Lana del Rey insists that her lips are real & she’s not manufactured

Last week, Kaiser asked a very relevant question about “singer” Lana del Ray in relation to her face inexplicably showing up on the Vogue UK cover — Why is this chick getting so much attention? Of course, a lot of the attention is quite negative especially in regard to del Ray’s disastrous “SNL” performance, but one is still left to wonder how this so-called “internet sensation” has gained so much mainstream exposure of late. Now del Ray, whose real name is Elizabeth Woodridge Grant, has scored an interview with the New York Times’ T Style magazine. There’s also a photoshoot by Terry Richardson, who shoots del Ray through his typical Lolita-esque fetish motif:

The shoot is actually one of Richardson’s blander extravaganzas. I guess not even he knows what to do with those massive lips because, you know, they sort of speak for themselves. Unbelievably, the NYT interview introduces del Ray as “a skinnier Adele.” Look, I’m not even a massive Adele fan (although I do dig her), but that is a seriously offensive statement. Yet this journalist appears to be under some sort of spell and genuinely seems to find del Ray to be both intellectually deep and fascinating. What gives?

She’s Not Manufactured? “I mean, I met everyone who is anyone in the music industry over the last six years and I was unsignable. That’s what I was told by everyone. I would play my songs, explain what I was trying to do, and I’d get, ‘You know who’s No. 1 in 13 countries right now? Kesha.'”

Her Lips Are, Like, Real Too: [T]he subject of Del Rey’s mouth is an irresistible one. So, sitting on the steps of a 25th Street brownstone, I ask the seemingly preposterous question. “It’s fine,” she assures me. “They’re real lips, I mean. In real life my lips don’t look that big. I think because I cartoonized the footage of myself in the video for ‘Video Games’ things look exaggerated.”

On Her Disastrous “SNL” Performance: “I’m not by nature a showstopper. I love to write and play songs, but onstage, all these things come into play. I’m always saying to myself, Don’t mess up. Don’t mess up.”

On Her Breakup Songs: “I felt the same way for a really long time, and then I met someone who I guess I fell in love with. I just didn’t know I could feel differently. That time with him became sort of a place that I fell back to in my memory. Well, I mean, the breakup is a part of it in the way that in the midst of loss you try to still look towards the light and not fall to pieces or do self-destructive things.”

Where She Lives: “Staying with my ex-boyfriend,” she says nonchalantly, then bursts into nervous laughter and admits, “I live on his couch.”

[From NYT T Style Mag]

Yes, the ex-boyfriend whose couch is her current crash pad just happens to be the same guy about whom she wrote her love and breakup songs. Is it just me, or does del Ray sound even more vacant than the usual pop star breed? I really hate to summarize this girl as “annoying,” but that’s all I get from this interview. And the photoshoot? The same.

Photos courtesy of NYT and the Fashion Spot

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80 Responses to “Lana del Rey insists that her lips are real & she’s not manufactured”

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  1. NM6804 says:

    – Bought the interview you mean?

    – I wish people would stop giving Richardson jobs, he’s scum!

    – She can sing and I like a few songs but her personality is too vapid and manufactured to really get into her career plus the fact that everything about her privileged past in already in the open and she refuses to acknowledge her rich background, makes it even harder to “get” her.

    – Her lips are as fake as Kate Middleton’s hair. There are enough old pics of her with her original tin lips (and people saying her lips are fake)and in her clips she has a duckface without even having to purse her lips (most clear in Videogames). Chile, please!

    • TheOriginalVictoria says:

      Bitch please!

      NM, I am borrowing some of your Jolie cynicism because I don’t have enough of my own right now (and I got a lot!) to display how much this chick irritates me.

      If I hear Video Games in another CW show that I love one more time, I will shoot my television screen. Seriously. Her writing is crappy and her voice is crappier once auto-tune is out of the equation. People didn’t like her six years ago because she sucks and she cried to daddy and he made it ‘all better’ for his little dumpling.

