Lana del Rey, not a patriot: “I don’t feel like, ‘Rah, rah, America!’ F— that sh-t”

Lana del Rey

These are photos of Lana Del Rey performing live in Dublin and London, which is shocking to me because after her disastrous turn on “SNL,” I would think that live performances were permanently out the figurative door. I gather from this new interview in the Summer 2013 issue of Electronic Beats (which describes Lana as a “divisive pop phenomenon“) that Lana is still pulling wool over the eyes of international audiences. Which could explain her apparent distaste for her native U.S., but we’ll get to that in a moment.

This interview is much like Lana’s other discussions in recent years where she calmly and unironically claims that her work is important and she deserves respect, but she clearly has not paid her dues thus far. And despite Lana’s emphatic declarations that her pu–sy tastes like Pepsi and that should be enough, I’m not seeing any true artistic integrity. Lana has also notoriously claimed that she wants to be like Angelina Jolie in the humanitarian sense, but in this interview, she sort of admits that all of her “good deeds” are community-service based for the drug and alcohol rehabilitation that followed her teenage diagnosis of alcoholism. So in a sense, Lana appears to claim enlightenment from something that was essentially the product of a plea bargain.

Am I being too harsh in my assessment of Lizzie Grant’s fakeness? At least Lana has paid some societal dues without argument (unlike Lindsay Lohan), but she’s still pretty clueless about her place in pop culture. Whatever the case, Lana would like us all to know that her daddy is not rich and did not buy her a record contract (or a Vogue UK cover) as certain rumors would suggest. Here’s more strange claims from this interview, if you can handle it:

Lana del Rey

She’s, like, a gypsy: “I haven’t talked to an American journalist in, like, forever. I think America is amazing for its landscape and its history. California is beautiful, New York is beautiful, but when you’re a gypsy at heart, it probably suits you to be traveling. I don’t feel that way as much as I used to. I actually don’t feel that way that much anymore, but when I was younger I used to really want to have an unpredictable life where I could feel free and travel anywhere I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. I actually really like California now, although I’ve never lived there before. I like the idea of living in one place now. I grew up in Lake Placid, New York until I was fifteen, and then I went to boarding school for three years in Connecticut. Then I moved to the Bronx when I was almost eighteen.”

Everything you’ve ever read about Lana is wrong: “The first day that anyone ever wrote about me, as soon as I put ‘Video Games’ up. Everything they wrote was f*ing crazy. Like about my dad, about me, like having millions of dollars, and all this sh-t. I was like, ‘Really? I thought I was supporting everyone!’ Everything was not true. As soon as the first person wrote about me, the articles became just blatant, all-out lies. I consider it slander. If I cared more, I’d kill them. Yeah, but none of it’s true. I spent the last ten years in community service and writing folk songs. I don’t give a f–k about what I look like. Saying I came from billions of dollars is crazy. We never had any money. I feel, as a person who grew up reading about and being inspired by other figures with integrity, to kind of be turned into the antithesis of that is not what I planned. It’s the way it’s going right now, but I deal with it as it comes.”

Lana does politics: “Well, it’s complicated because everything has changed for me. Before I had no money. And now everything I make, I lose. So I don’t have money again, because I lose half. Healthcare reform–that needed to be addressed. I still don’t have health insurance because I haven’t been back to the United States since the time when I couldn’t afford healthcare because it was seven hundred dollars a month.”

She feels unloved by American media: “Well, no one was really asking me for interviews, so there wasn’t really a reason to stay. Musically, I wouldn’t really work there because I wouldn’t know where to sing. I had a million shows lined up here, so that’s kind of why I went. And I didn’t really have any shows there. I mean, I could play on Sunset Strip and stuff. I could go back to New York . . . I think that my love for America has now become contained to the more specific things I appreciate about it. Like driving up the coast from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara–simple stuff like that. In terms of what I maybe thought it stood for, I don’t know. But other than that, I don’t feel like, ‘Rah, rah, America!’ F— that sh-t [laughing].”

