Some days, when CB and I can’t find anything to write about, we just start gossiping about someone random and, in my opinion, our conversations should be archived for hilarity’s sake. This just happened with Lana del Rey – she’s on the cover of the March issue of Vogue UK, she was just photographed in NYC last night, everybody has been talking about how much they love-or-hate her, and I just don’t get it. Why is Lana del Rey a thing? Why do people have such strong opinions about her? She’s completely fake and manufactured, correct? That’s my take – CB’s take was along the lines of (I’m paraphrasing) “That fake-lipped dumbass bugs me.”
I understand that Lana’s performance on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago was universally panned. Here’s one of her live performances:
Awful. And shortly after that, Lana went from “barely known hipster whose real name is Lizzie Grant” to “object of universal scorn.” Her album, Born To Die, dropped this week, and critics had a field day shredding her apart. Here’s the music video for “Born To Die.”
Not as bad as the SNL performance, but why does she sing like she’s on Quaaludes? I still don’t get it. But the moral of the story seems to be that all press is good press – Born to Die is the number one album this week, and Lana thinks her fan base is growing. She tweeted, “Thank you for making the record #1 in 11 countries. Your sweet words have softened the effect of even the harshest reviews. I adore you.” For the love of God, WHY IS SHE A THING?
Here’s Lana outside of the Ed Sullivan theater last night:
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Eh, better her than more Bey or Madonna! Or God forbid more of that goop hag.
Mediocrity rules. Sigh.
I’ve been listening to her new album online (Thanks Triple J – best radio station in the world!)… and to my surprise, I am actually NOT hating it.
I don’t care for her.. but the album is ok. Not great, but not as bad as I was hoping it would be.
The thing I hate the most… don’t go telling me YOUR LIPS ARE NATURAL when they KEEP CHANGING SIZES!!!!! In her Video Games video they are flat out ridiculous.
Another girl with a rich daddy buying a record deal. ugh.
I think she’s suffers from the same “hipsterfication” that Scarlett Johansson did when she released that Tom Waits cover album. They both sang too low for their voices because it sounds edgier and melancholy which I guess they think hipster’s love? The thing is Scarlet Johansson turned into a good singer when she sang in the right damn key, but who knows with this bitch.
I can’t stand how awful del rey lips are and when she sings she looks like she’s going to throw up every few seconds, it hurts to watch her. I think the thing that bugs me the most about her is that you can tell from her facial expressions she thinks she’s the sh*t so she doesn’t have to try hard. Kind of like a rich person’s arrogance, no?
Ah, Triple J how I love you! It did feature this week – I didn’t hate the album but it wasn’t amazing either….It rates at ‘Meh’ IMO.
uuugghhhh…..ScarJo. The less said the better.
Triple J? Layla are you Australian or are you listening in from somewhere else?
Aussie but Canada is now home. Can stream online! 🙂
Aussie, aussie, aussie, oi! oi! oi!:) Cout me in on that. I miss Triple J too. (Aussie in the USA).
Please, please, please, I implore you to NEVER use that oi oi oi chant. Speaking as an Aussie no longer abroad it has become a bogan mating call, marking out those most likely to get pissed, offensive and obnoxious, and is an embarrassment to most Australians.
But yaay for triple J!
she sounds like one of those first round idol auditions… like her voice doesn’t really have range or anything, as though she were mimicking someone else?
I’m wondering if she’s sort of trying to mimic the singer from mazzy star. the mazzy star singer has a much better voice, but it’s also very calm, very “quaalude”, at least in my opinion
Hope Sandoval’s voice doesn’t carry all of the artifice and posturing overflowing from this one. This is the first time I’ve ever of her and I get the feeling that this girl wants us to believe that she cuts herself in a very meaningful way while listening to Fiona Apple tracks. Whoever brought up the Scarlett comparison was on to something–they seem to think that by putting on a disaffected disposition they can teleport to the audience that it’s a very wearying thing, to experience so much melancholy significance. ‘Oh, my soul, my soul’s so old, my soul needs to groan, pass me the exato knife, erstwhile lover while I groan for you. That’s very damn wise. The last time I heard another human moaning like that I had to track down a nurse and ask her to fetch my sister more demerol.
And since I’m having the first of several dental surgeries on Wednesday and my right mind is an old story, I’m going for the jugular: kid, whatever bucket you’re using to carry that three-note range would be better-used for bulimia leavings. The morality police must please accept my crankiness, I’ve been in non-medicated dental hell for over a week, now. God forbid you ask for some painkillers, but no, the migranes and pukings are my idea of perfect holiday activities, so I guess all is well.
I miss the reasonable rates my orthodontist and periodontist, I’m not sure whether it’s sadism, unpreparedness, requisite condescension or avarice that my dentist…not my favourite, but I don’t know, at least he’s not Lana Del Ray. I just feel like continuously rolling your eyes during invasive procedures is good for the process. Let’s hope ‘Cry’ and ‘Bad Day’ don’t come on the radio this time: that made a little too much sense, like I had crossed dimensions.
Now… .go watch Goyte and Kimbra’s performance on Jimmy Kimmel for talented musicians who can perform live!!!
OOOO will have to check that out!
Just saw this. Really fantastic performance. And oh, was that actually breath support I heard? Such a rarity among todays commercial performers.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
that is exactly what i did when i watched her on SNL, I fell asleep. Not interested.
Never heard of her till now.
Same here.
Me too.
Same here but half the time I don’t know the twenty something or below stars anymore…guess I’m getting old. Thanks Celebitchy for keeping me in the loop.
Ditto
Her mouth disturbs me.
