1985-present
Lana Del Rey Now: Singer Headlines 2024 Coachella
Lana Del Rey is no stranger to the Coachella Valley. But her return in April 2024 is as a headliner at the famed Coachella music festival that spans two weekends. The 38-year-old “A&W” singer first performed at the fest a decade ago then later wrote the song “Coachella - Woodstock in My Mind” after attending as a fan. She is set to perform April 12 and April 19.
Who Is Lana Del Rey?
Musician Lana Del Rey is known for her melancholic and often nostalgic sound featured on songs like “Summertime Sadness,” “Young and Beautiful,” and “West Coast.” Del Rey first performed under her real name, Lizzy Grant, but found fame as Lana Del Rey in 2011 with a self-produced music video for her song “Video Games.” She has since sold millions of albums, beginning with 2012’s Born to Die, and earned 11 Grammy nominations. Del Rey released her ninth studio album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, in March 2023. Her new album, Lasso, is expected this September.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Elizabeth Woolridge Grant
BORN: June 21, 1985
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer
Where Is Lana Del Rey From?
Lana Del Rey was born as Elizabeth Woolridge Grant on June 21, 1985, in New York City. Her parents were working in advertising when she was born but left their city life behind to move to Lake Placid, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains when Del Rey was a baby.
She grew up with a younger brother and sister. Her sister, photographer Caroline “Chuck” Grant, shot Del Rey’s Lust for Life album cover and has taken promotional photos of the musician.
As a teenager in the small community of Lake Placid, Del Rey started drinking heavily. She’d attended Catholic school, but her parents sent her to Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut, because of her drinking. Boarding school wasn’t a complete cure, but by the age of 18, Del Rey was sober.
Instead of attending college right away, she went to live with her aunt and uncle on Long Island; her uncle taught her to play guitar. Although Del Rey soon enrolled at Fordham University in the Bronx, where she studied philosophy, music became her true focus.
Becoming Lana Del Rey
Del Rey, then still known as Lizzy Grant, started her career with open mic nights and club gigs. In 2006, she entered a songwriting competition; she didn’t win, but a judge on the panel helped her create a demo, which led to her signing with the indie label 5 Points. With the $10,000 she earned for this deal, Del Rey moved into a New Jersey trailer park.
“The way things started off for me in the way I was portrayed was that I was feigning emotional sensitivity. I really didn’t like that,” she told MOJO in 2021. “Because I didn’t even get famous ’til I was, like, 27 and until then, I sang for less than free. And I loved it. I really was that girl who was pure of soul. I didn’t give a f––.”
Her musical inspirations include Joan Baez, Cat Power, Kurt Cobain, Stevie Nicks, Britney Spears, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, and Eminem, as well as poets Allen Ginsberg, Vladimir Nabokov, and Walt Whitman.
By the time her first album, Lana Del Ray AKA Lizzy Grant, came out in 2010, Del Rey had decided she wanted to work under a new name. She flirted with names like Sparkle Rope Jump Queen and May Jailer before settling on Lana Del Rey, which was selected on a trip to Miami in part for its evocation of coastal glamor. “Lana Del Rey just sounded good coming out of my mouth—it was exotic sounding, and I like exotic places and I like really gorgeous things,” she later told Dazed. “I could build a sonic world towards the way the name fell off my lips. It’s helped me a lot.”
Del Rey created a signature sound of vulnerable, emotional alternative music that often incorporates nostalgia for America’s past. Her aesthetic typically pairs American iconography with darker perspectives, something she dubbed “Hollywood Sadcore” early on. To match her new name, she dyed her blonde hair and adopted a more retro, glamorized image. One of her managers described her as “gangster Nancy Sinatra.”
Around this time, she left her record label behind and briefly lived in London, where she focused on songwriting with the likes of Justin Parker, among others. They collaborated on her song “Video Games,” which Del Rey released on YouTube with a music video she produced once she was back in the United States. It became a viral hit and finally paved the way for her mainstream success.
The news that Del Rey had signed with Interscope Records in October 2011 made some people wonder if “Video Games,” released earlier that summer, was a marketing ploy and not a video she’d created herself. There was also speculation that her father was a millionaire who’d bankrolled her (Del Rey has said her family was never wealthy).
In 2012, Del Rey appeared on Saturday Night Live and was criticized for looking nervous and singing hesitantly. That same year, reviewers panned her first studio album, Born to Die, and her sound. “I think in one week, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Post, and New York magazine agreed that it was the most ridiculous act that had ever come out,” the singer told Harper’s Bazaar in 2023. Instead of stopping her, the critiques inspired Del Rey to continue to create. Besides, fans loved Born To Die and propelled it into the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Del Rey’s successful career was off and running.
Albums
To date, Dey Rey has released nine albums, including one under her real name Lizzy Grant, and one EP. Born To Die from 2012 is often credited as her debut, as this was the first to carry her professional name. The musician’s first album overall actually dates back to 2010’s Lana Del Ray AKA Lizzy Grant.
In February 2024, Dey Rey announced an upcoming new album. Lasso is scheduled for release this September.
Notable Songs
Del Rey’s work largely isn’t made up of numerous radio hits, but she’s created songs that have received billions of listens. That includes the multi-platinum songs “Summertime Sadness,” “Young And Beautiful,” “Born To Die,” and “West Coast.”