She’s proud to be white trash? “I did move into a trailer park when I made my first record. I got ten grand from Five Points Records and moved into Manhattan Mobile Home in New Jersey. And I was happy, because I was doing it for myself. There was a white trash element in the way there was a time that I didn’t want to be a part of mainstream society because I thought it was gross. I was trying to carve my own piece of the pie in a creative way that I kind of knew how. And I thought it was cool to be living by myself and working with a famous producer. I was excited about the future at the time.”

She’s so not mainstream: “And now, still, I’m in my own world. It’s kind of like neither here nor there–musically and socially, and whatever. Me and Barrie [-James O’Neill, her boyfriend from band Kassidy], we don’t have too many friends in music, or people that we know who are kind of doing the same thing. We do our own thing. It’s all about the writing. It used to all be about the service work through the drug and alcohol rehabilitation, which I haven’t worked in in two years now. But it’s always been about the art.”

There is hope on the horizon: “I’m not that interested in putting out another album.”

[From Electronic Beats]

Here’s the thing — I have no problem with Lana being critical of the United States if she has a valid argument or even explains one single, solitary reason for her position. Yet all she’s talking about here is her distain for “flyover country,” which doesn’t wash. So what if she loves California and New York and nothing else, but she needs to provide a rationale, or I shall merely shrug my shoulders.

Lana del Rey

Lana del Rey

Photos courtesy of WENN

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97 Responses to “Lana del Rey, not a patriot: “I don’t feel like, ‘Rah, rah, America!’ F— that sh-t””

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  1. marie says:

    Dear Lana or Lizzie, you’re unloved by the American media because your vocal skills are severely lacking. Your SNL gig was almost as bad as Ashlee Simpsons, but at least you were really singing so you rank just a bit higher.

    How exactly is she white trash when her daddy has money? didn’t her daddy buy her career?

    • Mrs. Peacock says:

      It’s all good because I’m not like “Rah Rah ‘Lana’,” and this is a rare time when a story of supposed humble upbringings makes me want to barf directly into her augmented mouth, likea bird, just a really sweatty, annoyed one.

      • Tiffany :) says:

        “It’s all good because I’m not like “Rah Rah ‘Lana’”

        My thoughts exactly!

    • TG says:

      Britney Spears is white trash to the core and se has money. Lots of people with money are trashy, tacky and have no class. Just look at the Kartrashians for another example.

    • TheOriginalKitten says:

      “Am I being too harsh in my assessment of Lizzie Grant’s fakeness?”

      No.

      People call Miley out for being “try-hard” but this girl is even worse IMO.
      It’s seriously cringe-worthy to watch.

      ‘I’m just so living off the grid, and I’m all about social work and the music. I don’t care about my appearance and I’m totally comfortable with who I am which is why I had plastic surgery and changed my name, man. I’m just so bohemian and like, rebellious. I lived in a trailer while I made my album and I only talk to foreign journalists and stuff because I’m badass and cultured and all that.’

      This girl makes me want to punch a wall.

      • Tiffany :) says:

        I agree. It is so irritating when people repeat that they don’t care, when their actions show that they care quite a lot!

        She is the living embodiment of a hipster stereotype.

      • lisa says:

        LOL, she’s delusional

        icant wait until she is back in her trailer with a whole bunch of old clippings telling the meter reader she used to be someone

        also, does she pretend to be hispanic or not?

      • AustinMJ says:

        BA-haha!
        Douchette can go live in f-kg Canada or France then.

    • deehunny says:

      From my cursory reading of the quote, she said that she never had money and she supported “everyone.” She never specifically said that her father didn’t have money.

      Doing community service is admirable, but again it sounds more like a rich philanthropist who can afford to not work for 10 years.

  2. allons-y alonso says:

    Can she please go away? I’m sick of people insisting that she is musically gifted when in fact, she is bloody grating my makes my ears bleed.

    • Justin says:

      she is such a tool as nicki minaj.. first lying about her plastic surgeries and now that she was poor?!!! funny part is there IS SOME PROOF TO HER LYING WTF!!

      • Danskins says:

        At least Nicki paid her dues and worked her way up through the music industry by releasing underground rap mixtapes years ago before gaining more exposure.

