Spill The Tea: Lana Del Rey
POV: It’s 2019, “Norman F---ing Rockwell!” is named best album by Pitchfork and Lana Del Rey is riding the high of the success of her 6th full studio album. Lana was in most ways, peaking, and receiving notary as a decade defining artist by multiple publications.
Fast forward to 2021, and Ms. Del Ray has saturated the media once again. However, the past year has had us talking about her controversial behavior, rather than her dreamy songs and old Hollywood glamour. The same publications that praised her in 2019 are now extremely critical of the 35 year old singer, which is fitting for someone who has managed to effectively sabotage her own reputation.
Since the fallen indie-pop queen has been involved in multiple scandals in the past year, I've gone ahead and made a timeline of how Lana ruined Lana to break it down for you.
#1 - Lana shared a letter on her Instagram in May 2020, which she poses as a “question for the culture” which started it all.
Her seemingly out of nowhere rant basically drags 7 female artists, just to defend critiques (that didn't really exist) that her lyrics glamorize abuse. There seems to be no clear trigger as to why Lana felt the need to defend her music; NFR was nominated for album of the year and all press was basically glowing reviews.
It's so cringe that she is basically defending herself for her form of feminist, while criticizing other female artists in the process for expressing their sexuality. Does she not see the irony?
Also, 6 of the 7 singers she decided to drag down are women of color, which sparked accusations and fair points about racism. Ashley Reese puts it perfectly in Jezebel: "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".
#2- Lana defends herself in the comments, and does it really wrong – perhaps the worst response to racist accusations ever. Del Rey literally says "I don't care anymore but don't ever ever ever ever bro- call me racist because that is bulls---."
Lana effectively labeled herself as a racist, and one that doesn’t care anymore! There is a Youtube video that unpacks all of this really well.
#3- Del Rey posts a second Instagram statement that accuses her scrutinizers of wanting to incite a race war. WTF? She paints herself as a victim and double’s down on the same racist stereotypes.
#4 - On May 25, 2020 Del Rey attempts to defend her second letter in a 6 minute instagram video, where she continues victimizing herself, plugs her poetry book, drops the name of her upcoming album Chemtrails Over the Country Club, and compares herself to another woman of color all while insisting she's “not racist.” Some are suspicious that she was pulling a big stunt for press for her upcoming projects.
#5 - In October, Lana vilified herself again by wearing a mesh mask to a book signing for her poetry book ”Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass” in L.A, the city most affected by COVID-19 in the U.S. Many critics called her out on her privilege and lack of concern for the global pandemic.
Lana later defends herself claiming that the mask was plastic lined.
#6 - January 10th, 2021, Lana reveals the cover art for her upcoming album. The Chemtrails Over the Country Club art shows Del Rey smiling surrounded by friends around a table, depicted in black and white.
After months of being called racist, critics found the lack of diversity on the cover completely tone deaf.
Lana’s response: “We are all a beautiful mix of everything – some more than others which is visible and celebrated in everything I do," she wrote. "In 11 years working I have always been extremely inclusive without even trying to. My best friends are rappers and 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."
Lana dug herself in a deeper racist hole by basically saying rappers are all a specific race or ethnicity, which would be black in her perspective. Also she just randomly keeps trying to distinguish herself from a Trump supporter, a weird common theme in these defence posts.
#7 - In an interview with the BBC on January 11th, Lana brings up the Capitol riot again.
She believes the last four years with Trump were necessary for the country stating "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. Especially in America. It’s going to kill the world. It’s not capitalism, it’s narcissism. I was surprised we didn’t have a live-television psychopath crazy person as a president a long time ago because that’s what we see on TV and that’s what we see on Instagram."
On January 11th, Lana addresses the pushback of the tweets in a 95 second video on Twitter, along with a defensive thread.
Following Lana’s downfall really shows how she effectively ruined her own image and painted herself as a deranged racist.
With a 7th album dawning, I can only hope this was a drawn out publicity stunt for a really fire album. Nonetheless, there’s really no excuse for her behavior.
So what do you think, is Lana cancelled?