      Also she totally threw in the fact that she lives on her ex’s couch so that she could seem relative and not the trust fund baby that we all know she is.

      • NM6804 says:

        – Oh my god, at first I swore that “bitch please” was the start of a serious attack :D. Usually I don’t care for people crapping on me but I like some people here and then it’s different.

        – Borrow my Jolie-cynism I got plenty ;).

        – Mehehe, good points…

        – Still think she can sing though, on other occasions (I Youtubed her) she sounded just fine but I definitely am with you on the other points. Have you read interviews with her? Atrocious!

        http://www.evilbeetgossip.com/2012/01/25/lana-del-rey-has-an-attitude-problem/

        But yeah, it’s pretty much confirmed she lays it on real thick and the critics hate her guts so much it’s not even funny anymore but she will stay (as they predicted) around for awhile anyway.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        But here’s the second half of the story: That couch was bequeathed to her by the J and Bey Cirque de Melee Foundation and every crystal on that couch was taken fro the True Cross. So, a chesterfield can be luxurious, I read it can make lobster bisque in six different languages.

    • BrightonBN1 says:

      I can’t understand the storm of hate surrounding Lana Del Rey – so much of today’s pop music is manufactured – why single her out? As a Brit though, I’m intrigued by your comment that Kate Middleton’s hair is fake – There’s never been any suggestion here in the UK that it is and I can assure you our gutter press are like rottweilers compared to yours..they would have found out about her hair extensions years ago!

  2. monette says:

    This chick…I got such backlash for criticizing her SLN performance on my facebook page, you have no idea. People are mesmerized by her, they started explaining to me how not everybody can perform live from the start and how original and brilliant she is.

    • TheOriginalKitten says:

      Ugh. I just can’t with this one…
      The Video Games song has been around for a while now, but some of my friends are just catching on to this chick. I try to tell everyone that will listen that she is talentless, just some chick with fake lips and a rich daddy who essentially bought her a record contract.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        How dare you besmirch the good name of our Taylor Swift!?? Where are your values? Is your favourite colour red, or just pinko? Well, your anti-privilege and’lips that look a bit like a prolapsed bull anus’-agenda has been clear for some time now, Rebecca Black Hand, Scourge of the Animal Hospice!

    • Chrissy Q says:

      …Really? So don’t get it. I TRIED to listen to one of her songs and had to shut it off. Remember the days when having a good voice was a requirement for singers?

      • TheOriginalKitten says:

        @ Chrissy-that’s what drives me batshit. If you check out the black cab sessions for Feist or the Vincent Moon’s taping of Arcade Fire performing Neon Bible in an elevator- even if you don’t like their music you can’t deny how talented they are, how great they sound live. I mean, they’re making music from tearing paper and hitting the roof of a car! No auto-tune or fancy voice effects needed. Ugh. It just frustrates me….I normally don’t get upset about pop music as I know it’s never gonna go away but it just depresses me to see the talentless making millions.
        If anybody’s interested, some great examples of live performances:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjxef8AfVQg

        http://www.blackcabsessions.com/?id=1319041106

      • NM6804 says:

        I listened to it, saved it in “My Favorites”. Just wonderful, love them!

  3. emmie_a says:

    There are a lot of pics/proof of Lana’s original thinner lips before she started injecting them — lying about it makes her look dumber than her inflated lips. …And I think her father is a millionaire – I’m sure his money has bought a lot of her press coverage.

  4. samira677 says:

    I’ve never heard of her until SNL and I don’t even know how she got on. She doesn’t have any hit songs and her cd wasn’t even released. It’s really bizarre.

  5. MitzieMartin says:

    My husband bought me her cd on Sunday and I really like it.

  6. Mirella says:

    I don’t understand why people are trying so hard to make this girl ‘happen’. I wish they’d stop.

  7. Tiffany27 says:

    Does she know we can see her? Those lips are ghastly.