        Nicki didn’t have a rich benefactor to buy her music career unlike Lana Del Ray/Lizzie Grant’s rich daddy.

    • Nerd Alert says:

      I was wondering the same thing. When will she POOF be gone, as we said in the ’90’s?

      When I saw the Great Gatsby, I thought it was great but the whole time I just kept thinking “ugh, when are they going to stop playing this dreadful Lana Del Rey song?” It was excruciating, they played it at least 3 times throughout the movie even though the rest of the soundtrack is pretty good. Drove me up the damn wall.

  3. bob says:

    Her music sounds like the product of a focus group. Exceptionally well produced and completely contrived.

    She’s quite fun to be annoyed with, though.

  4. Jackie Jormp Jomp (formerly Zelda) says:

    I don’t believe in nationalism either. Ugh, I agree with Del Rey on something.

    • Boodiba says:

      ya me too.. I consider the bulk of the country. I’ll add Miami to my list of California and NY as places I like.

      I also like her overly produced, focus group records though. But then I don’t need to go see her live.

  5. Lukie says:

    Says the little American rich girl whose Daddy bought her a musical career…

    • emmie_a says:

      Exactly. Her dad just didn’t want to pay the premium price to get the US to like her; he went budget on her ass.

    • gg says:

      Well he sure bought her a crappy one. I don’t think he got his money’s worth. And she still needs a makeover.

  6. TheyPromisedMeBeer says:

    Ah, I see. She doesn’t HATE the US … it’s just that the American media wasn’t giving her the attention her white trash genius so clearly deserved, so she just ain’t having it with us anymore. Totally justified, indeed.

    (Ugh. This girl.)

  7. gogoGorilla says:

    Yes, because so many poor children are sent to boarding school. *rolly eyes*

    • Nava says:

      +1

    • Nemesis says:

      In Connecticut no less.

    • TheOriginalKitten says:

      Exactly!! ugh

    • Maxine says:

      According to Wikipedia, she went to Kent which currently charges $53,000 and change per year for tuition and fees.

      http://www.kent-school.edu/admissions/tuition.cfm

      • CC says:

        My heart bleeds for her…she went to a school that charges more for a single kid’s education that some people make yearly and have to use said whole income to maintain a whole household and pay taxes.

        BLEEDS, I tell ya!

      • Tiffany :) says:

        Not to get too off topic…

        But $53k per year tutition is why I don’t think that tuition vouchers are the great equalizer that some politicans paint them to be. A $6k voucher still isn’t going to get a poor child into the top private schools if their parents can’t make up the $47,000 difference!

        I live in an expensive area, but I regularly see private school tuition rates and so many are just as expensive as college, even for elementary students!

    • lisa says:

      WONT SOMEONE THINK OF PREP SCHOOL KIDS? THEY NEED LOVE TOO!!!!! ::shakes first and the man whoever it is::

  8. Katie says:

    I never knew that she’s American. And she’s just mad that the U.S. doesn’t want her. They keep trying to make her and Rita Ora happen, and they aren’t ever going to happen.

  9. bns says:

    “I don’t give a f-ck about what I look like”

    Girl…

  10. Aussie girl says:

    Wow I don’t know much about her besides her music but she comes across as a right royal wanker. To me she sounds like a teenager that’s dissing an ex BF that she broke up with,when in reality that BF ( USA)broke up with her!! Face it Lizzie America dumped you!!!

    • Shannon1972 says:

      Great comment! America dumped her…lol!

      I would add that she’s one of those girls who “thinks” she’s in a relationship, but it turns out that it’s all in her head.

  11. Thora says:

    She reminds me of Karen Black circa 1975.

  12. Jackie Jormp Jomp (formerly Zelda) says:

    Is it just me or is she looking… haggard?