Seriously. It is like torture pr0n. Anyone who thinks that disfigured mouth is sexy must hate women.
Ok, you know that skit on SNL where whats her name has the creepy tiny hands? That white dress pic had the same effect on me. I was scrolling…nothing remarkable….appears petite and pretty and then….HOLY MOTHER of elephantitis of the legs!!! She makes cankles look dainty. Is it just me?
Haha . Nope – I had to do a double take on the legs too.
Katie Holmes syndrome I fear.
Hey! As a proud (not) owner of cankles, I resent that! Lol!
Your guess is as good as mine, Kaiser. Don’t really know who she is. Does anybody else think that she kind of looks like a mouse? Slap some whiskers on there and she’d be good to go. Specifically, second/third pic.
Video Games is pretty amazing…I don’t know, she’s big on Tumblr. haha
So is posting pictures of yourself at your laptop (with duckface) under the premise of “i got a new haircut… idk… you like?”.
That doesn’t make it right.
@Zelda – LMAO!
Blue Jeans
its amazing
If it wasn’t for you I ‘ve had already forget her.Because at first I heard her on the radio and I kind of lliked the song but I immediately realize that it was manufactered to sound exactly the way it was.Kind of unnatural and builted up…and for that kind of music it should had sounds the opposite.Then ho my god, that awful live performance!!!I felt ashamed for her….how could they(whoever is behind her) let her go on stage ?she wasn’t obviously ready for it.And then I went on youtube and found out other recordings she did live,and it wasn’t nearly that bad,she was all right.But after all of that well …who cares about her.It’s enough already,there is too much talking and that’s when I stop care about something.
Word on the interwebz is her pops has money, and the record companies have decided that she’s GOING TO BE THE NEW THING GODAMMIT.
Thus magazine covers, SNL, and album.
I listened to Video Games on YouTube and liked it, but it got old pretty quick. She can’t sing live, which is okay, I mean some ‘artists’ are more studio thangs.
But srsly. i’d take Florence + the Machine and Marina and the Diamonds ANY DAY. Those ladies have pipes!
Yes! Florence + the Machine – shipper here!
Marina and the Diamonds, YES!!!
I take your point, but Florence + the Machine gave a mortifyingly horrible performance n SNL just recently. She could not reproduce her complex arrangements and dissonant sound live (and the note-perfect choir she hired only underscored her failings). I don’t know why she tried — don’t these people hear themselves in rehearsals?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gMq3hRLDD0
She bugs me, too. She’s somewhere between plastic pop girl and fake hipster. How about we all drop the manufactured crap and actually just be ourselves? That goes double for peeps in the music industry, of which I am one.
Well I’m not going to join this pile-on, because nobody joined mine on Lady Gaga! This is the same thing: one minute Stefani Germanotta was performing in plaid in front of a brick wall, the next she was turning having a costume department into a musical career under that idiotic name.
I don’t get it, but I guess that’s what the music industry is for female artists now — finding the right burlesque persona to distinguish yourself as a product. Even established singers like Beyoncé and Rihanna seem to feel the need to develop these exaggerated cartoon figures (Sasha Grey, anyone? Katy Perry?) It’s like people listen to the character, not the music. Stupid and depressing.
In fact, “Del Rey” is now signed with Interscope, Lady Gaga’s label. But when people go to Britney Spears concerts in the thousands to see her lip sync and evaluate her weight gain, we’re clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Sorry, but Lady Gaga was an established musician and entertainer long before she was famous. There is nothing fake about her…her budget for costumes and props just got bigger when she got a deal.
Isn’t Sasha Grey a porn slut*?
*I refuse to use the word star when discussing someone who f*cks for a living in a society where prostitutes are looked down upon. I have nothing against prostitutes but people who act like the ones being filmed are different than the poor girl barely eking out a living on the corner.
Yeah, I’m with tiffany on this one, there are youtube video’d of gaga in budget clothing and dark hair and she’s calling herself lady gaga. see here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkO2Z_naXmc
Ha! I didn’t exactly call her a dumbass, but that’s pretty close. 😉
Lol!
I really prefer her sister, Marina.
I don’t get her style the whole look -.- but i love her song born to die and the video, it makes my heart cry.
eyeroll, 😉
SNL was the first time I’d heard of her and it was not a good first impression. I thought maybe she’s some artsy fartsy hippie thing that I just didn’t get but no. Completely manufactured and I still just don’t get it.
I like her real name better too.
Many people have commented that when they saw her on SNL, they thought it might be a sketch. Somebody was spoofing a girl singer. Then when we noticed it wasn’t Kristen Wiig per usual, the terrible realization hit that this person was actually onstage “performing.” Yes, it was awful. There are some very small things she could have done, I thought, that would have lessened the horrible blow to our ears. She might have pronounced her words instead of slurring them. She might not have tried to demonstrate a several octave range that she doesn’t have. She might have noticed that she didn’t hit those high notes the first time, & skipped that part when it came back around. She might not have tossed her head & flipped her hair like a tween on her first date. But mostly, at least to me, it’s the pretentious “Lana Del Rey” that’s the most ridiculous. Surely the highly-paid geniuses on her assembly line at the girl singer factory could have thought of something more believeable than that.
Why on earth does she rate a Vogue cover?
Because little Miss Indie has a MASSIVE amount of cash and a huge PR team behind her.
Zelda, that is the answer to Kaiser and CBs question – why is she a thing? She has a good PR machine behind her.
The SNL clip is boring as hell. She bugs me because it looks like she is trying to look like several celebs in one: AJ, Amy Adams, even a bit of Kat Von D (that just may be the surgery after glow).