    • LunaT says:

      And does she realize no one is calling her lips “imaginary”? Of course, they’re “real”. They’re also “fake”, too.

  8. J O'C says:

    All one has to do is Google her and one can find pictures of her old lips. She’s treating her “fans” like they’re all idiots.

  9. Dany says:

    Yeah, right… her lips are real and my dog will write the next Harry Potter book. This girl’s got a plastic mind.

  10. horizonte says:

    i wish she and adele would cut their nails. what’s up with those daggers!

    • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

      Yeah, everyday stiletto nails have always been a bit ‘haute’ for me. If drop a loonie on the floor, I don’t have the income to write it up as a business expense paid the order of ‘Art’, so that piece needs to get back into my pocket. A lost toonie would be a tragedy, that’s two-thirds of the subway fare here in Toronto (until the mayor and his mob syndicate squeeze us for more), so I want that money and all of my cookies back, tout-de-suite!

      I wonder if Barbra Steisand has put out anyone’s eyes with those lacquered and weaponized chopsticks– I mean apart from the times when she does it on purpose? Her upcoming production of King Lear goes to some strange new places, but it’s a convenient means to an end, as far as I’m concerned. Now she’s got The Birds on her team, so maybe we had all better invest in some at-home and beyond storm windows and trans-orbital insurance. Yet another reason why we need all of our change, all the time.

  11. SG says:

    I LOVE her album (shame on me).

    But her lips are fake, and maybe that’s the reason why her SNL performance sucked – she lost feeling/movement and couldn’t sing as well.

    Don’t change your lips if your occupation is singing!

  12. Heather says:

    She’s the new Kellan Lutz.

    Who is Kellan Lutz?
    WHO IS LANA DEL RAY?!

  13. LeenB says:

    To be honest, I like her songs and I enjoyed her album. But dear god I wish she wouldn’t speak. She fall under my category of singers I like to listen to but have no interest in them personally.

  14. Emily says:

    What did she have to do to get that interviewer to say she was a skinnier Adele?

  15. Bellatrix says:

    Dem Nicole Kidman lippies… Sure, they’re real.

    She clearly scored a good deal with this interview, she should have taken the opportunity to NOT discuss her lips as this is clearly 100% in her favour.
    Why step in the poopoo when you can just walk around it?

  16. Ann says:

    Stop featuring Terry Richardson “shoots”; that guy is a serial sexual predator and borderline rapist.

  17. Bobby the K says:

    Not a handsome profile.

  18. B says:

    She doesn’t really bother me, but I second (or third) the hate for Terry Richardson. His photos aren’t even that special, don’t know why he gets so much attention in the mags. Any photo major can do what he does, without the lechery.

  19. Coucou says:

    All she does is make me appreciate Adele even more than i thought possible. Maybe she could be her opening act. She kind of annoys me in the way Alanis used to.

    • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

      Hm. Alanis in 1997 had me wanting to defenestrate myself. As for Adele, I’m 196 per cent burnt out on her, but COME ON. Adele’s super-talented and all, but would I be right in assuming the Grammys pulled out its signature move of ‘only one person is allowed to be honoured a year, let’s hype that person until the very mention of her makes you nauseous’? Adele, meet Alanis, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, William Henry Henderson, Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones and the rest.

  20. TheOriginalKitten says:

    The fact that she is blatantly lying about her lips is just…well, I’m embarassed for her.

  21. DuBarry says:

    Whatever. I like her. Fu*k the h8ers.

  22. Hanna says:

    I love how everyone’s calling her “Ray” lol. Btw, she reminds me of this rich girl from Highschool. The same looks, the same “im unique” attitude when it’s really your rich fat red dad behind it all. Annoying brat.

  23. Tierra says:

    I was wondering who this chick was and why she is suddenly all over the news.
    Im not getting the hype at all. I only listened to one song and that was enough for me. Obviously someone is paying for the publicity b/c the talent just isnt there.
    and no, those lips are not real. You can clearly see where the filler is in her upper lip.

