Forget what you've heard and listen to the music. Lana Del Rey is a sweet girl with a radiant voice and maybe a demon or two. Her debut album is called Born to Die, but Lana’s just trying to live. Haters, fall back.
This feature appears in Complex's February/March 2012 issue.
Hers was a dramatic setup.
White balloons flashing corroded cartoon clips and ghostly images of President John F. Kennedy—all set to the creepy strains of Bernard Herrmann’s Pyscho theme. The fans kept coming through the door, filling New York’s Bowery Ballroom to capacity. The band stood at attention, poised for action as Lana Del Rey strolled on stage to squeals and whistles. Dressed in a summery white dress, gold belt, and low white Chuck Taylors, the tall red-haired singer looked more like she was ready to grab an ice-cream sandwich from Mr. Softee than perform her first proper concert in NYC.
And then the trouble began.
The microphone worked, but the band’s sound failed. So she stood and waited.
“Where’s the music?” an impatient fan blurted out.
“It’s coming, bitch,” Lana snapped in a playfully bratty way. “Fucking technical difficulties up here.”
Moments later she launched into “Without You,” a wrenching, never-before-heard album cut from Born to Die, her highly anticipated major-label debut, due to be released on Interscope Records January 31. Rising to the occasion, she sounded ever more radiant as she ran through the spellbinding web hits “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans.”
As strong as her videos may be, with Lana it’s mostly the voice. Her haunting tones and evocative lyrics strike some powerful chords, but she doesn’t do much on stage besides sing. “My real fans know I’m not a showstopper on stage,” she’ll explain later. “I don’t have fucking circus lights. I just don’t care. My fans are there because they want to hear the record live. Everyone else is just there to see what happens.”
That “everyone else” would be Lana's infamous Internet audience—the folks who watch her clips over and over and then fill comment sections with snarky remarks about her lips, her hair, and all the personal business she puts into her music.
You keep telling me you love me and you don't even know me.
The press jumped on the bandwagon, dogging Lana even as they rode the wave of her rapid rise to stardom. Most reviews of her Bowery Ballroom show mistook her sarcastic banter for shrill scolding. Between songs Lana seemed emotionally naked, somewhere between self-effacing and insecure. Her nerves never showed during a song, but when the music stopped it was another story. Critics focused on that uneasiness.
“Shut up, shut up,” she said when the crowd’s applause seemed to last too long, as if unwilling to let the cheers wash over her.
“Lana, I love you,” screamed a fan, pronouncing her name wrong. “It’s Lon-ah,” she corrected, sounding like a girl telling a guy to slow down on the first date. “You keep telling me you love me and you don’t even know me.”
After the show, while she was greeting Interscope execs and staff, Lana was asked whether her “Aw shucks” persona was tongue in cheek. Did she really feel like the performance wasn’t worthy of all the love she got? “If I was dope I wouldn’t have said, ‘Shut up,’” she answered flatly. Of all the critics the singer has to please, none is tougher than she is on herself.
jason chu January 24th, 2012 at 02:55 PM
That's cool, Complex. Call her performance "ever more radiant" and downplay (i.e., absolutely ignore) her millionaire-family background, while playing up her aspirations to social work? Oh, and the millions of record-company money going into constructing that image? I like the girl's music. But I Don't Believe the Hype(beast).
steez January 24th, 2012 at 03:20 PM
get a life man
Wind January 24th, 2012 at 08:38 PM
Eff off steez.
Declan January 24th, 2012 at 11:49 PM
How much did her rich daddy pay to have this article written?
SwaGMEN Chris January 24th, 2012 at 11:54 PM
Why you hating doe? Don't be mad cuz you ain't shit doe. I LOVE NEW YORK NEW YORK GIANTS WINNING DA SUPERBOWL LANA DEL REY I WANNA DATE HER TO SEE WHAT SHE ALL ABOUT AND WHEN I GET TO KNOW HER IF ALL IS GOD MA I WANNA MARRY YOU! Declan=failure son!
Declan January 25th, 2012 at 06:52 AM
Wow. It's so rare to encounter an actual medically retarded person on the internet. Mind if I take a blood sample? You know, for science.
kevin January 30th, 2012 at 06:15 PM
Declan, your response made me laugh really hard. And I'm a scientist (seriously).
suckitmarshall January 25th, 2012 at 09:19 AM
Who gives a fuck if her folks have money or don't? The songs are good. Bob Dylan was a complete fraud and made some of the most significant songs of the 20th century. If you don't like the music, that's fine, but hating on someone because they're beautiful or born affluent is the corniest shit ever.
Declan January 25th, 2012 at 10:13 AM
How much did her rich daddy pay you to post that comment?
TotallyAgree January 31st, 2012 at 06:41 PM
1thing iDon't understand whyTry toDeceive theConsumer theMusic isFantastic eitherLove itOr leave itAlone FYI* theBeats areSick &theLyrics areDope Enough toCure Them
sicknastywitit January 25th, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Not for nothing, journalist should fact check. "Homegirl" graduated from Fordham University. Done sat with her in classes during her senior (final) year.