I hate her because she has been manufactured specifically to seem like she is not manufactured. She has a studio trying to churn out an indie star. Which is mind-boggling in its stupidity and greed.
Also, she seems dim and vapid in interviews.
And I hate hate hate fake lips with a passion. Especially bad ones.
So all that stuff.
This. This is it in a nutshell. She is manufactured to not appear manufactured. It’s like they wanted to create something better then Katy Perry and Rihanna but didn’t want to put in the effort to make her as good as the actual indie girl singers.
Also, her eyes are not blue. Wtf Vogue.
Co Sign all of it 150%. The execs smell money for “indie hipster music” and this is their idiot vision of it. Ugh. make me puke.
Protip – the music industry has been manufacturing bands to sound like they aren’t manufactured for over 20 years now. Doesn’t anyone remember when Nirvana first blew up and the slew of “grunge” bands that came afterwards??? Same thing. I think the word “indie” lost all of it’s indie-cred close to 10 years ago now.
I mean, she sucks and everything, but it’s hardly surprising.
People are just idiots. Take gaga and del rey – Interscope knows how to sell crap.
The internet and the evolution of to-the-second mass media exposure and the fact that what used to be legit news sites have turned into aggregates that focus on gathering links to “What’s trending” regardless of the content has skewed things.
It’s more about PR now than ever before. Quality does not matter – HYPE matters.
She is not a horrible singer at all – but how can she have possibly earned all of this attention? In fact, she’s not even old enough in the business to have Earned anything, really.
The Hype Machine and Mob Rules seem to dictate at the moment. It’s sort of overwhelming when you think about it, and certainly sad, but I have no idea how anyone can go about balancing things out. It’s amazing to sit back and observe what this world has turned into when it comes to media.
Truth.
Maybe she did some “work” on her back to get this undeserved attention?
This article seems to support the fake and made up persona allegations.
http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/lana-del-rey-an-artificial-creation/
The actual news article included is from the Guardian.
Thanks for the link!
So she is fake because she changed her name from Lizzy Grant to Lana del Rey and developed an image?
I dont mind if people don’t like her, but people seem to feel cheated because she evolved as an artist, which to me seems unfair.
She’s clearly been trying for a few years. I think that people assumed that she came as packaged and now feel tricked for believing that.
I for one like the song Video Games, and enjoyed her album.
I have no idea who she is.
me too
She looks like a long lost Willis sister.
She just seems way too contrived…
I do like Video Games.
And like Lizzy better than Lan.a.
No idea who she is, but maybe she is indeed on Quaaludes and therefore she comes off like she is. 🙂
She has a beautiful & soulful voice, too bad she messed up her face with plastic surgery.
Who is this bitch? Until one month ago I’d never heard of her and then her name just kept popping up but I had no interest to see what she was about. Not even a bad performance on SNL could tempt me to hear her music, because I already knew the answer was simple…
She is Emma Roberts. She’s a trustfund baby related to someone famous and/or rich, and she looks like an admixture of today’s starbites (which is a degree lower than starlets) that are delusional in thinking they have any real talent. Then I wiki’d this chick and I was right.
The Break Down:
Who is trying to make her happen?
Like Emma, she has connections. Her dad is rich and famous for some other shit and basically instead of telling his daughter that she sounds like a someone shoved a goose down her vocal chords when she sings, he encouraged this talentless chick by “supporting” her dream. That’s bad parenting when you can’t tell you kids the truth.
Her image?
Emma has remnants of Julia Roberts in her and maybe a little Kristen Bell (whom I heart) with some Emma Watson for good measure. But it comes out looking blah.
Lana looks like Selena Gomez, Chicken Cutlets (aka Pheobe Price) and Majandara Delfino of Roswell fame and for you old people maybe Juliette Lewisish. These unique indviduals blended together also makes for bland features.
Her talent?
Like Emma, Lana believes that she is more than the some of her trust-funded parts. She seems really sure that she is an actual singer and because her name is Lizzie is confusing her self with the great Lizzie West (check out the end of the awesome movie Secretary for that bitchin tune Chariots Rise).
She should just give up because like Emma, her career is going no where. (Refer to Spring Break if you need confirmation).
Agreed!
She looks like Chicken Cutlets lololol! (it’s true!)
ZOMFG +1billion internets for you for the Lizzie West reference. I love that poetess like you wouldn’t believe. 😀
She looks *special* on the Vogie cover.
She does! Who in the hell thought that this was good cover look!?
I hate to admit it, but all my super-cool hipster friends freaked out over her Video Games video. I never heard her sing until SNL, and I was appalled. But I had heard so many epic reviews of her 3 songs that I gave a listen….and guess what? Her recorded songs are so freaking good. Yes, she reinvented herself. But who hasn’t? Or wish that they could? If I could look that amazing with the help of stylists and sound so much better with the help of talented sound engineers- I would. I get the hype and I am on board!
“super-cool hipster friends” … that’s comic gold! 😉
Yeah, I know. I’m a stay-at-home-super-uncool-mom of two babies- but you know the type.
Her daddy is rich, he paid for her career!
Or like a good Hilton or Kardashian, she f*cked her way up.
Born to Die and Video Games are okay songs…but not worth all this hype and hooplah. And the amount of plastic surgery this child has had in order to look like some retro 1940’s Hollywood starlet is scary. Like Heidi Montag scary.
I’ve been a fan of LDR for a while, ever since Video Games was in a Ringer episode. Blue Jeans and Born to Die are great too. Her album is pretty meh but it was Video Games i think that catapulted her into stardom. One day I was linking all my friends to it on Youtube, the next it was playing in HMV and my local shopping centre. it’s ODD. But hey I still like her 🙂
her SNL appearance was painful though, i felt really bad for her, she seemed really nervous in interviews do. I don’t think she expected to be the ‘next big thing’ either.