    • scotchy says:

      you know how she got all this press, her PR team is the same team behind adele, hence her name being everywhere and the constant comparison.
      next year there will be someone else, there always is.
      i just avoid this stuff.
      its how the music world works, the actual music really is only 20-30% of the reason why people buy it, today. its a damn shame.

    • deehunny says:

      can you explain more about how you can see the filler in the upper lip? how can you tell?

  24. Dref22 says:

    Her performance was absolutely perfect on Letterman show. Haters gonna hate.

  25. Jules says:

    Here come the Adele clones. Will this faux Adele now dye her hair blonde?

  26. Embee says:

    So she won’t GTFO of her ex’s house, huh? Nice.

  27. Leah says:

    What is with Terry Richardson’s photo shoots? Such a creepy dude.

    I was embarrassed for my SIL when she told me she bought LdR’s album on ITunes. I normally think my SIL is awesome but I might have to rethink it after she told me she bought that album, LOL.

  28. Adrien says:

    I’m done hating her. She’s starting to grow on me. I no longer feel stabby whenever she’s on tv. “Video Games” has no bridge, no ending whatsoever and I’d like to think that’s her schtick but I really like the song.

  29. heatheradair says:

    Okay, I know it’s trendy right now to rip on this chick for being talentless, but after a few listens to her album, I gotta say: I think her music is fun.

    I don’t expect all pop stars to be the second coming of Madonna or to have a set of pipes like Adele — I like stupid, quirky pop that’s fun to sing along with: Lana Del Rey does that; her songs are damn catchy, her lyrics are actually pretty interesting, and, frankly, since when did we care whether or not she “earned” her right to snag interviews or photo shoots or an album, period?

    I don’t get it; seems like we’re being unnecessarily harsh on a pop singer with a reasonably well-received, electro-bubble-gum album……? Why does she have to be “unique enough” or “convincing enough” for us? It’s good “sitting in traffic” tunes, I don’t care whether Pervy Terry took her picture or not…..

  30. Chelsey says:

    Oh so now she’s a comedian too.

  31. mia girl says:

    Her lips are real?!?!?

    I thought today was Valentines Day, not April Fools Day.

  32. Eric says:

    I love Lana DEl Rey, she is great live.. I don’t understand all the hate. I am a gay male and this girl makes me want to go bisexual.. she is talented– I think she is better than adele, LDR has swagger, style, depth, Hipness coming out of every pore,and the most important thing;she can sing LIVE.. I believe she is going to be bigger than KESHA.

    • bean says:

      If she’s so great at singing live, what happened on SNL? How much are her people paying you to comment on her “swagger”? I’d love to get put on that payroll.

      LOL, Connecticut prep school rich daddy fake lips swagger….

  33. mary simon says:

    Such an original pose in the last picture with the devil handsign and the snotty face. She’s letting us know that she’s “got attitude” and that she’s on the inside looking out at us losers with her occult hand signal. They all get photographed giving insider (hand)signs, or covering one eye, paying homage to the “darkside” or performing some kind of shocking or offensive stunt. I am so tired of seeing these “artists” chucking the same old rebellious illuminati crap at us. It’s tiresome and stupid. This girl is just another music industry creation, right down to her lies and her phony lips.

  34. I Choose Me says:

    Meh. Another manufactured pop-tart who’s fame will fade eventually. Thing is I actually like her voice and her music is my speed but I just can’t with the ‘persona.’

  35. charles says:

    Lizzy how does one cartoonize the footage of themselves in a film, intrigued to know I thought it was collagen

    • Katija says:

      There ARE editing techniques that don’t “cartoonize” (BTW – not a word, Lana) necessarily, but can add a very cartoon-like element to the footage. The only way to make a “cartoon” is with an animator.

      Lana has already said that she made the video herself and shot with a web cam. The only tricks she could do would be to use the iMovie filters, i.e. make herself look like she was singing from a ROLLER COASTER RIDE! WHEEEEEE!

