people to speculate that it's all for publicity ("it's only been four days and lana's album rollout has felt like a decade," one person wrote).

Del Rey wrapped up by insisting that she's "not racist," plugging her poetry books, and refusing to apologize for her original statement: "Fuck off if you don't like the post."

Once again, Del Rey was accused of being resentful towards successful women of color, ignorant of her own privilege, and determined to play the victim.

People were especially infuriated by Del Rey's mention of FKA twigs, a mixed-race singer, songwriter, and dancer.

Twigs has trained as a pole dancer and incorporated acrobatics into her art, as in her Grammy-nominated music video for "Cellophane." She has also incorporated the skill into live performances of "Magdalene," an album that explores the demonization of women throughout history, as well as her own resilience.

Twigs has also said that pole dancing helped her feel like her "strong self again," after she had six fibroid tumors removed from her uterus in 2018.

For her part, Del Rey portrayed a stripper in her 2013 short film for "Tropico," which was criticized for "appropriating Latino gangster culture."

"The fact that she said race war and doesn't see twigs as a fragile, delicate woman is... You're really making it worse," one person wrote.

Another added: "You can hear FKA twigs' pain on 'Magdalene' period. I need Lana to stop bringing black women into her argument for creating a brand she cannot escape from."

-Rubén (@xoxorubenangel) May 25, 2020

Most fans (and former fans at this point) agreed that Del Rey's video "only made things worse."

"I didn't think she was this kind of person," Wallace said. "Now I have the knowledge that Lana Del Rey is kind of ruthless in her pursuit of getting people to talk about her, and she doesn't seem to care who gets angry in the process, or even if what she's saying is right. So, that's a lot."

June 2020: She was called out by Black artists for sharing videos of protesters

During the wave of Black Lives Matter protests that were sparked by the death of George Floyd, Del Rey shared two videos on Instagram.

According to Billboard, the first video showed a man holding a sign that read "no justice no peace," while the second showed people breaking into storefronts and running away with merchandise. She disabled comments on the post.

On Twitter, Kehlani implored Del Rey to remove the videos because they showed uncensored faces and identifying features, which could lead to "dangerous" consequences for the protesters.

".@LanaDelRey please remove your instagram post it's dangerous as fuck and a very poor choice of moments to post," Kehlani tweeted. "by all means protest, but DO NOT endanger people with your very massive platform. oh and turn your fuckin comments on man."

Kehlani added: "it's about furthering endangering the lives of black people. it's about responsibility."

Tinashe echoed Kehlani's comments in a tweet of her own.

"@LanaDelRey why the fuck are you posting people looting stores on your page literally WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM," she wrote.

-cloo (@lesbenoist) May 31, 2020

After Del Rey removed the video from Instagram, Kehlani and Tinashe both deleted their tweets.

October 2020: Del Rey came under fire after apparently wearing a mesh face mask

Aside from postponing her album, which was originally slated to be released in September, Del Rey remained fairly quiet in the wake of her controversial video - except to promote her aforementioned poetry book, "Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass."

In October, Del Rey hosted a book signing at a Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In videos and photos from the event, she appeared to wear a mesh-style face mask, which would not provide an effective barrier for respiratory droplets, according to recommendations from the CDC.

Fans left comments on her Instagram posts, which she has since deleted, begging her to wear a "real mask."

"I love you sis but please wear a real mask, it gives a bad message," one user commented on Del Rey's Instagram video.

"i love lana sm but what the frick is she doing ? the covid situation in the united states is worsening and she refuses to wear a proper mask, that really infuriates me," another fan wrote on Twitter. "so many ppl have died there."

Others called Del Rey "selfish" and said they were growing tired of defending her.

-hi, it's beth (@bethwnn) October 3, 2020

-georgia (@lovingsweetener) October 3, 2020

-🛸 (@fireIadies) October 3, 2020

-Jasmine (@jasmineflwrr) October 4, 2020

The image of COVID-19 slipping through the holes in her mask also became a meme on Twitter.

-james (@redputationaotd) October 2, 2020

-weezette *.✧ (@420urmum69) October 3, 2020

-Tomás Mier (@Tomas_Mier) October 3, 2020

Del Rey later said that her mask had a plastic lining, in response to a critical article from Michigan Daily.

"The mask had plastic on the inside," Del Rey wrote. "They're commonly sewn in by stylists these days. I don't generally respond to articles because I don't care. But there ya go. Same goes for everyone's masks in my video. I'm lucky enough to have a team of people who can do that."

She also seemed to poke fun at the controversy in her music video for "Chemtrails Over the Country Club," in which she dons a nearly identical mask.

January 10, 2021: Del Rey unveiled the cover art for her new album - and preemptively defended it with a 'problematic' comment

The black-and-white cover for "Chemtrails Over the Country Club" shows Del Rey grinning and surrounded by friends, all huddled around a table.

Shortly after she shared the image, Del Rey commented on her own Instagram post with preemptive self-defense.

"No this was not intended-these are my best friends, since you are asking today," she wrote - although it was written as a standalone comment, not a reply to anyone in particular.

"As it happens when it comes to my amazing friends and this cover, yes, there are people of color on this record's picture and that's all I'll say about that," she wrote. "We are all a beautiful mix of everything - some more than others, which is visible and celebrated in everything I do."

"In 11 years working I have always been extremely inclusive without trying to," she continued. "My best friends are rappers, my boyfriends have been rappers. My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I'm not the one storming the capital, I'm literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it."

-Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 11, 2021

The comment has since been deleted.

The following day, during an interview with BBC's Annie Mac, Del Rey claimed that "actually half the people in this photo are people of color."

"I just feel like if that's really what people are gonna say, I have an answer for them, which is that if you look closer, you will see people of color," she added. "It's a black-and-white image, so zoom in, you know. It's just weird, you know?"

Naturally, some people did make jokes about the cover's perceived lack of diversity, and others called the choice "tone deaf."

-kanin! 🏳️‍⚧️*(🐰+🦇) (@JASFROMKONOYO) January 13, 2021

But the real backlash came in response to Del Rey's comment, which was described as "textbook white fragility problematic white woman."

Del Rey's note about befriending and dating "rappers" was particularly controversial.

-dresagemusic (@dresagemusic) January 11, 2021

-✨ (@heyjaeee) January 10, 2021

Del Rey was also mocked for claiming that she's "literally changing the world" with her writing.

"We love her and understand her intentions but we cannot keep defending this shit," one fan commented on Del Rey's Instagram post. "That comment is so problematic in so many ways."

"I literally have her lyrics tattooed on my body but I'm also a political activist and I cannot defend this shit at all. I wish we could be excited about the album and only that but shit like this makes it hard to be," the fan continued. "Nothing about her statement is okay."

"If she's going to breathe life into aesthetics of a time where racism was at one of its peaks and not use her platform in the same breath to advocate today's issues properly, accurately, and tactfully. that's an issue."

January 11, 2021: Del Rey was criticized for saying Trump 'doesn't know that he's inciting a riot'

During an interview with BBC's Annie Mac, Del Rey compared President Donald Trump to "people who didn't know they hurt other people."

"You know, he doesn't know that he's inciting a riot and I believe that," she said, adding that Trump has "delusions of grandeur."

Del Rey was referring to the violent riot at the US Capitol on January 6, when pro-Trump supporters stormed the building after attending a nearby Trump rally.

Five people died, and the outgoing president has since been impeached for "incitement of insurrection."

-Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) January 12, 2021

"The madness of Trump... As bad as it was, it really needed to happen. We really needed a reflection of our world's greatest problem, which is not climate change but sociopathy and narcissism," she said, as reported by Complex. "Especially in America. It's going to kill the world. It's not capitalism, it's narcissism."

One person replied on Twitter: "Lana stans gonna be doing some mental gymnastics to explain this one."

Del Rey then lashed out at 'larger magazines' for 'taking my well-intentioned and believe it or not liberal comments out of context'

The day after her interview with Mac, Del Rey responded to Complex's coverage of her comments.

"OK complex not that our 10 year relationship matters I guess," she tweeted. "Thanks for the cool soundbite taken out of context, I said that the bigger problem is Sociopathy-so whether he meant to incite a riot is less important than the larger issue in America at hand -the problem of sociopathy."

"It's fucked up," she continued. "You know I'm real. You know I voted for Biden. I'm super steady in everything I've ever said. You probably listened to my entire interview. So whoever wrote this is a genuine piece of shit. I am the one helping bringing the problem with narcissism to light."

-Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021

-Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021

Hardly one to stifle momentum, Del Rey also responded to the Australian blog Tone Deaf, which had published an article criticizing the defense of her album cover.