  13. Shannon1972 says:

    I don’t know why this girl is even a “thing”. She sounds extremely self absorbed and vacuous.
    Obviously, America isn’t “Rah Rah” for her either. Sometimes, we leave the sandals and socks at home and show some good taste. 😉

  14. Dawn says:

    So who cares what a rich girl with a trashy mouth has to say? Not me. She said she likes to travel and yet I doubt if she has been to many of the states at all. So how would she know that only California and NY are worthy of her? What a doofus! But (sigh) I do agree with her that the media in the U.S. does tend to adore trashy people and yes some of them have NO talent and buy their way in and others do have talent but are totally unlikeable. So instead of the leaked sex tape route it looks like she is just going for trashy mouth aspect in the hopes that it gets her some press. Good luck to her and the great thing about the U.S. you are free to say what you want and to leave when you want but don’t get mad if no one else give a care about you okay! Because this American doesn’t.

    • Nicolette says:

      Yes you can leave when you want, so all these celebs who trash talk it all the time can exercise that right and leave. I’d gladly show them the door. Let them see what other nations around the world have to offer, and in many, ‘freedom of speech’ surely isn’t on the table.

    • Faye says:

      Entertainment media everywhere in the world focus on trashy celebrities at times. The UK is worse than we are, so it’s laughable she’s citing that as a reason to hate America. In fact, if not for media attention, she wouldn’t have any kind of career, since she first got attention getting covered at parties and events.

      Let’s face it, anti-Americanism plays well abroad. If she thinks it will get her popularity, let her try it. I don’t know how she’s gotten as far as she has, but she is so talentless and charisma-less that she will be gone soon.

      • CC says:

        Well, she can try! lol

        I’m not American, and I definitely know the flaws, and all I can think of is “give me a break”! I’m not nationalistic, “my” nationality was imposed on me, and I hate every single thing about it. Not living in said country, so at least I get to keep my sanity. But here’s the thing: I worked damn hard to leave it and still am.

        What’s her excuse? Or reasoning? If it’s so bad, why is she there? She would find a way out. So what is it, exactly? That other fake personalities/personnas made it and she isn’t? Well, honey, that’s called “charisma” (or lack thereof).

  15. Mirna says:

    Knock-off Amy Winehouse.

    • TheOriginalKitten says:

      I’m not a fan of either (not my kind of music) but objectively, I can admit that Winehouse had one helluva voice, much more so that Lizzie Grant IMO.

    • Bodhi says:

      In her mind only. Amy was troubled, for sure, but she was also seriously talented.

  16. doofus says:

    ugh…this trick…

    1. if you went to boarding school in CT for three years, you got money.

    2. you have no shows over here and no one in America wanted to interview you because your music is sucky and you have an inflated sense of worth.

    3. Don’t care what you look like? is that why you got plastic surgery?

  17. kim says:

    How old is she? She looks 40in the face and 11 in the body. Her brain looms like dick cheney at the age of 129.

  18. Micki says:

    ….”It’s kind of like neither here nor there–musically and socially, and whatever. “….

    It’s kind of like, hmm… beautiful summary.

  19. kim says:

    Lol she isn’t as good as she thinks she is…like a kardashian…

  20. Faye says:

    Another no-talent trying to get attention with “incendiary” statements.

    She’s not even worth getting annoyed over. Flash in the pan who will be gone in a year, I predict.

  21. videli says:

    California, New York are beautiful? OK, now try Nebraska.

    • MousieBrown says:

      What do you mean by that?

      • videli says:

        Oh, don’t mean to beat on Nebraska, but on her definition of what America the beautiful is – pretty much limited bi-coastal. There’s a lot more to explore in between.

  22. Harpreet says:

    I hate how celebrities who aren’t that talented here are always bigger in Europe and the UK. From a branding point, it is smart of her to build up her career there.

  23. shannon says:

    Yeah you were so poor you went to a posh Connecticut boarding school *eyeroll* This poser can’t keep her lies straight.

  24. Anna says:

    The only thing i like about her is the song ‘Summer Sadness’, but then again I prefer The Within Temptation version.

  25. mi says:

    There’s now this controversy in Finland that Lana’s posse used pre-taped cheers on their “live in Finland” video. 😀 There weren’t that much audience and Finns are quiet people, yet the amount of screaming on the video was something else.