Kerda January 25th, 2012 at 02:43 PM
I would agree that much of the internet backlash aimed at Ms. Grant has been a bit extreme, but her meteoric rise over the course of 6 months, from viral video obscurity to Interscope record deals and SNL performances before she's even released an album, has been equivalently extreme. Such is the vicious cycle of internet insta-celebrity, as breakneck fast as it is heartbreak cruel. But this article very much reads as hagiography. It makes a concerted effort to downplay the most odious aspects of her backstory (having a millionaire daddy to fund her roleplaying ventures), and casually brushes off all critiques as just examples of "haters gon' hate". I'm all for letting Lizzy have her moment in the sun and giving people a chance to judge the album on its own merits, but there's no denying that Lana feels in a way like the Lehman Brothers of pop music, the bursting of a cultural bubble, where the baseless nature of modern music is laid bare to even the most casual observer.
angeline January 26th, 2012 at 04:17 AM
It´s not her on that moped, it´s some Swedish guys. There´s even an interview with them up on youtube.
LOLSH January 26th, 2012 at 02:53 PM
HATERS GON' HATE!!
Lama Dell PC January 30th, 2012 at 09:36 PM
suckas gon suck.
2257 January 26th, 2012 at 07:18 PM
I could give one shit about any of it. Homegirl is hot. Music is dope. Done dada. What? So her daddy's got some bread? If your pops had loot, you'd use it, too. You trying to tell me if your folks were filthy rich and offered you opportunities, you'd be like, "Nah. Thanks, though. Do this one on my own." Hell nah. You'd deposit that check with the quickness and get to doing your hustle. I don't give a fuck if they actually manufactured Lana in a Chinese factory using child labor. She's still talented. And beats some random, junkie broad wearing a meat dress and showing her sandwich on stage. WTF.
Justin January 26th, 2012 at 07:40 PM
I really do like Lana. She's awesome. I completely get her, too. Sometimes we take people so seriously - as if they're god-like figures solely because they're in the limelight, and we ultimately forget that they're just human beings with the same emotions and desires as everyone else. She fucked up her SNL performance. So what? The girl can sing. She's proved it many times, and it's all the proof I need. I admire her because she "rose from the ashes" and reinvented herself; developed a persona reflective of her inner being. She's got a strong heart, from what I can see. If I had a choice, I'd love to meet her... but I have no idea how. Oh well! All I know is that I'm working on my life and it's inspiring to see someone fall perfectly in place... almost meteorically... within the pop culture landscape. I'm a visual artist: a painter, a designer, a photographer... an artist. And I feel as though living a nameless life isn't for me. It's not why I am on this earth. Some people can live with it... I don't think Lana could have, and that's why I feel comforted by her success. She took the bull by the horns and got what she wanted in the end. Hell, she even wrote a song about it called "Radio". Proud of you! Can't wait to see where your journey takes you.
plokzee January 26th, 2012 at 11:15 PM
gotta say, her PR team is doing a great job with these comments. Dunno how much daddy's paying them, but he's getting his moneys worth.
Declan January 27th, 2012 at 06:56 AM
Seriously. I ran a syntax analyzer on the comments in this thread; all of the positive comments come from two distinct styles of writing, meaning two people. I'll betcha they were posted from the same IP too. With a support team like this, LDR doesn't have to have any actual talent, yeah?
Holyladies!!! January 27th, 2012 at 10:54 AM
@Declan the time you put into posting how fake this Lana chick is, is time you could've been using to see enough success to remove all that bitterness. She blew up off one song, her SNL performance was terrible, but (I feel) she made a good album. Whether she did or not however isn't your concern if you don't like her, are you really going to read an article and then comment on it? You realise people like you are why she's famous? If you took all the youtube hate away, you'd have a good song that was at a push a moderate hit. But when everyone tells everyone else to look at this chicks fake lips, fake hair, bad voice, the views go up, and now she has a record deal. So really if anyone's being paid by the pr team it's you. And just incase her daddy decides to cut her off from her trust fund, why don't you spend more of your time hating and get her mansion?
Litmus January 29th, 2012 at 07:28 AM
@ Declan: Damn, are you a spambot? You just keep posting the same useless comment over and over again!
Declan's IP Comment January 31st, 2012 at 03:23 PM
I was just thinking the same thing!!
Justin January 27th, 2012 at 07:21 AM
You people are seriously nuts in the head. Do you honestly think I'm some "PR" guy from Lana's team? Too hysterical... I wish I was, though. Sorry to disappoint.
homer January 28th, 2012 at 09:25 PM
I actually like what I've heard from her, despite the awkward stage presence & bad personality. But this article is embarrassing. She's a very plain looking woman made kind of ugly by the inflated top lip. Nobody is hating on her because of "beauty", there are a few legitimate things to pick on.