Invented beauty
Decadent Hollywood star, ingenue little posh or hoochie from the periphery, all of that fits in the persona Lana Del Rey created for herself. – By Harold Von Kursk
One video made with a collage of images on Youtube made her a sensation of the alternative music. And a super critized performance on TV turned her into an overnight pop star. If you think the path that Lana Del Rey, 26 years old, made until she came to the top was a little bit weird, you're very right – her universe is very strange, indeed. In the beginning of 2011, Lana was Lizzy Grant, a singer with bleached blonde hair (and lips way thinner) who circulated around the record labels seeking a contract. Until that, in june of that year she put on internet the ballad Video Games, along with nostalgic images she chose by herself. With her new name, lips and trendy retro look, she caught the attention of bloggers and journalists and her course started to change. Everything almost went down the drain in January, when her performance on the TV show Saturday Night Live, from NBC network, was crushed down by the critic. But the effect was the opposite: 15 days after, her album Born to Die, a collection of glamorous and dark songs, came to the stores and went right to the first place in charts of seven countries. She just released her 6th video from her album, Summertime Sadness (Lana now makes superproduced videos). And she is the face of the new campaign of H&M. Full of tricks or talented? GLOSS saw one of her shows in New York, in June and assures: both things. Fake, fragile, beautiful, bold, modern – she is all of that. Just not a conventional singer.
GLOSS: You became a celebrity overnight. How do you see this so immediate success?
LDR: I'm surprised! I didn't expect this, specially after being ignored for 6 years. I couldn't get my songs to be played and I had a lot of difficulty to settle shows. Everybody was complaining that my songs were too long and dark and that it would be impossible to commercialize them. They said that the video of Video Games was weird and scary [laughs]. It's very funny that now I have a contract [with Universal Music] and a team working with me.
GLOSS: You moved from Connecticut to New York at age 18 and went to study at Fordham University. How the experience influenced your music?
LDR: Being in New York was a very lonely experience, but also very stimulating in many ways. I met weird people, others wonderful and some not very nice. All of that enriched my music and what I wanted to say. I had to struggle to have my rent's money and to be able to afford others expenses. I know this sounds kinda cliché but that is what happened.
GLOSS: Do you still feel alone nowadays?
LDR: No, I feel better. I believe that, when someone finally has a success and people feel touched by your music, the sensation of satisfaction appears. But some of my songs still talk about the disappointment of finding an incredible person and things not working out. Being alone and not feeling deeply connected to no one isn't something easy to deal with.
GLOSS: By your lyrics, it seems that you lived some complicated break-ups.
LDR: It's hard to be with someone, waiting for something pretty to be born and then, suddenly, everything going wrong. I was with a person who I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with. We were clean and sober, and I needed someone who would respect that. But it didn't work out. When I thought I've had found someone who could take care of me and that I could take care too, I saw everything fall apart.
GLOSS: Are you shy?
LDR: I'm very introverted. I don't feel easily comfortable with people when I meet them and I get nervous when I start to talk.
GLOSS: Is that a problem when you sing live?
LDR: I think my shyness and my nervousness already became visible in some of my performances. I'm still learning how to deal with that. I keep telling myself to relax on stage, try to feel the music and not to think in what is around me.
GLOSS: Why do you think that, in a time of Lady Gaga and so many overstyled artists, people are critizing you so much for inventing a certain image for yourself?
LDR: Thanks for the observation! [Laughs.] I don't think I put a big effort on creating an image besides using dresses rather than exotic costumes. Sometimes the clothes are kinda retro, what matches my music and videos. And it's just that. I think my voice and and lyrics are provocative. But I don't get the rage level of some critics about me.
GLOSS: The music video for Video Games was the great responsible for the turning point in your career. Did you expect the material would have the impact it did?
LDR: I thought the images would catch attention and help me to have more followers on the internet. And that maybe it would be good when seeking a contract with some record label. I never thought it would be so watched [the video has today more than 60 millions of views]. I dedicated myself a lot to the material and it gave me a great creative satisfaction. So, I'm proud of people liking it so much.
GLOSS: Many people invented thousand of theories to interpret what the images of the video are meant to say...
LDR: The truth is that I had no money to make a video, then I started to make experiences with the images. I think it increased the impact of the music, but when I see the music video nowadays I feel like changing a lot of things, specially the images of myself. Now that I have a contract with a record label and money to produce, I'm very happy for not having to make my self videos. I participate in the process, but I love the fact of being able to work with real professionals. I prefer to concentrate in the songs.
GLOSS: Why is "Born to Die" the title of the album?
