Summer has passed us now and we’ve got that summertime sadness. Whether you’re a pop or techno fan, you’re most definitely a Lana Del Rey fan. Her voice her songs and her look are all enough to have you listening to her albums on repeat all day long. Although she looks like a pin-up angel and has an angelic kind of sad voice. Her real name is actually Elizabeth Woolridge Grant. She’s 33 years old and she comes from the city of dreams in New York. She grew up in a happy family of 3 children and used to attend the church choir.
Later after she finished high school, she didn’t go to college but instead went to live with her aunt and uncle in Long Island. Where she worked as a waitress and learn to play the guitar. With her guitar and choir experience, she began writing songs and singing at night clubs. Until she began to channel her entire time and creativity towards it and began recording songs. Long story short, she met her managers, signed on with them, chose a stage name and the rest is history as we know it. There’s a lot to know about Lana Del Rey, her past, her image, her creativity, scandals and some controversies. If you’re curious to find out who really hides under the mask of a 50s pop singer with perfect hair? Keep on reading.
16: Lana Del Rey Loves Luxury Sports Cars and Is the Face of Jaguar
Although she doesn’t like to be in the spotlight very much, she does enjoy living a little. She enjoys beautiful things such as luxury sports cars. She even signed a 6-figure contract with Jaguar to be the face of the f-type cars they make. Since she always poses in her videos and album covers next to powerful cars and likes to drive around LA in style.
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15: Lana Del Rey Suffered from Alcoholism as A Teenager
Listening to her songs you realize that she might have gone through a lot of drama, toxic relationships and odd experiences in her life. But it also might be a figure of speech or just artistic writing. Not all songs are about somebody or a certain experience. There’s a lot of space for imagination and free writing in music. In her case, the lyrics are a depiction of her real-life experiences.
She used to suffer from alcoholism from a very young age. Although she grew up in a happy home, she didn’t have a perfect life. At the age of just 14, she thought drinking alcohol was cool and her family sent her to boarding school to get sober. It was a dark moment for her but from that born to die was born and from that a successful music career. Suffering has always been the most triggering and inspirational state of mind for artists.
14: Before Settling for Lana Del Rey, She Had 4 Other Different Stage Names in Mind
Lana Del Rey sounds great, it’s catchy, unique and suited for the style she’s chosen. But it’s not her real name because like a lot of artists their real names are plain boring and not strong enough. Elizabeth Woolridge Grant went through 4 different stage names before choosing Lana del Rey. Prior to it, she went with the Lizzie Grant at first because it was similar to her real name. Then with sparkle jump rope queen and then with Mae Jailer. Lana Rey Delmar was the fourth.
And then one day when she was in Miami, she decided to cut it short and stick with Lana del Rey. Because it sounded more exotic and suitable for her style. Honestly, Lana del Rey sounds perfect. It has enough English to it and a little bit of Spanish to make it pop and make you wonder if that’s her real name because it sounds so good. Well, now you know the whole story there.
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13: Lana Del Rey Was The 2nd Artist to Perform on SNL Without Having an Album Released
Lana’s career started out very well. When she became an internet sensation with 2 of her most iconic songs, “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”, they’re still great songs to this day. She still sings them at all of her concerts. If you’re an old fan, you’ll remember her first performances and that SNL debut from 2012. Where she made huge headlines for being not very talented or ready, to say the least.
SNL performances are usually very well-orchestrated and can-do amazing things for new artists that want to promote their albums just like Lana did. She was invited to perform on SNL before she even had an album released. It was something that happened in 1998 with Natalie Imbruglia. Her performance was bad though and had critics howling at her for not taking full advantage of the opportunity. That day she was very nervous and not fully prepared for it. But her live performance skills have significantly improved and now she’s invited to Coachella and other major events. Apparently, most people have forgotten about that SNL experience.
12: Lana Del Rey Net Worth is $14 Million
For more than 6 years Lana del Rey is being enchanting our ears with melodic and beautiful love songs, bold videos and majestic live performances. If you’ve ever been to one of her concerts, you’ll know she often sings while swinging on a flowery swing with amazing videos in the background. Tours, bestselling albums, viral videos on YouTube and sponsorships with luxury brands have brought her amazing fortunes of $14 Million. There’s a lot of money in the music industry and once you’re a regular and top-rated artist, they’ll keep on coming. She’s won awards, worked on soundtracks for movies, collaborated with other artists and sold over 14 million albums worldwide. She’s also planning to launch a new album soon. So, we’ll get more Lana and she will get more money.
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11: A Fan Tried to Kidnap Lana Del Rey
The saddest thing that can happen to a celebrity is suicide or assassination. There are a number of famous artists that were assassinated by their fans, including the likes of John Lennon. It’s tragic to see this happen but unfortunately, some sick people and crazy fans go too far. Lana Del Rey is no stranger to unnecessary drama like this. She has experienced kidnapping attempts by a fan, being knocked down on stage by another and having fans trespassing and stealing her cars. They seem to be obsessed with her and although nothing happened to her so far. We’re confident that she’s a little paranoid by now and is extra cautious. Hopefully, they calm down and she has good security because it’s not okay to live your life out in fear.
10: Radiohead Sued Lana Del Rey for Copyright Reasons
One of the biggest scandals of the past year has been the one between Lana del Rey and Radiohead. They accused her of copying their ultra-famous 1993 song “Creep” on her get-free song. We are sure Lana is a huge fan of Radiohead, but she actually admitted having been inspired by the song. No lawsuit has been issued but the two parties through their lawyers and managers discussed the problem of copyright and credit issues for months. Lana was ready to credit up to 40% of her song to the writers of “Creep” but they wanted 100%. This whole scandal broke at the beginning of the year and by March, Lana stated in a concert that her legal dispute with the band had ended. There is no other news on the subject.
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9: People Think Lana Del Rey Wrote the Song Cola About Harvey Weinstein
One of the best-kept secrets of Hollywood was the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse habit. It went on for years and years and although some more familiar with it they never said a word or acted in any way. All that ended last year, when women finally got the courage to speak up and take action of their own. Did he harass Lana del Rey too? Well, he didn’t. The whole controversy with this is that Lana wrote a song that depicted a Harvey Weinstein like men. After the whole scandal, she decided to remove it from the EP and never sing it again. This is her way of supporting the #metoo and #timesup campaigns for all the women that suffered from sexual harassment, abuse and rape by Harvey Weinstein. The lawsuit against him is ongoing and hopefully, some light will be shed on this controversy that left so many women traumatized.