      Yeah, she’s full of it. She didn’t use any special tricks or techniques. She didn’t even shoot in front of a green screen – it’s just her, in front of a white wall, unedited.

  36. poppy says:

    this girl should stfu. her music is different enough to stand on its own, imo. so why all this ‘gotta keep my name in the press so i’ll just further alienate myself’ bs?
    she’s admitted nobody would give her the time of day before her repackaging.
    note to ldr: when a legal team creates your name you are indeed manufactured. can’t even come up with a persona on your own? how is it authentic when it isn’t even your own ideas you’re selling?

    she knows we know her lips are real: really injected. she also had a nose job. just own it and stfu.

    i am 100% behind the terry richardson hate. he is a talentless lecherous hack, i don’t care who his daddy was.

  37. SHump76 says:

    I can’t even have an opinion on this. Seriously. I tried to watch that Video Games video once. I got about 30 seconds in and got bored and opened another tab and then YouTube froze up so I just exed it out and never tried again. So like, I’ve never even managed to hear THAT song.

  38. crys737 says:

    shes not terrible. i dont hate her. shes not the anti-christ of music. thats it. Also its del Rey (Rey in Spanish means King. Ray in English means something completely different.) Just saying.

  39. Katija says:

    I’m actually a big fan and have seen all of her videos several times… love the music, but I’m sorry, I just have to say…

    “…I cartoonized the footage of myself..”

    No, you didn’t.

    I have worked in TV commercial production and I think I know what she technique she is getting at, and…

    No, you didn’t. You used unedited webcam footage.

    Love her, but gotta say it: Quit lyin’.

    I’m having flashbacks to when I, a person with acid reflux, heard Ashlee Simpson talk about how acid reflux is what prevents one from being able to sing… and just staring at my TV and muttering, “No it doesn’t.”

    And those two chicks have something in common…

  40. Happy21 says:

    Who the hell is she?

    I first saw her name on here and skipped over the thread because I didn’t know who she was then I saw her CD at the store and my sister said something about the girl being strange and I was just thinking I have no idea who she is and until a couple of weeks ago had never even seen her name…

    I take it she’s a singer now 🙂

  41. layla says:

    Her lips may be “natural” now *cough, cough*… but those things in her Video Games video were anything but.

    There is also a little thing called the internet where we can look up Lizzie Grant before the Del Ray incarnation, again… those lips ARE a different size. Unless all her past images have been “cartoonized” (WTF?!)

  42. Tweakspotter says:

    Well nothing says “I’m not manufactured” like changing your whole look and changing your name from Lizzy Grant to Lana Del Rey. Whatever if it weren’t for SNL I’d have no idea who she was.

  43. anons says:

    i hadn’t heard of lana del ray until now. after a quick google search, i found some old videos from when she was lizzie grant. back then, perhaps when she wasn’t trying so hard, she seemed like a decent singer. she was also more attractive before; its quite obvious she’s done something to her lips …

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chqwuLBhDqM&feature=related

  44. Kimlee says:

    Who the hell is this girl?

    I keep seeing post about her but have no idea who she is.

  45. Tiffany says:

    She acts like the internet doesn’t exist and that people can’t go back and look at pictures of her pre-filler mouth. Does she think we are stupid?

    If she can’t perform, she shouldn’t be a singer.

  46. Jover says:

    Of course she’s manufactured there are youtube clips of her hanging out with that other stellar voice of this generation, Miley Cyrus; PLEASE, if you’re a singer making millions, you should be able to sing live; Remember, the bands at WOodstock were magnificent live and they were all stoned:
    SHe is the current autotuned, electronically enhanced, surgically altered pseudo-voice of this gen; since pop tarts like this are so easily replaceable as many posters have said, in a few yrs another one will come down the pike.
    Wll put Poppy btw didn’t a marketing team actually come up with Stefani Germonnata’s stage name?