LDR: In childhood, I kind of freaked out when I realized that my mom, my dad and everybody I knew would die someday. I think that, somehow, this philosophical crisis stayed with me and reappeared in the time I had to give a title to the album.
GLOSS: In some interviews, you said that music isn't the most important thing in your life. Is that true?
LDR: I like music and composing, it's just that it's not the fundamental point for me. I have interest in many things and I don't see my life only spinning around music, although I'm super-involved with that at the moment. But I'm very happy with my album and even more to know the amount of people that like my songs. I guess I should think about that and don't worry about nothing else. I would like people to think about me as a good person. Maybe it's ingenuity of me saying that, but that's what I am.
Building Lana
Where the singer went to find inspiration to create her cool visual
VERONICA LAKE
From the femme fatale from the 40's, Lana took the attitude and the hair
BRIGITTE BARDOT
The thick and slightly open lips are the mark of the french actress
AUDREY HEPBURN
Lana adores eyes well contoured with black eyeliner
PRISCILLA PRESLEY
Every now and then, Lana appears with the hairstyle that Elvis's ex used in the sixties
MORTICIA ADDAMS
One more embellishment of a femme fatale: huge nails!
KANYE WEST
Necklaces, rings and sneakers complete the visual
Idrk what to say basically I make cover art a lot and Lana Del Rey once posted it on FB/twitter which was cool here some of them are. Also I'm new as you can probably see from my, like, 0 posts. Oh well I hope you guys like the covers I hope I'm not doing something stupid wow.
On Our Way:
Summer Of Sam:
Lana Del Ray a.k.a. Lizzy Grant:
Prom Song (Gone Wrong):
and the one that was posted to Lana's official twitter/FB Last Girl on Earth: (except she cut off the song title probs because it's unreleased idk)
Also here's one that I haven't put on my tumblr yet because the song isn't out but I love the title so much and I thought to make a cover even though I don't have a song to put it on.
Come on guys...we can get through this first round. All of us need to vote...15% difference at the moment. When voting for the other challenges guys, vote strategically, for instance: Nicki Minaj v. Madonna - Vote Madonna because Lana has a chance of slaying Madonna.
I was bored so I decided to combine these two songs into one. They sound really similar so I figured it wouldn't be hard to make it sound like a naturally long song, instead of two songs just put together. Let me know what you think! I hope you guys like it and I hope that the transition sounds good to you. If I did it well enough, you shouldn't even be able to notice where PSB ends and MH begins!
Ride Premiere, Aero Theater: (pics in fan photos, I will not post spoilers)
Some lucky fans said they gave lana their # and are getting coffee w/ her after
She told a fan she was "worried no one would come"
Attendees got free snacks awww red bull
They played FULL songs from Paradise while they were waiting.. Including Blue Velvet + the new Yayo + COLA + GOD AND MONSTERS
A fan said Lana said "I love Gaga, maybe sooner than you think" to a fan when asked about a collab... @DelReyLane backs this up so... HOWEVER someone else (who I trust) said Lana basically shaded Gaga..
Apparently, one of her people or she herself (?) said it was her best video yet
A lot of people were crying at the end
Someone said hundreds of people, other thousands. Either way the theater is so small so I hope everyone that came gets to see it!!!
Q&A - Lana said she is touring next year, recorded "Yayo" for Paradise edition in one take to give it a jazz vibe, she said "I'd just ride motorcycles... and men" OMG, someone asked about collabs and she said that SHE HAS 2 VERY TALENTED PPL AT THE MOMENT
Wow, looks like I have a lot more faith than a lot of you!
She did say she got "clean" in a comment on the "Carmen" video, remember? A lot of people cite her stage presence as evidence for drug and alcohol use, but to be honest I think she's just weird. I'm usually not the optimist when it comes to her personal life, but I think even if she has slip-ups (been trying hard not to get into trouble), it's not something that she isn't working on.
I don't know if this is the right place to post this video I just saw on Tumblr, but I wanted to share it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfDjO_lZG8s
I never cease to be amazed at how genuinely kind and sweet Lana is! I think it's something to highlight, especially as the novelty effect of her stardom has probably worn off, but she still keeps that smile and warm heart, with an appreciative attitude and an open, present disposition. I really think she possesses the virtue of compassion, which is sadly so rare nowadays. Not many famous - heck, non-famous! - people are this nice. I had one good encounter and that was with bearded troubadour Devendra Banhart (he was lovely), but most stars are bitches. Disaffected irony is overrated.
Poison Ivy liked a post in a topic by c2528342 in Sirens - What Are Your Favourite Songs?
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