"I'm actually not tone deaf, I don't think there's anything tone deaf about responding to questions about why there are only white women on a album cover when that's just not the case," she tweeted. "I'm not gonna let people say that some thing is what it isn't. You're jealous I get it."

In an additional tweet, Del Rey added that her new music is "great" and described herself as "one of the only artists who is genuine."

-Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021

-Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021

Del Rey continued tweeting about her BBC interview, clarifying that she meant to criticize Trump's "significant lack of empathy" and "the issue of sociopathy and narcissism in America."

"I'll say it again I don't appreciate the larger magazines taking my well-intentioned and believe it or not liberal comments out of context," she wrote. "It's actually what I sing about quite often. It's what I've been condemned for saying."

-Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021

-Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021

She also expressed disdain for negative publicity, citing her "long term relationship" with magazines like Complex and Rolling Stone, calling the former "pathetic."

Uproxx's Steven Hyden described the now-deleted tweet as "a hilarious and illuminating snapshot of pop-star brain."

-Steven Hyden (@Steven_Hyden) January 13, 2021

Indeed, Del Rey has lashed out at journalists and music critics in the past.

Back in September 2019, she tweeted her displeasure with Ann Powers' review of "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" for NPR - even though Powers described the album as "instantly compelling, a pro asserting her future spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

True to form, Del Rey doubled down with a video, in which she defended her comments about Trump and called out Complex again.

"I just wanna talk about a couple of things, some of the articles that are coming out today, about me thinking that Trump didn't mean to incite the riots," she began. "I think it's cute that that's the little takeaway that Complex gets from that - especially with our relationship over the last 10 years, obviously completely disregarded."

"I get it. I have something to say, and I don't just show up giggling and talking about my hair and my makeup," she continued. "I was asked directly political questions for over 40 minutes by the BBC Radio 1, and I answered them."

Many people saw Del Rey's tweets as another attempt to play the victim, or another example of her "white woman feminism."

-𝑽𝒊𝒂 𝑮𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒚 (@golddtatt) January 13, 2021

Others simply made jokes or said they'd lost patience with her antics.

-jestie🦩 (@_JSpain) January 12, 2021

September 12, 2021: Del Rey deactivated her social media accounts

In a black-and-white video posted on Instagram, the musician thanked fans for their support and announced her decision to remove her online presence.

"I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow we are going to be deactivating my social media accounts, and that is simply because I have so many other interests and other jobs I'm doing that require privacy and transparency," Del Rey said.

"I'm still very present and love what I do. I'm absolutely here for the music. I'm also just going on some different endeavors and I want to say thank you so much for all the support and I do hope that you like the record," she added, referencing her eighth album "Blue Banisters," which was released later that same month.

March 24, 2023: She included a megachurch pastor's sermon on her new album, dividing fans

On Del Rey's ninth studio album, "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd," track five is titled "Judah Smith Interlude."

The four-minute track gives an uninterrupted platform to Judah Smith, a preacher at the Christian megachurch Churchome. Smith, Del Rey, and producer Jack Antonoff are all listed as cowriters.

Del Rey also thanked Smith in a Facebook post a few months prior, "for giving me good guidance" and "for letting me record a part of his sermon for this record."

In the song, Smith denounces "a life dominated with lust" and praises God as "the fascinating artist who fashioned it all."

"The Spirit of God says, 'I'll infuse you with desirеs for what you have and what's in front of you,'" Smith preaches.

As Them previously reported, many fans - especially those who identify as queer - were divided in their reactions to "Judah Smith Interlude." One Twitter user called it "creepy," while another said, "it's giving conversion therapy cult leader."

-💫 (@heyjaeee) March 24, 2023

-owen (@panopticowen) March 24, 2023

Indeed, Smith has reportedly made homophobic comments in the past. According to Marie Claire, he called homosexuality a sin comparable to "murder, rape, or living with your girlfriend" during a 2005 interview. (The interview in question isn't available online.)

Churchome is also associated with Hillsong, an Australian megachurch best known for attracting famous followers like Chris Pratt. In fact, Justin Bieber once led worship at Churchome, and Smith was featured on Bieber's 2021 EP "Freedom."

Hillsong has long been associated with anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ views. A report from NPR described it as "an ultra-conservative church with a dark past," including connections to pedophilia.

"I was uncomfortable. I'm not religious and thought it was weird to include. Considering who he is, it's very weird," one person wrote on Reddit. Another agreed, reasoning that Del Rey could have invented "a weird fake religious monologue" instead of "publicizing a real pastor that sucks."

However, some fans of Del Rey have defended "Judah Smith Interlude" as satirical or "ironic." As Coleman Spilde wrote for the Daily Beast, "Del Rey is exactly the type of person who would attend a celebrity-studded mega-church, both for a cleansing of the soul and to lambaste its intrinsic flamboyance with her friends."

"As a gay atheist that grew up in the Catholic Church, y'all are really bent out of shape over this," another fan commented in a Reddit thread. "I love how provocative this whole thing is and it's exactly why I love Lana."

June 24, 2023: Del Rey arrived 30 minutes late to the stage at Glastonbury, telling the crowd, 'My hair takes so long to do'

Del Rey is far from the only artist who's been late to headline a major festival. However, some people were frustrated with the explanation she gave for the delay.

"I was so fucking late that I am about to rush this set today," she told the crowd. "If they cut power, they cut power. I'm super fucking sorry. My hair takes so long to do. I love you to death. Let's keep on running the set as it's supposed to go."

As a result, Del Rey's microphone was cut off due to the festival's strict midnight curfew - although she encouraged the crowd to sing her final song, "Video Games," instead.

Despite some outrage directed at Glastonbury, many fans blamed Del Rey and said she lacked respect for the fans who came to see her perform.

-emma (@emmalb_) June 25, 2023

Others described her performance as "chaotic" and "disappointing."
A representative for Del Rey has not responded to Insider's request for comment.

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Some fans have turned on Lana Del Rey. Here's a complete timeline of how the singer soured her own reputation.

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Lana Del Rey released one of the most acclaimed albums of 2019. Now, critics see her as "the epitome of white woman feminism."

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An article responding to her recent controversies.

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Something that has played a huge part of Lana's identity is fashion. Her look has played on vintage styles whilst incorporating them with recent fashion trends. From florals to grunge she has worn it all. Lana's most notable contribution to the fashion industry is her iconic heart sunglasses. Coming from the lyrics in her song 'Diet Mountain Dew' she sang 'Baby, put on heart shaped sunglasses' so fans then made this apart of her image.

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Lana Del Rey Style File: Her Best Fashion Moments

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As Lana Del Rey releases her sixth studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Vogue recaps her best style moments, from lo-fi debut to Gucci muse.

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In many interviews, especially in her more recent eras, I think we start to see a different side to Lana and almost a different persona which is much more personal. She has an innocent aura surrounding her in recent years. During the NFR! era she seemed excited to tell this new story.

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Lana Del Rey Talks 'Norman F**king Rockwell', Working With Ariana Grande, Covering Sublime & More

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Lana's fans invented something known as The Lana Cult on Tiktok where users will all change their profile photos to the picture shown above. They did this so show their support for the star and present themselves as loyal fans. The hashtag of the same name has gained millions of views which has all helped with the popularity of the star on the social media app. As part of her star image is with thanks to her fans because they do everything to bring her name up everywhere despite her not using the app herself at all.

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Lana has said herself that whilst she doesn't consider herself a feminist, she isn't not a feminist so the double wording in this title is correct. She believes that there are different types of feminism that fall into different categories. This can link back to her 'Question For The Culture' as she explains that she can not be the same type of feminist as for example, Nicki Minaj due to them having such different creative mindsets.

It is key to mention that Lana has been a strong supporter of the #metoo movement and that she feels like she is an advocate for women in the entertainment industry. So whilst she may not consider herself to be a 'feminist' she stands with feminist movements and think that women's stories deserve to be heard.

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Lana Del Rey on ‘Cherry’ Music Video & #MeToo | GRAMMYs 2018 | MTV News

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This article published by Amsterdam University Press discusses nostalgic aesthetics in relation to Lana's image, analysing the music videos for her songs 'Summer Wine' and 'Summertime Sadness'.

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Lyrics from her 2019 album 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!'

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lana del rey happiness is a butterfly tattoo

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The words 'Star Girl' come from her collaboration with The Weeknd on his 2016 album Starboy. Lana features on the track 'Stargirl Interlude'.

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This tweet is a response to a fan calling her a Trump supporter then trying to take it back when Lana responded to them.

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Lana interacting with a fan after her album Lust For Life was leaked

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Tweets by LanaDReyOnline

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Active fan accounts for Lana despite her no longer using Twitter.

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Tweets by LDRHQ

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Instagram comment from Lana calling out Kanye West showing his support for Donald Trump.