  47. Kim says:

    Her lips are as fake as can be. You can see the fat lumps in them esp from the side. Just what the world needs another 100% manufactured, lying, untalented girl.

  48. Kim says:

    When my son and I saw her on SNL he said she sounds like she just sucked on Novacaine from the dentists office-haha! Slurry, terrible voice. Now we laugh and imitate her awful voice whenever we hear her.

  49. sam says:

    I like some of her music, but think she is still a little weak when it comes to performing live.

    Her lips do seem to have changed, but in saying that they seem to look different in every photo shoot/song so I’m thinking that there is a little extra pouting and lipstick in some.

    She is different, and definitely not for everyone but i don’t feel she deserves the huge hate campaign that seems to be out there at the moment.

  50. TheOriginalVictoria says:

    There is always a place for fun pop tunes that have people with less than great voices. The the thing is you have to be either as awesome as Janet or Madonna to get away with it, and have great lyrics and music to cover it up and/or you have to not act like you are the best thing since slice bread.

    I could deal with this chick if she wasn’t so deluded into thinking that her shit is anything other than manufactured poo on toast. Like Ke$ha understands that she is nothing more than a useless piece of pop fun and she does not think she is God’s gift. This is why I love her music. She is not try hard.

    now I’m off to listen to My First Kiss by 30H3 or whatever that band’s name is.

  51. erin says:

    the ‘skinnier adele’ thing is f*cking MORTIFYING and WRONG. adele has a voice. this girl does not.

  52. skeptical says:

    what gets me most annoyed is this girl’s claiming to have been from a trailer park. She went to boarding school and has a rich father. Tralier park? Seriously?
    Originality may be impossible… but authenticity is still possible. Don’t lie about your roots. Don’t claim to be poor when you grew up with a silver spoon up your bum. It’s an insult to those of us who really are poor.
    That’s where my disgust for her comes from.
    I highly doubt Lana “the king” (del Rey in spanish) grew up watching her Mom struggle between keeping a roof overhead or getting food on the table.

    Also…. it’s an insult to Adele to compare this poser to Adele’s great talent. If that crap continues, I’ll despise Lana even more. There is NO comparison there!!

  53. crazycatlady says:

    “Annoying” is exactly how I describe her. Her song, her look, her bored-teenager-in-Rita-Heyworth-wrapping shtick… Annoying.

    • Jover says:

      I agree but isn’t she 25/26 which makes this langourous adolescent posing even more annoying; because she grew up in comfort, she was denied experiences that would give her personality and songs any depth.

  54. Lene says:

    About her lips.I happen to have naturally very and I mean very big lips(I’m white European).People who have natural big lips have unaffected cupids bow on their upper lip.Hers is flat,which means they are fake.

  55. Meadowlark says:

    Omg, these comments give me hope! I thought I was the only one who found this chick to be boring, contrived and incredibly annoying. Why lie about your lips, girl? We can all see your old ones at the click of a mouse.
    Her weird Nico-wannabe voice? Pathetic. Her lyrics? Childish and embarrassing. Shall we not?

  56. lola lola says:

    She’s such a liar.

  57. iseepinkelefants says:

    I’ve never heard this girl sing so I won’t comment on how crap she is, but duck bill lips? Those are not natural. I have Scarjo lips and no one who has some Scarjo/Angiejo lips NATURALLY has duck bill. That’s the kind of look that only comes “naturally”… from a dr’s needle.

  58. Evita Soladine says:

    Mac are great computers for multimedia and music. However there seems to be a lot more hackers creating viruses for these types of computer since they are more vulnerable.

  59. While I don’t think her SNL performance was at all “disastrous”, I do think her denying the obvious plastic surgery is and her arrogance in thinking everyone is stupid/blind has killed her career.

  60. kuba says:

    Thanks for the thoughts you have discussed here.

  61. zoranlija says:

    she has an undisputable talent for writing good songs and she is far better than keshas and lady gagas and similar trash.