Money really can buy one anything. Her parent’s money just bought her an Vogue cover. She is no one.
Zelda, kat, Bk, meg the originalvictoria, fully agree yes pops has money and yes Relli never heard of her to those laughably amatuerish SNL attempts. Like most tired of this contrived crap esp. when it’s presented like it’s not contrived; Video games is a joke of a song – are the studios hiring ten year olds to write this. Lbees and others If you can’t sing live, you’re not a SINGER – where did this notion come from that you don’t have to sing live and are still called a singer let alone an artist? Look, TIna turner, selena, Janis, Aretha, Pat Benatar, etc. all sang live – oh, that’s right they had talent and weren’t manufactured. I hope this trick fails, we’ve became so accustomed to inauthenticity,we can’t recognize actual talent. ANd for the love of GOd, did Esperanza Spalding disappear. Real talent and a genuinely nice individual haven’t seen her live but friends have and they said she was truly amazing.
I have seen Espy live and rest assure her voice sounds like God hand-crafted each note himself.
ETA: please forgive my typos because android auto corrects my stuff sometimes and don’t catch it in time.
Awesome! My husband is older so often he doesn’t know the muscial acts on SNL and even I had to admit I had never heard of her when he asked. I gave her 5 minutes which based on my multiple festival outings is all the time I need to know if I like a performer and IT WAS AWFUL! I just wanted it to be over. That’s not how you should feel about a musician at all.
My comment about some artists being ‘studio artists’ was (in my mind) dubious in tone… but I COMPLETELY agree with you. If you’re a singer, you’re a singer. If you can’t sing, don’t SING!!!! Just because a sound mixer can mash together the thirty best takes to get one whole good song, doesn’t mean you’re a singer.
You ever see something so embarrassing you literally sink down into your seat? I did this while watching her SNL performance.
It seems like she doesn’t know how to move or act… maybe that’s her act. I just went through some of her live perfomances on youtube. She was even boring as Lizzie Grant, but as Lana it seems like she is totally acting. You can almost see her thinking “okay, now I look over there and I will look really, really sad and then I will look over here and I will look very, very sad”.
1) The SNL bit sounds like karaoke – bad karaoke. Bad DRUNK karaoke.
2) “Born to Die” will be epic in the background of some overly dramatic scene in Ringer – – just as Video Games was during Chuck’s big apology to Blair in Gossip Girl. Now that you mention it, could we just put this girl on the CW’s payroll? If her songs turn up in Vampire Diaries, however, I will cut a bitch.
3) She looks like the Bieb in the candid with the hat, no? Like Bieb would look with a nose job and fake lips, of course. Man, she just made me appreciate the Bieb. Grr.
For the record: I’m European, so my question is, who is this girl?
If you live in France she’s been on le Grand Journal twice.
And if in Britain, she’s been on Jools at least once. Damon Albarn has also remixed Born to Die and he linked her up with Bobby Womack to record a track.
(only know these things because I’m a huge Damon Albarn fan).
I couldn’t get away from “Video Games” on the radio last year
Never heard of her until this article. Love reading the comments for more information, too.
Just have to say that I hate it when magazines completely change the eye color of a person. She has pretty eyes, but they’re definitely not that color. lol
Her name isn’t Lana Del Ray…
it’s Elizabeth Grant and her rich daddy has been paying for everything
Never heard of her, just listened to her song and I have to say its not that bad. For a relatively unknown person, its shocking to see her on the cover of vogue.
Those first two songs that made the rounds on the net were OK, but I just heard the rest of the album and it’s pretty lame imo.
She looks like the older sister from 16 Candles. All I keep thinking of is her rolling her eyes and going “Try 4” lmfao
OMG! You are SO right! I kept trying to place her.
You make someone a bridesmaid…
YES! That is exactly who she looks like! You just made my day.
IS THIS REAL LIFE?????
yes it is real. and we are keeping this going by talking about it. we should all start supporting real music, before it dies, rather than buy into the machine, this is the first and last time i will make a comment or read any article on this useless weak noise.
@scotchy-Thank you! This is so true. My hubs has been making amazing music for over 20 years with some huge names and does his own thing, but the want of real music is dying. Hence Cirque Du Soleil, a way for him to play good music, although not his own, be on tour with his family and still do tons of session and his own work. It got really hard about 2008 and has not rebounded.
Record labels will not pay for real bands to tour. I am talking bands with huge names. I’m not going to name them, because then everyone would know exactly who I am, but it is a sad sate of affairs in the industry.
At least with Cirque he makes a great salary with benefits, housing and schooling and food for all of us. If he was still touring, we’d never make it on that alone. He won’t do random pop acts,so….
OMG I had to check it out after reading this…..horrible, horrible stuff.
It totally sounds like something super-cool hipster types would listen to. Blech.
Um… I don’t even know who this chick is… Anyone?
She actually did a really good performance on Letterman last night… I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned here?
MILES better than her SNL performance.
MILES.
lol someone on another website said she looks like a melted Barbie doll
She is :
The sister getting married in Sixteen Candles
Phoebe Price
Karen Black
Julia Roberts
all rolled into one!
She does look a bit like a Frankenstein creature to me. She’s kind of pretty, but it looks like each part of her face was taken from a different body. It’s weird.
But she looks normal when she smiles!