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LANA LITERALLY SNAPPED pic.twitter.com/RxdXSk3L6x
— pierce (@piercespears) September 30, 2018

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Taylor Swift - Snow On The Beach (Lyric Video) ft. Lana Del Rey

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In 2012 Lana was presented as GQ's woman of the year and given the front page cover of the September issue. She was criticized for this cover with people saying she only appeared naked in the shoot because she was a woman. The whole idea behind it was supposed to be uplifting for women everywhere as well as a celebration for Lana but instead, it was seen as a negative thing. The star never publicly commented on what was being said about her, but it has always been rare that she responds to comments from the press.

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I mention that despite Lana being sober she sings about drug use because of the fact her web store once sold a necklace that contained a hidden tiny spoon typically used for snorting different kind of drugs. It has even been referred to as the 'coke necklace'. We can question if she was promoting drug use through the sales of this necklace and contradicting herself because of the fact that she is sober.

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A discontinued Lana Del Rey necklace has gone viral, with people selling them for over $1,000

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A necklace originally sold by Lana Del Rey has become popular on TikTok, drawing comparisons to one Sarah Michelle Gellar wore in “Cruel Intentions.”

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Whilst she has a song with the same title, it is not a worship song to God himself. She is referring to her lover as her religion.

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Lana has opened up about the fact she had to eventually go to rehab because of her struggles with addiction. Now, because this was before her career as Lana Del Rey and she has since stayed sober it hasn't really affected her star image as such. But, a lot of her songs contain lyrics about drinking and drugs so it is likely she is singing from past experiences. She even has songs titled, Heroin, High By The Beach and Dealer.

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Lana Del Rey has revealed she suffered from an alcohol addiction when she was younger, and was sent to boarding school by her parents to get sober.

The 'Video Games' singer made the stark revelation in an interview with GQ, in the issue the singer came under-fire for earlier this week for appearing naked on its front cover.

While dispelling rumours of her past put to her by the interviewer, Del Rey revealed that her parents sent her to Kent school, a strict boarding school in Connecticut, at the age of 14 to help kick her drinking habit.

She said: "I was a big drinker at the time. I would drink every day. I would drink alone. I thought the whole concept was so fucking cool. A great deal of what I wrote on 'Born To Die' is about these wilderness years.

"My parents were worried, I was worried. I knew it was a problem when I liked it more than I liked doing anything else. I was like, 'I'm fucked. I am totally fucked'."

She continued:

Like, at first it's fine and you think you have a dark side - it's exciting - and then you realise the dark side wins every time if you decide to indulge in it. It's also a completely different way of living when you know that...a different species of person. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me.

Lana Del Rey drew heavy criticism last week for posing naked on the cover of GQ magazine. The singer was named as the magazine's woman of the year on Tuesday (September 4) and is pictured alongside Tinie Tempah, Robbie Williams, Mad Men actor John Slattery and James Corden on the magazine's cover. However, all the men are dressed in suits, while Del Rey isn't wearing anything at all.

The cover has attracted criticism from across Twitter and from online magazine Jezebel, which called the cover "internalized sexism". Del Rey has also been criticised for the photographs that accompany the feature, with one showing a man with his hand around her neck.

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Lana Del Rey: 'I was sent to boarding school age 14 to get sober'

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Singer opens up about her alcohol problem in controversial GQ naked cover issue

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HD Official: Lana Del Rey - Blue Velvet from H&M

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From a young age, Lana began volunteering in the Bronx helping addicts and the homeless as well as painting houses in Utah for an Indian reservation. As shown above she can be seen volunteering for the charity Imagine LA in 2020. Lana has always had a big heart, which adds to her positive star image.

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Lana Del Rey volunteering at Imagine LA's Back To School Drive yesterday

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For someone who is in the spotlight so much, a lot of Lana's personal life has remained a secret. What we do know is that she mentions god in many of her songs and lyrics. She is a very spiritual woman who has a different relationship with God than most, she believes that he is there and has prayed upon him many times. Lana talks about how being in trouble when she was younger helped strengthen her religious values, this goes back to her struggle with drugs and alcohol in her teen years. She would pray on God and his powers because she felt it was all that she could do.

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Yet another chance for celebrity endorsement was given to Lana in 2012 when she became the face of H&M ahead of their fall and winter campaigns. They were looking for an icon and ultimately decided Lana was perfect. A cover of the song 'Blue Velvet' was recorded and used in a commercial for the brand. The collaboration was a success because it enabled fans of Lana's to be able to support her as H&M is an affordable retail chain unlike her previous endorsement with Jaguar.

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Lana Del Rey will star as the label’s new face, it has been announced

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Over the years, many fans have got tattoos dedicated to Lana, these being mostly her lyrics and even just things related to her. This shows how big her star image is and how much of an influential artist she really is. In the above clip we see a fan meeting Lana and showing off her Born To Die tattoo where we see the star in shock as she can't believe the impact that she has had on people.

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Lana Del Rey’s reaction to this fans tattoo is priceless https://t.co/0OGztGI8p6

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Lana Del Rey’s reaction to this fans tattoo is priceless https://t.co/0OGztGI8p6 https://t.co/RlDaXusxoW

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Lana Del Rey’s reaction to this fans tattoo is priceless pic.twitter.com/RlDaXusxoW
— The Cult Of Del Rey (@CinamonSlut) October 22, 2022

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Lana Del Rey’s reaction to this fans tattoo is priceless https://t.co/0OGztGI8p6 https://t.co/RlDaXusxoW

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Lana Del Rey’s reaction to this fans tattoo is priceless https://t.co/0OGztGI8p6 https://t.co/RlDaXusxoW

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Lana Del Rey’s reaction to this fans tattoo is priceless https://t.co/0OGztGI8p6

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Whilst she was still an active Twitter user, Lana tweeted things that many of her fans still reference to this day.

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At this red carpet event for the 2020 Grammy Awards after discussing her nominated record Lana is seen talking about her gown and how she 'just bought it at the mall'. This has since turned into an iconic moment for the star partly because she appears relatable but we also see her showing humor which isn't typical for the star. In recent weeks there has been a trend on Tiktok where users will upload a series of their favourite moments in the media and this clip, in particular, has featured in many of them.

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Lana Del Rey Says She Got Her Grammy Gown ‘from the Mall’

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The star has been a part of many celebrity endorsements including car manufacturer Jaguar in 2012 when she signed a six-figure deal with them. Her popular star image was used to help promote the new model and bring in sales. At the time it was seen as a strange partnership but we know that it has been argued 'that attractive celebrities are more effective endorsers for products'. (Till and Busler, 1998) It is no secret that Lana is a beautiful woman which is perhaps why Jaguar chose to work with her.

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Lana Del Rey - Burning Desire Official Music Video, featuring the Jaguar F-TYPE

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Popular singer Taylor Swift has publicly praised Lana and spoken very highly of her. The above clip even shows Taylor referring to Lana as 'the most influential artist in pop' which tells us her peers think very positively of Lana. This award show took place in 2019 and later on in 2022 the two successful singers would go on to collaborate for the track 'Snow On The Beach' which featured on Taylor's tenth album 'Midnights.'

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Taylor Swift praises Lana Del Rey at the BBWomaninmusic Awards

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Lana at the 2018 Met Gala dressed in Gucci

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Parenting, Baby Names, Celebrities, and Royal News

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In 2020, Lana added yet a new venture to her already huge empire with the release of her poetry book 'Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass' alongside a spoken word album. She expanded her star image with this as it allowed her to show her audience a new side of her as we got her thoughts and feelings through words rather than music. The release of the book was an extreme success according to the New York Times bestseller list with it placing at number four.

Lana donated a percentage of sales to the Navajo Water Project as she wanted to help 'preserve their rights' and help the charity reach its fundraising targets for the year.

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Lana was announced as the new face of Gucci's Guilty fragrances for their 2018 campaign. Telling us just how big of a star image she really has. Her whole branding and aesthetics seamlessly worked alongside the designer brand and she went on to be dressed head to toe in Gucci for the 2018 Met Gala, showing her loyalty for the brand and equally showing how much they respected her.

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Early in her career, the star was criticized a lot for every move she made but she kept going and didn't let this stop her. Even as her career has progressed she is still constantly met with criticism for every move she makes, but this only causes some people to admire her more. Last year Lana accepted a decade award from Variety and in her acceptance speech she spoke about that criticism and how she is actually grateful for it and that it has allowed her to further develop her career path. It is almost as if her career was built on criticism.

