Lana Del Rey has quickly become one of the most influential and well-known names in music. Lana is most known for her classic albums, such as Born to Die or Norman Fucking Rockwell! She has also heavily been noted for her diverse quality in her discography, as well as her exploration of vintage popular culture. While her music career started nearly six years earlier, her true breakthrough came in 2011 with her release of “Video Games.” Following this single, she released Born to Die, and she found major success since then. Norman Fucking Rockwell! is certainly her most acclaimed album, being named number 321 on the Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. In more recent times, her collaboration with Taylor Swift on “Snow on the Beach,” in 2022, was her highest peak on the charts for a song.
Her newest release, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, has also found success, being nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. Apart from her music career, Lana has worked extensively with movies and Broadway plays. She has collaborated on many soundtracks including: The Great Gatsby, Maleficent, and Charlie’s Angels. She has also been a part of a handful of plays in Broadway, even being offered positions to write. Lana cites her main inspirations stemming from Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone to Bruce Springsteen and all the way to Eminem. She has inspired numerous artists herself, including Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, XXXTentacion, and even Taylor Swift. Lana has been a music icon for over a decade, so let’s explore her life more in depth.
Early Years
Elizabeth Grant was born on June 21, 1985, in New York City to parents Robert and Patricia. She grew up with a younger sister, named Caroline, and a younger brother, Charlie. When she was one year old, her family moved to Lake Placid, New York. It was there where she would start her music journey upon joining her church’s choir. In her early life, Lana found herself struggling with alcoholism. Her addiction was so strong that her parents sent her to Kent School to get sober. Coincidentally, her uncle worked at that institution and secured her financial aid to afford it. On top of her addiction, she struggled to make many friends in her teenage years, leading her to suffer from anxiety and constantly feel hopeless.
Upon graduating from Kent School, she moved in with her aunt and uncle on Long Island. She worked as a waitress to make some quick money, however, in her free time, her uncle taught her to play guitar. Once Lana learned guitar, she began to write songs and perform at local nightclubs. She slowly built her reputation up in the early 2000s and found minimal success. In the fall of 2004, Lana enrolled at Fordham University in The Bronx, electing to major in philosophy. Although her major read philosophy, throughout college Lana was destined to find a career in music, consistently building up her reputation.
Career Beginnings
Between 2005 and 2006, Lana, under her stage name of the May Jailer, recorded an acoustic album called Sirens. Although this project never hit the main stage, it was leaked in mid 2012. Her music career had officially started in 2007, where Lana submitted No Kung Fu, a demo tape, to an independent label, 5 Points. Upon listening to this demo tape, the label offered her a recording contract. She graduated from Fordham in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. Upon graduation, Lana used the money from the contract to relocate to a trailer park in 2018. Following this, she released a three-track EP, Kill Kill, this time under her new pseudonym: Lana Del Rey. The name came from a mixture of Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey sedan.
With the help of her father, Lana released her debut self-titled project. Her father mainly helped on the marketing of the album. Although the release was initially met with success, the project was withdrawn from iTunes in April 2010. Three months after the release of the project, she had desired out of her contract with 5 Point. Collaborating with Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, her managers, she successfully was helped out of her current label contract. This meant she was free to sign elsewhere, and inevitably, upon signing she began working on some of her most influential projects in her discography.
Breakthrough
In 2011, Lana released music videos for “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” to YouTube. Although the latter never caught the medias’ attention, “Video Games” was an instant hit, causing her to get signed to Stranger Records. In October 2011, “Video Games” won her a Q award for “Next Big Thing.” In the same month, Lana signed a joint deal with Polydor and Interscope Records. Immediately after signing this contract, they began work on Born to Die. It was the same year when she started to date Scottish singer Barrie-James O’Neill, of whom split in 2014. On the positive side, Born to Die was released on January 31, 2012, debuting at number two on the US Billboard 200. The album also charted in eleven countries, including the US.
Aside from her musical breakthrough, this success provided Lana with many different opportunities outside of her music world. In 2012, she started recording advertisements for H&M and Jaguar. She released a music video alongside her promotion of the newest Jaguar car coming out later in the year. She eventually in 2019 also began promoting Gucci, as she became major face of the company. Her interest in writing plays and movies also had begun to gain traction. Although many of which never gained major traction, Lana has provided much insight into a handful of movies and Broadway plays.
Musical Peak
In 2012, Lana had also released a standalone release, Paradise, which peaked in the top 10 in the United States. Immediately after its completion, she began to work on Ultraviolence. The recording and writing process had begun in 2012. The project, however, was release in 2014, debuting at number one in 12 different countries. In its first week, Ultraviolence had sold 880,000 copies. It was right around this she began dating Francesco Carrozzini, a photographer who she had worked with previously. The couple split a little over a year later in November 2015. Her next major release was Lust for Life, which was released on July 21, 2017. This marked her first project written for her fans and not herself. It was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Grammy Awards, however, she lost.
Lana had found major success in arguably her best album, Norman Fucking Rockwell! It was released in August 2019, almost a whole year after it was announced. The album had charted wonderfully and was nominated and won many awards. It is not arguable that this project is one of her most commercially successful albums in her discography. While completing Norman Fucking Rockwell!, she began writing a Broadway musical, to which there is little known about. Jumping to the 2020s, she released Chemtrails over the Country Club on March 19, 2021. It was initially slated for 2020, however, a delay in vinyl manufacturing pushed the date a year back.
Present
Tragedy struck in October 2022, when Lana’s car was broken into. At the time, she was working on a poetry book and a lot of new music. A laptop, a 200-page manuscript, hard drives containing unfinished music, and many family videos were taken. Although this stunted her musical growth that year, she remained positive. Only five months later, she released her newest project, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. This project has been nominated for many Grammys in 2024 and has been praised universally. Ocean Blvd brough Lana’s name back into stardom and was a successful revitalization of a career that didn’t necessarily need it.
Discography
- Lana Del Rey (2010)
- Born to Die (2012)
- Ultraviolence (2014)
- Honeymoon (2015)
- Lust for Life (2017)
- Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019)
- Chemtrails over the Country Club (2021)
- Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023)
Accolades
Brit Awards –
- International Breakthrough Act (2012)
- International Female Solo Artist (2013)
GQ Men of the Year Awards –
- Woman of the Year (2012)
Rolling Stone –
- #175 on “Top 200 Greatest Singers of All Time”
Charts
Peak Solo Chart – “Summertime Sadness” – Peaked at #6
Longest Weeks on Chart – “Summertime Sadness” – Spent 23 Weeks on Chart
Number of Top 10 Songs on Chart – 2 Songs
Peak Album Chart – Ultraviolence, Lust for Life – Peaked at #1
Longest Album Chart – Born to Die – Spent 517 Weeks on Chart
Number of Top 10 Albums on Chart – 9 Albums
Peak Artist Chart – Lana Del Rey – Peaked at #2 on 08.12.17
Final Notes
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