I’m suprised neither Celebitchy nor Kaiser didn’t mention how she keeps saying she “crawled out of the trailer park” (http://www.complex.com/music/2011/10/interview-lana-del-rey-talks-plastic-surgery-internet-backlash-and-new-album) when her father is a multi-billionare from the dot com era. There are pictures of her and Mily Cirus( http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/altreport/2011/09/lana-del-rey-exposed-b4-she-was-alt-she-was-failed-mnstrm-artist-without-fake-lips.html )
and here she is before her lips got stuffed: http://rocknycliveandrecorded.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/lana-del-rey-noch-als-lizzy-grant.jpg
Yeah, the trailer park thing is a straight up lie and she was saying the same stuff on French tv portraying herself as a po girl, when that’s apparently not the truth.
DUDE, that picture of her with the blonde hair….
I get Monica Parent from the Parenhood Era and Elin Woods!
This child looks like everyone but talent.
This is the soundtrack for the Twilight generation. Those poor young fools will look at Robert Whatshisname and cut themselves to Born to die as their soundtrack. So sad.
isn’t her daddy really rich and funding all of this? that’s what I heard, her daddy bought a place on the twilight soundtrack I heard.
I don’t know what happened on SNL – bizarre – but on YouTube, a number of her songs sound pretty good.
Saw her born to die video on YouTube. Not interested.
Music for people who think they are edgy but are not.
Thanks seri one good thing about youtube/internet we can get the real history on these individuals, and not have to swallow – at least some of us – all the pr bullshit. That makes me dislike her all the more Did her pr team fead UK vogue bolivian marching powder what the hell is fascinating about a product?
😉 Welcome!!
love your comment about bolivian marching powder, thats hilarious!
While she is not remotely the baddest artist out here, I don’t get ALL the backlash (just some).
*As far as Lizzie Grant becoming Lana del Rey, she’s not the first artist that made a change (or four) on the path to stardom. If one schtick doesn’t work, try another, I guess.
*She bombed performing live. Again, not the first artist to tank live. Manufactured voices have been around for decades. If she was a more popular artist, the publicist would have put out some “Lana was exhausted from traveling” or “Ms. del Rey was mourning the death of her Hermit Crab named Wasabi” mess so you’d pity her. Since she’s not THAT special, we just make fun of her.
*I get the fuss about the lips. Them junts ain’t real worth a damn. I really need her to quit acting like they came from French kissing pool drains.
*Listened to some songs..different, catchy, and okay. She’s again trying a different angle since all the other ones have been done.
In the end, she’s popular because everyone keeps talking about her. How do you think Kim K. stays relevant even though people want her to mail herself to Abu Dhabi?
oh, noooo! i watched her on letterman and then saw the video for ‘video games’….i am starting to get into her!
Exactly
She is a rich kid, daughter of some major finance dude. That’s why she gets the attention.
Can’t…quit…yawning…
I kind of dig her Bette Midler/Nancy Sinatra kind of voice, but those ladies did it better.
“The fascinating Lana Del Rey” LOL!
Her cheeks are HUGE
Totally think she’s on something. Her eyes look kind of vapid and out of it now compared to older pics.
Feel like she’s going for old school Bridget Bardot. And failing. If people want to evolve their style, that’s find but she’s contrived and seems pretty uncomfortable.
And the lips are bad. Bad, bad, bad. Puffy and unmoving. Not a hot look.
I get a very Karen Black vibe from her.
Especially her in Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson. She plays a pretty, but really pathetically stupid girl in that film.
She has the same pouty look as LDR.
Those nails are completely disgusting. I cannot look at them without picturing what germ fiestas must be going there.
This chick sings and moves like she’s heavily sedated and she can’t quite remember the lyrics or the choreography.
Everything looks so contrived and amateurish, like she didn’t spend enough time rehearsing it so that it would come naturally when performing. I watched her “born to die” video; it gave me a worse case of schadenfreude than her SNL appearance.
On the cover she looks, as someone already said, “special”. The amount of surgery on her face makes me break out in sympathy pains. Those lips, GAH…
Never heard or seen her before this article but I can tell you one thing just by looking at her pictures.. She shares serveral problems with Lindsay Lohan…the same lip problem and the same nose problem…must be something going around the tips of womens noses are always red and sore looking… and the eyes are glassy as hell…
Because she fucked the right people.. that being said. I don’t think her voice is horrible. Much better then the auto-tune crap playing on the radio nowadays.
Because she is easy on the eyes. She has no talent- she certainly cant sing but she isnt bad to look at. GEE I wonder why she is getting so much attention.
In the immortal words of Maynard, “I sold my soul to make a record, dipshit, and then you bought one.”
90% of the pop “artists” and rock bands out there are just as manufactured as this girl is. She just got busted for it.
I think she’s going for that slow, Mazzy Star-style sound, but she’s not really talented enough to pull it off.
She’s getting the love because:
– Video Games sounded good. Born to Die is kinda ok.
– Hyped by the British press. This isn’t a bad thing. They also hyped Nirvana, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lady Gaga, The Killers and The Strokes before they reached American shores.
– Her fans genuinely love her.
She’s getting all the hate bec:
– Her dad hired a team to develop an image then hyped her. They created this bad-girl gangsta Sinatra thing but when you interview her, she’s sweeter than Taylor Swift and pink ponies. At least Gaga, Kesha and Katy are still in character offstage.
– She had an easy access to fame. Why is she on SNL? Dad’s connection to Lorne Michaels, I guess. She didn’t struggle like everyone else. She’s like the Strokes, but at least Julian Casablancas didn’t change his name to Mario del Toro or something. Gaga and Ke$ha are rich and well-connected too but their pre-fame credentials were solid. She’s like Rebecca Black, except Black didn’t take herself seriously, she became likable in the end.