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Lana Del Rey's Stirring Speech At Variety Hitmakers: I’m Grateful for All the Criticism, I Get a Lot

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In late 2021, the star made the decision to deactivate all of her social media accounts claiming that she no longer felt the need to have them and wanted more privacy. As of today, the only social media of hers that is known is an Instagram account under the username 'Honeymoon' however, this is private and very difficult to get accepted on. Despite not using much social media herself, she still has a huge online presence with fans from all over the world still having fan accounts and update accounts dedicated to sharing what is happening in the world of Lana.

Prior to this, Lana had quite a big social media presence especially on Twitter where she would interact with fans, she liked to use this app to share her opinions. Over on Instagram, she used this to post selfies as well as promote her songs and other ventures. Occasionally, she would call out other celebrities and question their actions.

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Lana Del Rey has announced that she will deactivate all her social media accounts:

“That is simply because I have so many interests, and other jobs I’m doing that require privacy and transparency.…For right now, I think I’m going to just keep my circle a little bit closer,”

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Lana Del Rey has announced that she will deactivate all her social media accounts:

“That is simply because I have so many interests, and other jobs I’m doing that require privacy and transparency.…For right now, I think I’m going to just keep my circle a little bit closer,” https://t.co/YD7Wuu5wuR

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Lana Del Rey has announced that she will deactivate all her social media accounts:

“That is simply because I have so many interests, and other jobs I’m doing that require privacy and transparency.…For right now, I think I’m going to just keep my circle a little bit closer,” pic.twitter.com/YD7Wuu5wuR
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 12, 2021

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
Lana Del Rey has announced that she will deactivate all her social media accounts:

“That is simply because I have so many interests, and other jobs I’m doing that require privacy and transparency.…For right now, I think I’m going to just keep my circle a little bit closer,” https://t.co/YD7Wuu5wuR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
Lana Del Rey has announced that she will deactivate all her social media accounts:

“That is simply because I have so many interests, and other jobs I’m doing that require privacy and transparency.…For right now, I think I’m going to just keep my circle a little bit closer,” https://t.co/YD7Wuu5wuR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
Lana Del Rey has announced that she will deactivate all her social media accounts:

“That is simply because I have so many interests, and other jobs I’m doing that require privacy and transparency.…For right now, I think I’m going to just keep my circle a little bit closer,”

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In 2012, Lana unveiled the cover art for her single 'Blue Jeans' and the response it received is that she was glamourizing abuse due to the nature of the man having his hands around her throat.

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The cover art for her album 'Chemtrails Over The Country Club' was yet another controversy for the star when she was accused of having a lack of diversity on it. However, she defended herself on this by stating that these were some of her real friends but that she is also friends with people of colour. This statement was criticised because of her pulling the I have black friends card.

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Despite her music still performing well, the year 2020 was not good for the star. Starting off strongly in May of that year when she posted a statement to her since-deactivated Instagram account discussing the success of different women in the industry compared to her own. The post featured the star name-dropping other female artists singing about 'being sexy and wearing no clothes' and almost complaining that they have been successful through doing this rather than singing about 'being in love' the way that she does. Lana even went on to say that she had been a stepping stone for newer artists and given them the freedom to sing about what they please rather than what is popular. She took her own criticism into account when writing as she questioned why she had constantly been accused of glamourizing abuse and they hadn't. As expected she was heavily criticized for this, and I mean heavily. To some, this letter ruined her career.  She was accused of ignoring black history and the work that past black female artists had put in so that women today could have more freedom in the music industry. This damaged her star image terribly and caused many people to see her in a different light. She eventually addressed the backlash received but didn't apologise as such, instead merely asked people to try and understand her which for some, only made them hate her more.

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Reactions to Del Rey's post were swift and brutal. "Lana Del Rey erased the work of Black women and played the oppression Olympics, just to promote two poetry books and an album. The Caucasity of it all," wrote Danielle Kwateng-Clark, culture and entertainment director at Teen Vogue. "I don't know who was giving Lana Del Rey a hard time but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Black women," said writer and speaker Jamilah Lemieux. "Girl, sing your little cocaine carols and leave us alone." As writer Ashley Reese for Jezebel put it, "The optics of Lana, a white woman, complaining about feminism lacking space for her while critiquing the acclaim allotted to several black pop artists is mortifying."

Now, before any Del Rey stans come for me, let me just say: I have adored her music since that fateful day I stumbled upon her "Born to Die" music video in 2012. I absolutely stan a lackadaisical bop, OK! Has Del Rey faced unfair criticism from reviewers because of her content? Yes, because she is a woman artist in a male-dominated industry. But her statement is arrogant and ahistorical. The idea that she ushered in a wave of women artists singing about sex and failed relationships is just absurd when there were many before her who have sung about the very same subject. And she fails to recognize that the majority of the women she named, many of whom are black or women of color, have endured a lot of the same struggles as Del Rey - and often to a greater extent because of their race. There's an entire history of women singers and songwriters making music - the kind Del Rey seems to believe she invented - who are completely erased by her statement.

To highlight how obviously hollow Del Rey's argument is, let's begin with one of the artists she name-checks, Beyoncé. While her 2016 album Lemonade is considered a magnum opus on such intimate, confessional subjects as marital infidelity, sex, and sisterhood, Beyoncé has been singing songs about those topics for decades, ever since she was in Destiny's Child. Songs like "Say My Name" and "Bills, Bills, Bills" were about trifling, emotionally exploitative men and were written more than a decade before Lana Del Rey was on the scene. And while Beyoncé may be praised now for her defiant sexuality, she has also been criticized for it repeatedly, by the likes of people as disparate as Annie Lennox and Bill O'Reilly.

Then there's Janet Jackson, whose 1997 The Velvet Rope was a landmark personal album. It included songs about sex ("Rope Burn" and "Tonight's the Night") and abusive relationships ("What About"). These were edgy, adult confessional songs that came out when Del Rey was approximately 12 years old. How's that for a pioneer? The singer Jessy Wilson summarized the common sentiment among black folks well, in a now-deleted comment on Del Rey's original post: "black women have been singing about sex, abuse, being submissive and aggressive in relationships, and being glamorous for DECADES. Know your history. millie jackson, betty wright, betty davis, mary. j blige....SO MANY. you were far from the first to write and sing from these places. this post sounds very much like a white privileged girl who is mad because she "feels" like she hasn't had the freedom to be herself and say what she wants. no one is stopping you. so stop the damsel in distress routine."

While I'm completely aware this is unsolicited, if Del Rey would like a short, incomplete list of works by women who have been singing about the themes she covets so much, might I suggest Lil' Kim's solo debut Hard Core, Meshell Ndegeocello's Peace Beyond Passion, Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and Jazmine Sullivan's Reality Show, just to name a few?

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Lana Del Rey's Instagram Post Ignores Pop Music History

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Reactions to Del Rey's post were swift and brutal. "Lana Del Rey erased the work of Black women and played the oppression Olympics, just to promote two poetry books and an album. The Caucasity of it all," wrote Danielle Kwateng-Clark, culture and entertainment director at Teen Vogue.

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In 2012, Lana released the music video for her song 'Ride' featured on Born To Die: The Paradise Edition. The ten-minute video sees her hanging out with a large biker gang that appears to be much older than herself. Whilst the video had a mostly positive reception, a few issues were pointed out. Firstly, she was accused of glamorizing prostitution and violence. Secondly, and the most serious issue is that she was accused of cultural appropriation. As she wears a Native American headdress later in the video specifically in the scene where she is holding a gun to her head. This temporarily damaged her star image which considering it was near the start of her career, seemed awful at the time but with thanks to her fans she was able to move on from this.

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Lana Del Rey Wore That Mesh Mask in Her New Music Video, and People Aren’t Happy

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The singer was criticized for wearing the accessory in October.

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She later clarified that the mask had a plastic lining sewn on the inside.

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Lana Del Rey criticised for wearing mesh mask to meet fans

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"Please wear a real mask," plead the star's fans, after she attends a meet-and-greet in Los Angeles.

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Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Country Club (Official Music Video)

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March 2021 saw Lana's seventh album which saw her take her sound in a different direction. Debuting at number two, the songs appeared to have a more mature and folk sound.

In the music video for the title track, we see her wearing a mesh mask. This links back to criticism she faced in 2020 when she wore a mesh mask during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic to meet fans at a book signing in Los Angeles, this event had a negative impact on her star image but she tried to see the light in it by wearing this mask the following year.

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here is boldly talking your new album up, and then there is the approach taken by Lana Del Rey prior to the release of Chemtrails Over the Country Club. "I am literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven," she wrote during a social media exchange about her eighth solo album's cover art. "Respect it."