  26. Amanda says:

    She’s a pretty little fool, but her music is beautiful and her voice is unusually versatile. I bought into all the criticisms of her… then I actually HEARD HER MUSIC.

    • Becks says:

      I know….
      I did not want to like her. But one day while shopping at a local boutique, I heard her music and I loved it. I asked the sales girl who it was and when she tols me, my first thought was oh, no I like Lana’s music! I’m ashamed, but I download ed her music!

  27. Pants says:

    Family has no money, but went to boarding school for 3 years in Connecticut? Sure honey, sure.

    • Kate says:

      I was wondering the same thing…here in atlanta just the regular private schools are $20,000-$30,000/yr so I would guess a NE boarding school has got to be up there in tuition

  28. Rachel says:

    @bedhead It’s disdain, not distain. Sorry, I know I’m awful.

  29. Maggie says:

    I like her music. She’s talented. You cant buy that.

  30. Lisa says:

    I don’t get America’s patriotism, but then, I’m Canadian.

    • Shannon says:

      No no, I’m American and I don’t get the patriotism thing either. Then again, I’m in Minnesota, so maybe I’m too close to you Canadians to get the real sense of nationalistic pride or whatever? I identify as ethnically Irish, that is where my sense of pride and belonging is.

      • Ella says:

        That’s weird to me, unless you have traveled a lot to Ireland or live there for a long time. Seems like the kind of try-too-hard type of thing Lana would do.

    • Faye says:

      Really? Because I know plenty of Canadians who are SUPER-nationalistic, much more so than most of my American friends. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten lectures on the virtues and superiority of Canada, even when nationalism wasn’t the topic at all. The ways in which Canada > American seems to be particularly popular :).

      Also, while I don’t think anyone is required to be nationalistic, and since this is a free country one can spout hate if one wants, there are many countries where nationalistic pride is far more ingrained in the cultural zeitgeist than America. I was just in South Korea, which is one example. France, Italy, Japan, China — all places where nationalism was much stronger to me than America.

  31. judyjudy says:

    Who?

    • vanilla says:

      What don’t you get? Strange comment. Anyway. I really adore her music and image and it is to me a bit of a love letter to Americana so it is disappointing that she does not love her country apparently anymore. She seems to have grown bitter.

      • judyjudy says:

        Other than this site I’ve never seen or heard of this woman. My post was a sarcastic way to imply that she seems rather self-important for someone who isn’t very well known. I’m not sure why that’s “strange” but meh, whatev. {shrugs}

      • vanilla says:

        Sorry judy my reply was to the person above you who said they do not understand American patriotism!

      • judyjudy says:

        Okay, that makes more sense.

        I feel kind of silly that I explained myself….

      • LL2 says:

        @Vanilla,

        Maybe they don’t share other people’s strong sense of patriotism. One comment said they identified more with their Irish heritage. I can relate, it wasn’t until I did an internship at my state legislature that I finally began to appreciate America and my American heritage. I have a multi-cultural background and had lived in other countries before, so I didn’t use see America as being any different. I would still embrace the opportunity to live in another country, though. I guess deep down, I’m still a citizen of the world.

  32. wonderwoman21 says:

    Lana del Fake!

  33. Nerd Alert says:

    LOL I don’t think she’s ever been anywhere BUT NY and CA, oh besides CT for boarding school amirite? Alaska, Hawaii, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, Georgia, the Carolinas are easily all more beautiful than coastal CA. Those are just off the top of my head (and JMO, I’m not trying to fight).

    Anyway, she strikes me as just short of a pathological liar, but she just might be one. I’m too lazy to check.

  34. Izzy says:

    Izzy, not a fan. “I’m not all OMG Lana del Rey is amazeballs.” F-ck that sh-t.

  35. Emily C. says:

    So I don’t have money again, because I lose half.

    Oh waah poor little rich person crying because she can only buy one yacht and not two. She’s stupid, she’s shallow, she’s overprivileged, and she’s unbearable.

    • Ella says:

      I was wondering if anyone was going to mention that part. What a ridiculous statement. Losing half of millions still leaves you with millions. I work every day, pay the same tax rate (different state rate I’m sure) but have a lot less left because I make a lot less to begin with.