-There’s something plasticky about her whole image. She’s nice to look, reminds you of the Guess? ads in the 90s, but she’s gross at the same time esp when you track her back as Lizzy. Maybe b’c she reminds me of Rosie Huntington and a Real Housewife.
-She’s immodest or at least that’s what her management wants her to be.
– She’s awful live. She’s been performing since she was a teenager yet she still hasn’t perfected the art of showmanship. She makes Susan Boyle look like a veteran stadium performer.
Thank you! 🙂
Good breakdown and sums it up nicely. I will add that her plastic surgery face is hate inducing too.
She’s an heiress. It proves that you can buy a certain degree of fame without any real talent or charisma.
Good lord. I couldn’t make it all the way through the music video. My first thought was, “THIS MUST BE A JOKE, RIGHT?”. She makes Katie Perry look like like an artist. Seriously, I never appreciated Katie Perry’s talents as much as I do right now, so thank you Lana delwhatever.
She sounds no different than Fiona Apple. (I love F.A., btw.) So she’s manufactured…so is “Larry the Cable Guy.”
Please don’t place them in the same category. Not similar by a mile.
All music is derivative. But there’s good derivative and there’s this, which is bad derivative.
She brings to mind these lyrics from Mojo Nixon:
He’s a tortured artist
Used to be in the Eagles
Now he whines
Like a wounded beagle
Poet of despair!
Pumped up with hot air!
He’s serious, pretentious
And I just don’t care
Kind cute! Who is this again?
HATERS GONNA HATE
Justifiably, in this case.
There is no one exciting who was “discovered” or new.
That’s all.
People are bored with the usual stars.
All boring and predictable and are waiting for new ones to come and bring something new.
The positive thing is that young women can learn from her- not to use plastic surgery on their faces, not to do the Angelina Jolie lips injections and the nose job thing.
Great Stevie Nicks impression!
Do we really need to make her happen? This is America’s answer to Adele? We should try again.
Watching her on SNL I felt like I was being punked. I cannot believe this chick is a singer. Do only the super artistic deep people like her? I guess I must be a super un-cool, incredibly shallow non-hipster because I think this vile chick sucks ass.
UGH, I HATE her. Even if she were a legit singer, I would dislike her because her daddy bought her career. What the hell, people? There are TONS of really talented singer/songwriters out there who are FAR more deserving of the attention that “Del Rey” is getting.
I totally get the comparisons to Lady Gaga, but the difference is that Gaga is actually talented
Bodhi!!! I’ve missed you !!
I’m just confused as to why they would use that picture on the cover. I mean she seems attractive in all other pictures, but the cover of vogue she has the ugly face going on.
Look at her trying to be all like Adele with the random, obscure wedding ring on her finger and no mention of it. Single women don’t wear a ring on that finger. They want some bling they got for the right hand.
And the long ass talon nails.
I will admit that I’m obsessed with Born to Die. The video is nasty as hell but the song is catchy. The rest are shit though.
I stopped the damn music video @ 2:37….TOTAL SNOOZAPALOOZA!
Why is she a thing? Well, I think there are 3 reasons:
1) Big Daddy Warbucks making it happen.
2) She’s kind of grabbed onto a weird/kvitchy singing style.
3) In interviews, she garners attention by making bad mental health look “good.”
She’s a rich hot white girl. Isn’t that all it takes to make it in Hollywood?
I think when you said ‘Hollywood’, you mean ‘gol-darn universe’. So, yes.
I don’t know much about her, but after reading two reviews of her album on complete opposite ends of the spectrum I went on Youtube yesterday to see what the fuss was about. I already liked one of the songs without realising it was her. The SNL performance was very off but she can perform live as shown in other Youtube vids. She is very affected sounding but as far as I could see she has been singing in that chanteuse style for a few years now, so it’s not even like she pulled a Avril Lavigne and switched genres or anything. I liked a few of the songs, found them emotive in a Leonard Cohen way, and hey at least she’s not covering Tom Waits like Scar Johanssen, that bugged the sh*t out of me. Her voice is polarizing but I kind of dig it, it is like Kate Bush on tranqs, I get the Mazzy Star comparison too. All of the songs I listened to were better than that pile of crap new one by Madonna. I kind of don’t give a crap about indie press questioning her authenticity, how many indie bands are really “authentic” in this day and age, it’s mostly contrived hair and wardrobe/image b.s. I already like her better than Adele, I cannot stand that whiny moan! She is a stage school brat like Amy Winehouse and the industry still puts them forth as these old souled broads when they are just as manufactured as anyone else.
But her lips are ridiculous, she looked better before.
She’s not that bad, but I wouldn’t exactly say ‘fascinating’. ‘Lucky and
well-connected’ How about “the extremely lucky and well-connected
Lana Del Rey”. Why not just stick w/ her real name? The fake name thing is really lame.
and what the hell is going on with those nails?disturbing and ugly
I saw her on SNL & David Letterman. I’m guessing, like a lot of mediocre talent, she isn’t v good live. She is kind of pretty & her demeanor seems sweet
I think the same – a lot of new “stars” are made with machinery in the studio. Of course, like Gaga, maybe she has an awesome voice but has no audience for it.
Gaga can really belt an oldie.
the surgery is a little bit like a car accident, you have to force yourself to look away. i cant help but the first seconds i see her i always stare at her and cant look away. she looks so strange.
not a fan of the music but thats just taste.
Someone else spoke of her and the hype/hate on another message board and described things much better than I could.