Clearly, here were rich pickings for connoisseurs of the point where a pop star says something so self-regarding it makes your head hurt, but Del Ray may be forgiven for getting carried away. An artist given an unfairly rough ride on arrival, she finds herself, a decade on, not merely vastly commercially successful, but hugely influential, the inspiration behind a wave of melancholy bedroom pop that loops disconsolately in the background of TikTok videos. Moreover, her last album, 2019's Norman Fucking Rockwell!, topped critical end of year lists ( including in the Guardian) and was hailed as the work of "simply one of the best songwriters in the country" by Bruce Springsteen. She was recently featured on the front of a heritage rock magazine that doesn't ordinarily put photographs of thirtysomething singer-songwriters on its cover unless they were taken in 1972. "Joan Baez advocates her acceptance in the pantheon," it wrote, reassuring its more conservative readers.

Lana Del Rey: Chemtrails Over the Country Club album cover

This has all been achieved by refining what she does rather than radically remodelling it. There are points where Chemtrails Over the Country Club edges slightly into new territory: when she abandons her dead-eyed vocal style for a breathy falsetto that sounds edgy and panicked; when the geographical location of her lyrics moves from LA to the midwest; when the sound of Dark But Just a Game is subjected to a series of jump-cuts, her vocal suddenly losing its coating of distortion, the backing shifting from echoey to claustrophobically intimate. But these are minor alterations, not tearing up the plans.

The songs stick to her patented tempo - everything moves with all the pacy zip of the World Indoor Bowls Championship - and exists in the space Del Rey demarcated some time ago, where trip-hop meets early 70s singer-songwriter stylings, the lush spookiness of Julee Cruise's Floating Into the Night and the reverb-y sound of Mazzy Star. Its lyrical cast is heavily populated by brooding, ne'er-do-well men - "I'm on the run with you my sweet love" etc - for whom the protagonist will do anything: "We should go back to Arkansas, trade this body for that can of gin." There are ruminations on the dark side of fame and success - "their stories all end tragically ... the best ones lose their minds," suggests Dark But Just a Game - with a dash of bitter personal experience thrown in. Opener White Dress finds her recalling her pre-fame job as a waitress, with the kind of period detail that doubtless pushes nostalgia buttons for the millennial wing of her fanbase ("listening to the White Stripes when they were white hot") and wondering aloud if "maybe I was better off".

She also does the things she keeps angrily telling people she never does: singing in character, projecting a persona, writing with her tongue lodged firmly in her cheek - on Breaking Up Slowly, her latest ne'er-do-well partner is depicted as the alcoholic country singer George Jones, reacting to having his car keys deliberately hidden from him by heading off to the liquor store on his sit-on lawnmower - and warranting the word "meta". "I'm covering Joni," she sings on Dance Til We Die, shortly before doing precisely that, closing the album with a version of For Free, another gloomy rumination on the hollowness of fame, from Joni Mitchell's 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon.

There are certainly points where you think you've heard a lot of this stuff before; perhaps the claims for her genius have a lot to do with context. In a pop world predicated on trend-chasing, her doubling-down approach is how Del Rey has developed such a recognisable musical identity that her name has started to take on an adjectival quality: if you describe a song as Lana Del Rey-esque, people know exactly what you mean.

Still, Chemtrails Over the Country Club does what it does exceptionally well. The songwriting misfires that plagued her early albums have been eradicated through that refinement; everything here is incredibly melodically strong, strong enough, in fact, that it feels beguiling rather than formulaic, which is an impressive feat to pull off. It literally isn't going to change the world, no matter what its creator thinks. But almost uniquely among her peers, she's created a world of her own, which is deserving of respect. How long she can keep inhabiting it before that world feels confined is another question.
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Lana Del Rey: Chemtrails Over the Country Club review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

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here is boldly talking your new album up, and then there is the approach taken by Lana Del Rey prior to the release of Chemtrails Over the Country Club. "I am literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven," she wrote during a social media exchange about her eighth solo album's cover art.

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Whilst Lana has mostly stuck to singing throughout her career, there have been a few occasions where she has turned to acting. Back in 2010, she starred in an independent film titled Poolside. Her most notable acting role was in 2013 for the art piece that is Tropico. It does however feature three of her songs so it certainly linked her two biggest ventures together. The film features talk of religion as well as the 'Americana Vision'. Lana was heavily involved in the actual making of the film as she was the writer and was responsible for much of the visual content.

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Lana Del Rey - Tropico (Short Film) (Explicit)

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Lana Del Rey's various albums and different styles display the star image that she has presented to the world during the development of her career. She has gone through many different eras in her time and each one tells us a different story. Often the persona she shows the world changes with each album released allowing us to understand more of who she is.

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The singer's eighth studio album was released in October of 2021 she took a very different approach with this album as she sang from the heart during recording and her vocals received little to no editing. The whole album feels much more personal however, this didn't appear to be as popular with fans with the album being placed at number eight on the Billboard 200 rather than number one as she had previously seen.

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Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey

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Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey album reviews & Metacritic score: The sixth full-length release for the pop singer-songwriter was produced with Jack Antonoff and features contributions from Louis Bell, Zach Dawes, Rick Nowels,...

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Early on in her career, the star obtained a positive star image but as her confidence and popularity have grown so did her ability for free speech which often left her in the face of self-sabotage. Each controversy she has faced has had an affect on her star image, some for the better but most for the worst.

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It's been over a month since Lana Del Rey released her sixth studio album, . The record was immediately met with a level of critical acclaim that surpassed any of her previous albums. Lyrically, stands as a reclamation of the power the amorphous male subjects of her older songs stripped from her. The title is a venomous embrace of her typical Americana, providing a departure point from which she asserts herself and her autonomy throughout the record. For me, it was a killer album that solidified Lana Del Rey as more than just an anachronism from my angsty teen days of reblogging gifs from her "Ride" music video on soft grunge Tumblr in 2012. Despite the success of the album, however, an onslaught of controvery has since eclipsed Norman Fucking Rockwell! 's release.

After NPR music reviewer Ann Powers published a nuanced review of Lana Del Rey's Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana Del Rey responded with a Tweet stating, "To write about me is nothing like it is to be with me. Never had a persona. Never needed one. Never will." The response came as a surprise due to the genuine praise throughout Powers's review, in which she describes NFW! as "fully committed to the messy alignments of her art, and better able to articulate how they formed the stories by which she, or the characters she claimed as her own, lived." At first blush, Del Rey's comment seems like an unnecessary clapback at an overwhelmingly positive review. However, her assertion that she has "never had a persona" severely complicates the nearly 10-year history of her music career and the political implications of her aesthetics.

Beginning with her 2010 debut album, Born to Die, Del Rey has engulfed herself in visions of vintage Americana. In her early days, she utilized imagery of the American flag in her music videos and promotional photos, branded herself with Old Hollywood curls and cat eyeliner, and featured songs with titles like "National Anthem" and "American" in her first two records. The music video for "National Anthem" opens with Del Rey recreating Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Birthday Song" performance for President John F. Kennedy. The song's bridge croons in breathy speech, " Money is the reason we exist / everybody knows it, it's a fact, kiss kiss."

Anyone following Lana Del Rey's career is likely to have thought of her image as the epitome of a persona. Donning Americana aesthetics to the point of borderline absurdity, it became almost undeniable that she was satirizing the vapid materialism of American culture and national identity. Lana Del Rey itself is a stage name (her legal name is Lizzie Grant). Her existence is larger than life, just like America itself. Everything pushing to be bigger and better, yearning for the future while conservatively longing for the past.

Inseparable from Del Rey's nearly grotesque depiction of Americana is the sexual politics of her music and image. Lana Del Rey portrays sexuality in the transient period of late teenage years, evoking imagery of hypersexuality and the agency it promises juxtaposed against the exploitative nature of its realities. Her debut album was released in the same time period and aesthetic realm of Harmony Korine's 2013 film Spring Breakers, which garnered initial buzz for its casting of childhood Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens in explicitly sexual roles. In many ways, I believe Spring Breakers epitomizes the politics of Lana Del Rey's image: the exaggeration of American consumerism (in Spring Breakers, to the point of violence), the disillusionment of the American dream, and the conflict between sexual liberation and objectification. Korine artfully explores these concepts by severing them from their contexts, creating surrealist, dream-like motifs. The montage of criminal activity in Spring Breakers, set to the melancholy lullaby of Britney Spears' "Everytime," and his 2010 short film "Act Da Fool" encapsulate this detached surrealism. Del Rey, on the other hand merely hints at them from a depoliticized vantage point, losing her own voice in the process as she feebly attempts to reappropriate the tools of American capitalism and sexual desire for her own empowerment. Where Korine deconstructed, Del Rey merely echoed, serving as a mouthpiece for perhaps the worst parts of both capitalist and sexual exploitation.