  36. Kim says:

    She is making these statements to get attention because her work isnt good or important so she has to go another route to get attention.

    She doesnt care about her looks? LOL! Spoken thru the worst, overinjected, duck lips Ive ever seen.

  37. Trudy says:

    Well I like her music Im not gonna lie…

  38. I Choose Me says:

    I still really like Video Games and Born to Die but I just can’t with her as an ‘artist’ anymore. There is so much sour grapes in her comments, so much equivocating. So much bullshit.

  39. Ginger says:

    I really don’t understand the appeal of “Lana Del Rey” at all. I could perhaps understand her career if she were a model and nothing else. BUT she would be a low grade model with a short career. I can’t buy her as a singer or a musician of any sort. She has zero talent. When her H&M ad campaign came out I had to see her ginormous photos on the Las Vegas buses for a time (I like to walk on my breaks) and even that annoyed the crap out of me! She is very grating and vapid.

  40. Beatriz says:

    I’m not even going to touch that “we never had any money” yet went to a really expensive private school, because it’s incredibly insulting to people who don’t have any money and struggle to put their kids through school. I don’t even think her music is that bad, but I find it odd how much her fans defend her, when she can’t even do the basic thing and sing. Her SNL performance was just awful, I watched it with my brother and he thought she was belching her song.

  41. Norman says:

    She should have used jingoism not patriotism. Patriotism is “I believe in my country and what she stands for. We are an
    in in expendable nation in the world. Americans stand for equality. Jingoism is nationalism, birthright inferiority over other nations, f**k other nations. If you disagree with me on interpretation of constitution or other national documents you are a fascist, communist, unpatriotic or trader. I hope she was talking about jingoism. Big difference people.

  42. EscapedConvent says:

    What a load of empty-headed nonsense. Can she talk for even a few sentences without contradicting herself? She hasn’t been back to the United States, yet she really likes California now & hasn’t lived there before. So…she lives in California, but she isn’t in the United States? Which is it?

    She doesn’t care what she looks like, yet she has had her entire face cosmetically reconstructed. She sounds like someone who has invented a mythology about herself to sound cool, blase, exotic & Lana instead of Lizzie.

    And money means so little to her that she “loses half” of it? What does that mean—she loses half? “Oh, I’m so effortlessly cool—haha! I just lose half my money!”

    You have to work pretty hard to sound dumber than Kim Kardashian. This girl just blithers.

  43. kelly says:

    I LOVE YOU LANA!! You have such a raw poetic talent that is justifiable. Have you looked at mainstream music today? It is complete trash; you make people feel euphoric with happiness. Just be yourself.

  44. Killy says:

    Lana’s fans give me an epic Twihard-vibe. Ugh. She’s as fake as her upper lip.

  45. Lee says:

    Why is she so determined to ruin her beautiful young face? Dysmorphia is a seemingly epidemic problem for young women these days,especially for those with unlimited surgical options who are chasing the will o the wisp of fame.

  46. Lilly says:

    “I don’t feel like, ‘Rah, rah, America!’ F— that sh-t”

    Then why is she always posing with the American flag?

    http://lanadelflag.tumblr.com/

  47. Nicole says:

    I visit this site almost every day and this will be my first comment! I had to take a stand here and defend Lana a bit – I think she’s a quite talented singer/musical artist. Her songs and voice have a certain “Bond” theme song feel to them and I love the slightly trashy sexiness to them.

    Aside from that note, you cannot hold fault against her for changing her name, her style, anything and everything it may take to be successful. Sure, everyone starts out as an artist with authenticity and drive to stand out, but let’s be real here – the ones that make it approach it as a business as well and her brand is a commodity. Whatever it takes, you know?

  48. irishserra says:

    She makes about as much sense as Kanye.

  49. Sanna says:

    The reason why she doesn’t like America as much as she likes Europe,is because people treat her with respect and dignity, they are more welcoming in Europe. Besides Lizzy’s fans adore her for her music and talent. Not for the way she looks or if she had plastic surgery.