She’s not bad, but she is someone you’d expect at this point to be doing the club circuit etc, particularly if she is as “indie” as she is touted.
She is good singer. I heard SNL thing yesterday, she seemed very nervous. That is probably the reason why her performance wasn’t good so i looked for other clips and found one where she sings on BBC1, she is good and i like her voice.
She’s a third or fourth alto – I don’t think she’s singing too low, I think her voice just doesn’t go that high. She whispers through the higher notes cause there’s no power. I saw someone mention Florence not being able to do live what she does on her cd’s, and she’s also an alto, just with a larger range. It’s hard to be a chick who can carry a tune but still lack a higher register – I’m in that boat, and I sing way more male songs than female songs when I’m behind the mic.
Her daddy is super rich and buying her a career..
I don’t get why people think she’s fake as an artist? Her lips are one thing but they’re acting like she’s completely changed everything about herself for stardom. She’s making the same music she always has and all she did was change her proffessional name (as many people have E.G P!NK, Elton John Marilyn Monroe etc) and as for the image thing, of course she’s dressing different, she’s famous now…
I’m a fan of her music and even though the SNL performance was bad when she’s performed live on a smaller level she was great so it was probably just nerves IMO.
uhmm, take a look at the 2nd pic- tongues can do wonders….
okay, My family on my mothers side are musicians and singers and I spent a good deal of my childhood in an award winning choir with a fantastic director/teacher. Perhaps, this may make me biased but this girl cannot sing. I am so tired of seeing pretty people that cannot sing or play foisted upon the public. She looks like a run of the mill model and she should stick to that. And for goodness sake…never stick out your tongue again! Yuck!!
I found her over a year ago and really liked her music for the most part. She’s pretty, does all her videos herself and has done a great job of promoting herself as an indie artist without a contract for much of the time. She’s pretty or she wouldn’t be on Vogue and I just don’t get all the backlash with her, if you don’t like the music cool, but such hatred of singer songwriter I’m not getting. I don’t mean here necessarily just in general. That little untalented snot Bieber did much the same thing. I hope all the negative attention doesn’t destroy her because she doesn’t deserve to have that happen to her. Give her a listen, some of her stuff is quite good!
Vilo, I think some of the reaction to her is that we have listened to her and we don’t think she’s good.
Now music, like art/books,etc., is in end personal taste. So if you like her that’s great.
What I don’t like about her, aside from her voice which isn’t the type that I like, is that her lyrics suck:
Swinging in the backyard
Pull up in your fast car
Whistling my name
Open up a beer
And you say get over here
And play a video game
I’m in his favorite sun dress
Watching me get undressed
Take that body downtown
Now, I admit to liking songs with stupid lyrics, but they’re supposed to be stupid. With Lana, I think she’s trying to be serious, and it fails. It’s like magnetic refrigerator poetry lyrics.
Hee! Video is SO like ‘in movie’ videos-example Music and Lyrics…
Forget the performance and the lips (the latter is particularly difficult- it’s kinda hard to ignore them), I’m too busy concentrating on those ridiculous lyrics.
Seriously, who is this chick?
we all know why she’s getting the publicity right now. Her Cd is out and has one good song on it (same as many other popular chicks hmmm beyonce your last couple CD’s kinda sucked), and the current music darlings are out of commission. Whether it’s because they’re nursing a kid, bottle, or straw up their nose, these ladies are totally out of it and have left the gates open for someone else to take their place.
if the current ladies of music are too cracked out and drunk to do their jobs, well the execs will find someone else to cash in on . . .
It’s happens
I really like this girl, her music is gorgeous with taunting/naive/schizophrenic lyrics. And I don’t think she’s manufactured – that’s how she is, she knows want she wants and like and what she wants to show her public. Obviously you can’t please everybody – especially with music but I don’t get why people are putting so much effort on hating.. what a f**ked up society we’re living in.
Criticism doesn’t equal hating. It’s an immature reaction to label any form of criticism as hatred.
Criticism would be argumented comments that allow oneself to improve. Most comments consist of “she had surgery”, “she has a rich daddy”, “her lips”, “her past”… Nothing to do with her music, I just hope she’s sheltered from these comments. There’s a blurry line between criticizing and bullying and lot of people don’t seem to make the difference. I don’t think I’m immature when I’m saying this.
I agree 100%. I’m not “cool” or rich and I don’t hold it against anyone who is. Really, all this hate is ugly. Way less attractive than fake lips.
She only really bothers me because she lies about her background. I hate it when rich girls whose careers are funded by Daddy claim that they started poor and clawed their way up.
I have to be honest, I had never heard of her until this article. I still have no idea about her much after watching the video, I may check her out learn more about her, get my own take and opinion on her 😉
Had never heard of her until I happened to catch that abominable performance on SNL, and as a classically trained singer I hated her with a passion on sight. It wasn’t until later that I read that all of the blogs were lambasted her for that unfortunate performance, and rightfully so.
As an above poster said, too much “hipsterfication”. Unnecessarily pretentious in effort to try set herself apart with little discernable talent or skill to bolster her legitimacy. Mostly form, little substance; and incredibily insipid. AND INTONATION PROBLEMS DO NOT SOUND GOOD!!!!! Especially within the context of classically-inspired string instrumentals. She’s conspicously flat on the studio cut of her song! Unacceptable! I really don’t know what it is about these chicks that makes voice training completely repellent. This is really some of the worst singing that I’ve heard in a long time. Just…wow…
Same boat.