What makes Harmony Korine's work so successful in deconstructing contemporary Americana and Lana Del Rey's work pre- Norman Fucking Rockwell! relatively less so is unveiled in Del Rey's song "Florida Kilos." Off her sophomore album, Ultraviolence, "Florida Kilos" was co-written with producer Dan Auerbach and none other than Harmony Korine himself. "Florida Kilos" describes cocaine-fueled escapades on the Florida coast, imagery gleaned straight from the hazy cinematography of Spring Breakers ("Guns in the summertime, chic-a-Cherry Cola lime / Prison isn't nothing to me, if you'll be by my side"). However, what distinguishes "Florida Kilos" from Spring Breakers and Lana Del Rey from Harmony Korine is reality. Del Rey feigns a reality that is not her own, crooning about guns and criminality while being the private-school educated daughter of a literal millionaire. Korine, on the other hand, creates a surrealism around his work with an empathetic reverence, reconciling the distance between artist and subject. The girls of Spring Breakers represent a specific liminality of white middle-class existence - not rich enough to party in Miami with the Lizzie Grants of the world, they resort to crime and violence to incorporate themselves into the all-American world of binge-drinking and endless consumption. Korine envelops them in neon light and hot pink balaclavas, elevating their realities into the surreal, whereas Del Rey attempts to do the opposite, solidifying the mystique of the disillusioned American dream into a false reality.

Lana Del Rey's frequent references to Vladimir Nabokov's infamous 1955 novel Lolita play a significant role in constructing her false reality. Lolita centers around the middle-aged narrator's obsession with his 12-year old stepdaughter, Dolores, whom he calls "Lolita." Lana Del Rey's discography is littered with imagery from the novel, including "Lolita" and "Off to the Races," which features a direct quote from the narrator (" Light of my life / fire of my loins") in the hook. Many critics have cited this motif as just one of the reasons why she is the antithesis to the feminist empowerment pop of the likes of Taylor Swift. And while Lana Del Rey glorifies the sexual infantilization of Lolita, she simultaneously co-opts the experiences of sex workers, combining songs like "Carmen" ("Only seventeen, but she walks the streets so mean") with the unwavering politics of sexual purity and innocence afforded to white women. In the music video for her song "Ride," as well as her 2013 short film, "Tropico," she often depicts herself as a sex worker, despite never being a sex worker herself (as far as she has shared publicly, which is admittedly limited). It is unclear if Del Rey's depiction of herself as a sex worker is an analysis of the "darker" sides of American culture, an attempted portrayal of her own loss of innocence, or merely a fetishization of a lifestyle she herself has not lived.

What I initially found so brilliant about Norman Fucking Rockwell! was that it seemed to truly understand sexual and romantic liberation, autonomy, and power. Specifically, it does so in ways that her previous work had merely hinted at before retreating back into the patriarchal confines of the socially-inflicted desire to be desired. Normal Fucking Rockwell! departs from the male gaze and refocuses the lens in her own hands. The opening lines of the album encapsulate this perfectly: "God damn man child / You fucked me so good I almost said 'I love you'." Juxtaposed against her previous lyricism that edges on parodic depictions of edgy men, ("Well my boyfriend's in a band / He plays guitar while he sings Lou Reed") Norman Fucking Rockwell! appears to be the album in which Lana Del Rey finally sets herself free. The album became nothing short of a Harmony Korine-esque exploration of sexual agency. It felt honest in ways that Korine's work-i.e. Kids, Gummo- feels honest. It reconciles the potential for voyeurism by bleeding into the territory of autobiography in Del Rey's case and documentary in Korine's.

This is why Del Rey's comment about authenticity in response to Ann Powers nearly sends the entire project into collapse. The simultaneous utilization of the sexual infantilism of Lolita and the images of herself as a sex worker become wildly problematic when placed in this newfound context of an allegedly consistent honesty over time. In the complex worldbuilding of Lana Del Rey's nearly decade-long career, it is hard to identify if anything about her public image is authentic. Thus, if we are to take her own words at face value (and ignore the contradiction with her appropriation of narratives that are not her own), what are we to make of her now?

Most recently, Lana Del Rey's public relationship with Instagram influencer, reality TV star and police officer (yes, all one person) Sean Larkin has added an additional layer into the blurred distinctions between art and artist, satire and authenticity. Fans have responded to this relationship with criticisms of Larkin's position as a police officer. When asked about Larkin, Del Rey said, "He's a good cop. He gets it. He sees both sides of things." This response seems glaringly typical of both Lana Del Rey's centrism and her unironic fetishization of American culture. Del Rey consistently attempts to position herself as politically neutral, defaulting to the nuance-trampling language of "peace and love" instead (i.e. her feeble response to critiques of her scheduling performances in Tel Aviv and her claim that she "grew up with Obama & we were happy with everything"). The problem, of course, is that, in the words of Desmond Tutu, "if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

The discussion of separating the art and the artist, therefore, becomes problematized when placed in the context of Lana Del Rey's comments about her lack of persona. Her art is deeply informed by the aggressively American identity that she puts forth. While she has overwhelmingly kept her personal life shrouded in a mystique not necessarily shared by her contemporaries, her own rejection of the notion of persona means that the distinction between the art and artist, the personal and political, is indistinguishable at best. Her personal politics have wavered from her directly calling out Kanye West's support of Donald Trump to the position of political naivete that she virulently defends through a specific brand of white femininity crafted so eloquently throughout her career. In this way, her politics are perhaps just as American as her aesthetic - outraged at individual targets when it suits her, silent around the systemic underpinnings of said individuals when it doesn't.

Just like reading Lolita from the unreliable narrative perspective of predator Humbert Humbert (also a pseudonym), unpacking Del Rey's career is fraught with the limited scope of knowledge that we have as observers of her art. Say Lana Del Rey's ignorance is authentic. Is it actually any different than her intentionally satirizing these subjects without an outright rejection of their norms? Even if it began as satire, it has now become so engulfed in that which it is intended to critique that fans and critics alike are unable to distinguish satirization from glorification. As with Lolita, the challenge is not necessarily in discerning the truth. It is with how much faith we place in whoever controls the narrative, and what it says about us when we do.

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On "Norman F***ing Rockwell!" and the Politics of Americana

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It's been over a month since Lana Del Rey released her sixth studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!. The record was immediately met with a level of critical acclaim that surpassed any of her previous albums. Lyrically, Norman Fucking Rockwell! stands as a reclamation of the power the amorphous male subjects of her older songs stripped from her.

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The sixth album from the star, Norman Fucking Rockwell, was released in 2019 and was heavily praised by critics. It was even the best-reviewed album of her career at the time. The album exceeded expectations as it showed a new side of Lana where she seemed to finally challenge the way men had treated her through her lyrics.

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All Hail Lana Del Rey’s “Screw It” Album

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2017 bought us Lana's fifth album Lust For Life in which she collaborated with artists such as The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, ASAP Rocky, and even Stevie Nicks. As expected the album became her third number-one in various countries. The star stated that this was the first album that she made for the fans and that she wrote it to be a love letter to them.

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Lust For Life di Lana Del Rey è un messaggio di amore verso tutti i suoi fans

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Lana Del Rey’s Lust For Life would be a message of love, peace and positivity for all singer’s fans

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Lana's fourth studio album was released in 2015 titled Honeymoon which just like all previous albums, receiving critical acclaim. The same year was her first collaboration with the singer The Weeknd on his album Beauty Behind the Madness, both writing and providing vocals.

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The next albums to come along was Paradise and Born To Die: The Paradise Edition in November of the same year, earning her a second top ten. The latter contained her previous album with the new eight tracks on Paradise. Lana released her third album Ultraviolence two years later in 2015 and once again was extremely successful. It went onto become her first number-one album on the Billboard 200 and gave her the best-selling week of her career.

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Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey captures her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as Ultraviolence bows atop the list. The album, which was released June 17, sold 182,000 in the week ending June 22, according to Nielsen SoundScan - her best sales week yet.

Del Rey's arrival is the largest sales week for a female artist since the week ending Dec. 29, 2013, when Beyonce's self-titled album sold 310,000 in its third week on the chart.

Ultraviolence follows Del Rey's major-label debut album, Born to Die, which Polydor/Interscope Records released in January 2012. It debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 77,000 sold in its first week (ending Feb. 5, 2012). Del Rey has also charted two EPs: a self-titled effort that hit No. 20 and Paradise, which reached No. 10.
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Born to Die surpassed 1 million in sales earlier this year in February. Its cumulative total stands at nearly 1.1 million.