Years of classical training have definitely hijacked my sanity, and obviously the expectations are much different (and less lucrative) for my singing and piano-ing than for pop music performers and I fully realize that I’m nobody, but cripes: never tell a fanatic that an ‘icon’ or buzzed performer doesn’t turn you on because his/her musicianship is lacking and you secretly just want to hear songs that sound good. They will not have it. I don’t know, maybe some people like getting blood eagled by Coachella Contingent, but I’m not one of those people. One day accuracy became the aggressor to authenticity and pitch was declared the mother of all bastardy. Judging a person’s music based on the music they create? That’s like judging the book by its contents, what the hell is wrong with you?
Elisa no one is “hating” on her – they are stating their opinions, and on this site and others, the consensus is she is awful in every way. If daddy were an auto mechanic she’d be trying out for local little theater not much more. What is stunning is that she’s 25/26, has been performing since she was a teen, and this is her level of “talent.” Did she leave school at 12, because that’s the level of these lyrics. A lot of people are tired of this crap being foisted on them and they are using the internet sites to push back.
I have been following her for quite a while now, at least longer than most people who criticize her. And she’s been doing those “small theaters” – open mic in bars in brooklyn and stuff, she’s been trying to “make it” for 7 years, a long time. If her dad bought her success well, he should have tried harder because it wasn’t very effective.
Plus I used to listen to Taylor Swift and still am a huge fan of Adele and I don’t find their writing any brighter/smarter than Lana’s, since they all write about the same thematic.
Elisa, no offense but you need to enlarge your references; the general consensus, on this site and others, esp. from posters with professional singing experience, is that she just has little real talent. THere were many of these female singers of the 90s, much better than her (alannah myles anyone different style), and most had a short run then faded. WHat posters don’t like is the enormous hype given the sparse talent, and also given that there are more talented singers out there that won’t be given a chance. Adrien above breaks it down nicely.
Sparse talent maybe, your opinion, still she’s number 1 in 14 countries. Critics don’t seem to value her work but she has found her public and they like her. Bieber, Disney stars, Kesha, Perry, Rihanna.. even Gaga are overrated to me. Autotune, weird costumes, fireworks, team of writers for most. Getting tired of these “artists”. She’s not perfect, not the most talented either but she seems to be more real than these singers.
Wow she does have talent except the snl episode.Its a shame interscope thought of her as a product to sell and not talent,they repackaged her as a ‘melting barbie’..epic fail
Oh looks like she is finally making waves… I’ve known about her for a few months now. A bunch of cousins posted videos of her singing on Facebook, she did a couple of European tv appearances last fall. I was curious enough to Youtube some of her songs.
Her SNL performance was bad but she seems to be a decent singer. I know her father is a millionnaire, Lana del Rey is not her real name, and she may or may not have gotten injections to her lips. But at this point, what celebrity doesn’t have cosmetic enhancements done?
I like her.
I saw her on SNL and it was decidedly as bad as everyone says it was. I had to know more so I checked her out online and I loved her music. I bought her CD the day it dropped. It’s great! I would recommend listening before hating so much.
Not gonna lie… I can’t stop listening to her music, and I love her look. I’ve been putting my hair in rollers since the SNL performance because I want Lana Del Rey hair.
Go ahead, mock me. I’m asking for it. A part of me KNOWS that I’m obsessed with schlock. It’s the part of me that also rings the alarm whenever I go to Chipotle for lunch. It’s fine.
((Beavis and Butthead NEED to eviscerate the “Video Games” video. It needs to happen. The “Blue Jeans” and “Born To Die” vids would be good too. Hell, they just need to do a Lana Del Rey episode. Can you imagine? Each time they cut to the sofa, they’re ripping on a different Lana Del Rey video? Could be epic.))
@Jover, I’d be curious to know what the age range her core group of fans fall into. One reason I don’t like her is she sounds and writes like she locked herself in for a weekend and listened to nothing but 80’s and early 90’s music and regurgitated it. Not synthesized, but regurgitated. I’m old enough to remember the 80’s and 90’s music-wise and would just as soon go back and listen to that than del Rey.
Can del Rey learn to steal better? Sure. Let me know when she gets there.
@Lila, record sales are great revenge on her critics, but remember it may not last forever. Milli Vanilli, Vanilla Ice sold upwards of 8 million albums each of their debut records. And what happened to them?
Than you cr glad you referenced milli and vanilli i remember that same time period; how many times does it have to be said quantity doesn’t always equal quality; So what, the Archie’s Sugar Sugar was no. 1 for a while in 1968, but it’s the beatles, the stones, hendrix,Jim Morrison, etc. that are remembered played and revered, and as everyone knows with today’s saturation media, marketing, promoting (not to mention money), pretty much anyone can have a hit. If Lizzy Grant is able to put on an actual live 2 hr concert before thousands, how many people would stay awake to the end. Mostly a studio act for the machine. Please. Lila, if being famous isn’t part of her “plan” then why is she everywhere right now. A contradiction at the least.
@CR I’ll say 16-26 age range of fans, younger her lyrics might be too raw for their sweet innocent sensibities, older people may not relate to her wild side.
I hope she lasts but even she said that being famous wasn’t part of her plan and music is not her whole life. She’s living the dream right now (minus the backlash) but I think she’ll be fine either way.
I hate that a spoiled little rich girl’s daddy can basically buy her a music career and that people are backing this buy buying her shit when there are talented people out there who don’t even have a prayer of getting heard.
She has liver heat (according to chinese medicine via her tongue)…
Shes not rich she used to live in a trailor park, and video games was made out of clips because she didnt have enough money. Also who cares if shes got fake lips? So many people do, whys it any of your concern? Its her life, she’s happy with it, leave her alone! And I admire her to be different, its what makes her so unique and special.