Notably, Ultraviolence captures the No. 1 slot even though Del Rey hasn't performed on American TV in more than two years. She is seemingly taking the less-is-more approach when it comes to promoting the new set, having done only a handful of U.S. print interviews. She has, however, toured and released anumber of music videos for Ultraviolence. (Del Rey's last U.S. TV performance? The March 22, 2012 edition of American Idol.)

Conversely, - who was quite visible on TV in the last week - arrives at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with his debut full-length album, In the Lonely Hour.

The British singer's set sold 166,000 copies - the largest debut for a solo artist's first album since the week ending Nov. 25, 2012. That week, Phillip Phillips' The World From the Side of the Moon launched with 169,000 at No. 4.

During release week, Smith played CBS' Late Show With David Letterman, ABC's Good Morning America and ABC's T he View, in addition to a buzzed-about gig at New York's Apollo Theater (joined by Mary J. Blige). He also did the usual round of radio station visits, as well as an in-store album signing event in New York at Rough Trade NYC.
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Smith is currently riding high on a number of Billboard's airplay charts, including Adult Alternative Songs, where the album's "Stay With Me" rises one rung to No. 1. It also steps 15-14 on Pop Songs, 10-8 on Adult Pop Songs and 21-15 on Adult Contemporary, and debuts at No. 35 on Rhythmic Songs.

Following Smith on the Billboard 200 is rock band Linkin Park, who starts at No. 3 with The Hunting Party. The album, the group's sixth studio effort, enters with 110,000 sold. Its last studio set, 2012's Living Things, bowed at No. 1 with 223,000. The new release is the act's first studio set to miss the top slot since its debut album, Hybrid Theory, peaked at No. 2 in 2002. All told, Linkin Park has notched five No. 1s (four studio sets, plus a mashups effort with Jay Z: "Collision Course").

The week ending June 22 marks the first frame this year where three albums each sold in excess of 100,000 copies. That last happened in the holiday frame ending Dec. 29, 2013. (The last time it occurred when sales weren't pumped by the Christmas shopping season was the week ending Oct. 6, 2013.)

The Frozen soundtrack dips 3-4 with 42,000 (down 15 percent) in its 26th consecutive week in the top five. The last album to string together a longer top five run was Adele's 21, which spent 29 weeks in the region between Dec. 17, 2011 and June 30, 2012. ( 21 actually spent 68 total weeks in the top five, with two separate consecutive runs of 39 and 29 frames.)

Back on the Billboard 200, country legend Willie Nelson scores his highest-charting album since 1982 - and only his third solo top 10 - as Band of Brothers debuts at No. 5 with 37,000 sold. The set was supported by a well-received concert and promotion with shopping channel QVC. Sources suggest the network contributed a significant portion of the album's first-week sales. Nelson last charted higher with Always on My Mind, which spent four weeks at No. 2 between July 10 and July 31, 1982.

Band of Brothers is Nelson's second top 10 in a row, following the all-star collaborations set To All the Girls, which debuted and peaked at No. 9 last November. Like Band of Brothers, the Girls album was promoted through QVC. The album, which included guest turns from the likes of Carrie Underwood and Dolly Parton, debuted with 43,000.
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Nelson has also collected one other top 10 album: the 1976 collaborations set Wanted! The Outlaws. The effort, recorded with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser, peaked at No. 10.

Miranda Lambert's Platinum slides 2-6 on the new chart with 34,000 (down 45 percent) while Jack White's Lazaretto falls 1-7 with nearly 34,000 (down 75 percent).

Pop diva Jennifer Lopez nets her eighth top 10 album as A.K.A. starts at No. 8 with 33,000. Her last studio set, 2011's Love?, debuted and peaked at No. 5 with 83,000. The arrival of A.K.A. is Lopez's smallest sales debut for any of her studio albums, dipping below the 48,000 bow of her Spanish-language set Como Ama Una Mujer in 2007.

EDM superstar Deadmau5 lands the sixth and final debut in the top 10, as while(1<2) launches at No. 9 with 30,000. The sales number is purely from downloads, as the set was exclusively available digitally in its first week. Its physical CD release arrived a week later, on June 23. The album is the producer-DJ's second top 10 set, following the No. 6 debut and peak of Album Title Goes Here (58,000 start).

Brantley Gilbert's Just As I Am rounds out the top 10, as it descends 4-10 with 26,000 (down 34 percent).

Over on the Digital Songschart, we have a new No. 1, as Magic's "Rude" bumps Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" (featuring Charli XCX) from the top slot. "Rude" sold 210,000 downloads (up 1 percent), while "Fancy," which falls to No. 2, shifted 195,000 (down 14 percent).

Ariana Grande's "Problem," featuring Azalea, holds at No. 3 with 162,000 (down 13%). Smith's "Stay With Me" is also a non-mover at No. 4 with 148,000 (down 10 percent), and Nico & Vinz 's "Am I Wrong" is stationary at No. 5 with 140,000 (down 3 percent).

Maroon 5's "Maps" finds its way to a No. 6 debut with 138,000. It's the first single from the group's upcoming album, "V," which will be released Sept. 2. The group's last album, "Overexposed," was ushered in by the single "Payphone," which sold 493,000 downloads in its first week and debuted at No. 1 on Digital Songs.

Right behind Maroon 5 is another debut, from 5 Seconds of Summer, as their "Kiss Me Kiss Me" enters at No. 7. It's the latest in a string of preview tracks from the band's upcoming full-length self-titled debut. It previously released "She Looks So Perfect" (No. 14 peak), "Don't Stop" (No. 9) and "Good Girls" (No. 8).

Jason Derulo's "Wiggle," featuring , falls 6-8 with 128,000 (down 9 percent), and DJ Snake & Lil Jon 's "Turn Down For What" erodes 8-9 with 98,000 (down 16 percent). Charli XCX's "Boom Clap" closes out the top 10, as it drops 9-10 with 97,000 (down 16 percent).

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending June 22) totaled 4.55 million units, down 1 percent compared with the sum last week (4.61 million) and down 17 percent compared with the comparable sales week of 2013 (5.5 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 116.6 million, down 15 percent compared with the same total at this point last year (137 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 21 million downloads, down 3 percent compared with last week (21.5 million) and down 21 percent stacked next to the comparable week of 2013 (26.5 million). Year-to-date track sales are at 572.1 million, down 13 percent compared with the same total at this point last year (657 million).

Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2013 when: Wale's The Gifted opened at No. 1 with 158,000, while Kanye West's Yeezus fell 1-3 with 65,000 (down 80 percent in its second week).
This story first appeared on Billboard.com.

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Lana Del Rey Lands First No. 1 Album On Billboard 200

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Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey captures her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as Ultraviolence bows atop the list. The album, which was released June 17, sold 182,000 in the week ending June 22, according to Nielsen SoundScan - her best sales week yet.

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Aged 26, Lana released what is technically her second album, Born To Die. A lot of people do consider this to be her debut as it was her first professionally produced and recorded album. This collection of songs bought her overnight success and was her true breakthrough in the industry. It went straight to number one in eleven countries and went on to be sold 3.4 million times that year and making it the fifth highest selling in 2012. The star always opted for telling her story through music over making money so this album is an authentic reflection of her soul.

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Lana Del Rey was just 26 when her first professionally produced album, Born To Die, was released, gaining her overnight success. But it had taken her the best part of ten years to get to that point. Having begun singing as a teenager, by the time she released what was essentially her debut album (a self-titled album was given a limited digital release in 2010, but was withdrawn soon after), on 27 January 2012, everything she'd been working on culminated in one remarkable moment.

Revealing her motives for making music, Lana told Vogue magazine she was more interested in telling her story, rather than making money, concluding, in her ever-authentic manner, "Oh, I don't think I'll write another record. What would I say? I feel like everything I wanted to say, I've already said."
Listen to Born To Die on Apple Music and Spotify.
"People have really responded to it"

Lana began singing aged 17, in Brooklyn, sometimes using the name Lizzy Grant while struggling to gain attention. Born To Die marked a turning point, however, with the singer co-writing every song on the album and filtering a decade's worth of creative ideas into one life-changing moment.

To gauge an early reaction to her music, Del Rey released the song 'Video Games', in October 2011. "I just put that song online a few months ago because it was my favourite," she told The Observer. "To be honest, it wasn't going to be the single but people have really responded to it." Indeed, the promo clip for 'Video Games' went viral, gaining 20 million views within five months.

"People weren't taking me seriously, so I lowered my voice"

With the likes of Katy Perry and Britney Spears still dominating pop music in the early 21st Century, a younger generation of fans entered the 2010s seeking something new. Lana's stripped-back music, performed with live instrumentation and unique vocals, offered them the sound they were looking for; the purity of emotion she drew upon added that extra depth for fans to identify with.

Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue's 2012 Lana Del Rey cover issue, explained why the singer stood out among the pack, holding her own against the juggernaut success of Adele's 21: "I am one of the many thousands of people enraptured by the throaty, seductive voice of Lana Del Rey... Once I had seen Lana play at a small event in London, I was convinced that she would be a great."

Lana's haunting vocals hadn't always been so distinctive, but as she told the Daily Star in 2011, "People weren't taking me seriously, so I lowered my voice, believing it would help me stand out." Moulding herself after vulnerable feminine icons such as Marilyn Monroe, the breathy tone she developed ensured she would be noticed.

Ride or die

Born To Die's title track became the album's second single, released in December 2011, with a video by French director and songwriter Yoann Lemoine. Shot at the Palace Of Fontainebleau, the 'Born To Die' clip marked the first time that filming had been allowed in the château, which had been home to the royal family for seven centuries. The building's glamour pervaded other areas of Born To Die: many of the album's songs revel in the mystique of celebrity, invoke Hollywood landmarks such as the Chateau Marmont, or nod to 60s movie stars and the monied inhabitants of LA and The Hamptons.

Referencing one of her biggest influences, hip-hop ("You were sort of punk rock, I grew up on hip-hop"), 'Blue Jeans' emerged as the album's third single, in April 2012, and found Lana's trademark sultry vocals riding a guitar bassline and a hip-hop beat, punctuated by a sample of Rick James shouting "sing" to a crowd. The song also contains powerful lyrics about the importance of love over everything else ("'Cause I'ma ride or die/Whether you fail or fly/... I will love you till the end of time"), and includes a by-now habitual Hollywood reference - in this case, 50s movie star James Dean.

Raw and perfectly sculpted

Born To Die isn't all glamour, however. Lana created some controversy with the track 'Lolita' with its obvious references to the Vladimir Nabokov novel centred around a middle-aged man obsessed with the young girl of the title. She also referenced the book's opening in the 'Off To The Races' lyric "Light of my life, fire in my loins".

But the controversy did little to derail the singer - rather, it aided Lana's ascent. She has come a long way since the success of Born To Die: building from a cottage-industry talent into one of the biggest stars in the world, she can now command the attention of the era-defining artists that came before her (2017's Lust For Life found her working with no less than Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks).

As arguably the most powerful moment in her career, however, Born To Die still resonates. Raw and perfectly sculpted, Lana infused every moment with uncensored emotion, tapping into her fans' feelings at the same time. It's where the unassuming, somewhat ordinary Lizzy Grant became the global phenomenon we now know as Lana Del Rey.
Born To Die can be bought here.
Listen to the best of Lana Del Rey on Apple Music and Spotify.

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'Born To Die': Behind Lana Del Rey's Life-Changing Debut Album

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Lana Del Rey was just 26 when her first professionally produced album, Born To Die, was released, gaining her overnight success. But it had taken her the best part of ten years to get to that point.

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In 2020, it was announced that Lana would cover You'll Never Walk Alone featuring in the Liverpool Football Club documentary, The End Of The Storm. All proceeds from the track would be donated to the LFC Foundation. This came from her being a supporter of the team through her manager.

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Lana Del Rey has debuted an a-capella cover of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', which will feature in a new documentary focusing on the fortunes of Liverpool FC.

The track originally featured in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical 'Carousel', but a 1963 cover version by Gerry & The Pacemakers has been the long-standing anthem of the Premier League champions.

Debuting her cover on Instagram, Del Rey shared a black-and-white video which sees her performing an a-capella rendition of the classic track.

"You'll never walk alone- accapella. For the new documentary about Liverpool," she wrote.

The full details of the documentary are yet to be revealed.

The new effort comes after Del Rey returned with new single ' Let Me Love You Like A Woman ', the first track to arrive from her upcoming album 'Chemtrails Over The Country Club'.

Reviewing the track, NME's Rhian Daly described it as " a swooning ode to starting anew ".

The album was pushed back from its original date in September this year, but could arrive in January 2021.

"Because of the vinyl process being 11 weeks, it could be, like, January 7th," she told fans at a recent signing for her poetry book, Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass.

The new album follows on from 2019's ' Norman Fucking Rockwell '.

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Lana Del Rey debuts 'You'll Never Walk Alone' cover from new Liverpool FC documentary

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Lana Del Rey has debuted an a-capella cover of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', which will feature in a new documentary focusing on the fortunes of Liverpool FC. The track originally featured in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical 'Carousel', but a 1963 cover version by Gerry & The Pacemakers has been the long-standing anthem of the Premier League champions.

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2011 was the breakout year for the star, she uploaded a video onto YouTube titled 'Video Games' which was self-made and recorded. This happened to be one of the best career moves Lana ever made as it led to her being signed by Stranger Records and making the song her debut single. She then went on to be signed on a joint deal with Interscope Records and Polydor.

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The enduring legacy of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’

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Five years on, the ethereal introduction to the singer’s ‘Hollywood Sadcore’ sounds even better when experienced without the early arguments of inauthenticity

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After her high school graduation, Elizabeth Woolridge Grant moved to Long Island to live with her aunt and uncle who taught her how to play the guitar, this inspired her to begin writing songs. She officially started her journey into music after moving back to New York City in 2004 aged 18. The star wasn't born into fame, but she was born into money as her parents were millionaires so this gave her the opportunity to attend Fordham University and begin recording her own music. The year 2005 is when she first tried to get her name out there by registering applications for two ep's under the stage name of May Jailer. Later on, in 2006 she went onto record an acoustic album under the same name however, this was never officially released but leaked online in 2012.

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Lana released her self-titled debut album, Lana Del Rey, in 2010 with 5 Points records. It is notable that she originally went with the spelling of Ray rather than the Rey we know her as now. Her father being wealthy came as an advantage for her during this time in particular as he was able to help with the marketing side of things. Only four months after the release, the album was pulled from iTunes sales and didn't perform as expected due to the lack of funding from the label.

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Lana used multiple stage names before settling on Lana Del Rey after the release of her first album. May Jailer, Lizzy Grant and Lana Del Ray were all used before she finally settled on Lana Del Rey in late 2010. Inspiration for the name came from trips to Miami and the seaside as well as actress Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey sedan.

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Fans of Lana Del Rey's early music likely already know that the moniker isn't her real name. In fact, Del Rey, who was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, cycled through a few different stage names in her early years.

She even released a couple of recorded plays under the name of May Jailer, plus an acoustic album, that was later leaked online.

But as for the title of Lana Del Rey, how did the artist, who is an American singer with Scottish roots, come up with the Spanish-inspired name? While she's far from the only celebrity to change her name for Hollywood, Del Rey's inspiration might be a little different than most.

RELATED: Fans Are Begging Lana Del Rey To Stop Posting Photos Of Queen Elizabeth II And The Late Prince Philip

To hear the singer herself tell it, she did choose the name for its Spanish meaning, but the inspiration came from some Cuban friends of hers. Though she grew up in New York, Lana told years ago that she came up with her stage name while "going to Miami quite a lot" with friends.

Those friends, she elaborated, were from Cuba, so Del Rey spent lots of time chatting with them in Spanish. Literally translated, the surname means "of the king," but the songstress noted that she and her friends loved the entire name because "Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue."

But how did she come up with those particular words and decide to use them as a name? There was inspiration coming from elsewhere, too, noted Independent. For one thing, Del Rey comes from the "vintage Ford" of the same name, the publication notes. And Lana was derived from the "glamorous - but deeply troubled" film noir actress Lana Turner.

Independent points out that Lana Turner is a relevant influence on Lana Del Rey's career in that the songstress is super into film noir. Of course, the journalist behind the Independent piece did point out that the name and the "pop persona who looked and sounded like a dangerous noir heroine" that Lana created also had "submissive" "Forties housewife" vibes.

When Lana herself explains the origins of the name, it sounds far tamer than that publication's interpretation. But it doesn't mean they're far off; Lana has said that feminism isn't of interest to her, and she seems to delight in playing different characters in each of her songs, albums, plays, and other creative projects. She also changes her hairstyles and colors just as often.

As she once said to Vogue, her mother told her that as a child, she had no real personality; the fluctuations in her persona meant it was tough to pigeonhole her. And maybe the name Lana Del Rey just encompasses everything romantic, edgy, and every other adjective about the singer.

NEXT: The Truth About Lana Del Rey's Mesh Mask (& Other Drama She's Faced Recently)

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Here's How Lana Del Rey Chose Her Stage Name

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Fans of Lana Del Rey's early music likely already know that the moniker isn't her real name. In fact, Del Rey, who was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, cycled through a few different stage names in her early years. She even released a couple of recorded plays under the name of May Jailer, plus an acoustic album, that was later leaked online.