Her earliest hits stood out for their viral music videos that established her “Hollywood Sadcore” aesthetic. “Video Games” from 2011 struck a chord with its mixed vintage footage, old cartoons, Hollywood imagery, an unsteady Paz de la Huerta outside the Chateau Marmont, and shots of Del Rey herself. “Blue Jeans,” which came out in March 2012, was another popular DIY video.
The video for “Born to Die” was a much more elaborate affair. It included two tigers and evoked Rebel Without a Cause with its car wreck ending. For the “National Anthem” video, Del Rey portrayed both Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Marilyn Monroe, alongside rapper A$AP Rocky’s John F. Kennedy.
“Summertime Sadness” exploded in popularity after Cedric Gervais made an EDM remix of the song in 2013. That version rose to No. 6 on Billboard Hot 100, and the platinum-certified original from 2012 has now sold the equivalent of 6 million copies. Del Rey’s highest-charting solo song on the Hot 100 is “West Coast,” which landed at No. 17 in 2014.
Del Rey’s vocals have graced a handful of movie soundtracks. She wrote “Young and Beautiful” for the 2013 remake of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. Part of the movie’s Jay-Z–curated soundtrack, the song was then nominated for a Grammy Award. The next year, Del Rey contributed the Golden Globe–nominated track “Big Eyes” to the Tim Burton film of the same name and sang an updated “Once Upon a Dream” for Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie. For 2019’s Charlie’s Angels movie, she appeared alongside pop stars Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande on the song “Don’t Call Me Angel (Charlie’s Angels).” It debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
More recently, Del Rey has earned critical praise for “Norman F––g Rockwell” and “A&W.” The tracks were nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2020 and 2024, respectively.
Her collaborations with other artists are also well-known. Del Rey has worked with The Weeknd multiple times. Beyond her own songs, the pair teamed up on his songs “Prisoner” from 2015 and 2016’s “Stargirl Interlude.” In 2022, Del Rey co-wrote and appeared on Taylor Swift’s song “Snow on the Beach” from her album Midnights. “That was actually the song Taylor wanted me to sing on. If I think someone’s song is perfect, I will act as a producer in it,” Del Rey told Harper’s Bazaar. “She wanted me to sing the whole thing, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Grammy Nominations
Since her first two nods in 2013, Del Rey has received a total of 11 Grammy Award nominations. The musician has yet to secure a trophy, however.
Among her Grammy nominations are three for Album of the Year recognizing Norman F––g Rockwell, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, and The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind The Madness, which features Del Rey on a song. She has two nominations in another major category, Song of the Year, for “Norman F––g Rockwell” and “A&W.”
Elsewhere, her song “Young And Beautiful,” for the 2013 movie The Great Gatsby, competed for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Lust for Life and her EP Paradise both competed for Best Pop Vocal Album.
For the 2024 Grammys, Del Rey earned five Grammy nominations. Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd was up for Best Alternative Music Album in addition to Album of the Year. Song of the Year nominee “A&W” also competed for Best Alternative Music Performance. Finally, Del Rey’s song with Jon Batiste, “Candy Necklace,” was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Tours and Other Career Highlights
Del Rey’s first tours were largely international. Then in 2015, the singer embarked on her Endless Summer Tour that visited 17 cities, mostly in the United States. Courtney Love was the musical guest at some of the concerts. Next came 2018’s LA to the Moon Tour, spanning a jam-packed slate of shows that January and February. Del Rey has also performed during The Norman F––g Rockwell Tour in 2019 and in another slate of shows in fall 2023 to support Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
Mainstream success brought Del Rey opportunities outside the music world. She modeled for H&M, and the British luxury brand Mulberry created a signature handbag, The Del Rey, for her. In 2013, she made a short film called Tropico, as well as a Tropico EP. Elsewhere, she inspired James Franco and a co-author to write Flip-Side: Real and Imaginary Conversations With Lana Del Rey (2016). Del Rey attended the 2018 Met Gala, alongside Jared Leto, while sporting a halo with wings and a dress with knives sticking out of a gold heart.
Del Rey is also a poet. She released her first spoken word poetry, a collection titled Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, in July 2020. She subsequently released a hardcover book of the poems in September 2020. It featured more than 30 poems she wrote.
Ex-Boyfriends
Del Rey has had a series of romantic relationships with fellow artists and musicians.
She previously dated Scottish singer Barrie-James O’Neill from 2011 to 2014, photographer Francesco Carrozzini from 2014 to 2015, rapper G-Eazy for a short time in 2017, then cop and Live PD analyst Sean Larkin from 2019 to early 2020.
Later in 2020, she connected with musician Clayton Johnson. The couple became engaged before breaking up in the fall of 2021.
Del Rey then had a relationship with Jack Donoghue from 2022 to sometime in 2023. Most recently, she was rumored to be engaged to music manager Evan Winiker in March 2023, but the pair have since called it quits.
The singer discussed her romantic life most recently in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar published in November 2023. “I’m definitely not in love right now,” Del Rey said. “It hasn’t crossed my mind in the last five months on the road or here yet. But give it a week. My history, sure, it’s coming for me.”
Controversies and Waffle House Appearance
Over the years in the public eye, the musician has been a target for crime. Her house has been broken into, and in 2012, her computer was hacked, exposing personal information and unreleased songs, many of which spread online. In February 2018, a man was arrested at a concert in Orlando, Florida, for plotting to kidnap the singer.
Del Rey has also courted her own controversies, starting with a 2014 interview with The Guardian in 2014. “I wish I was dead already,” she said after talking about the late musicians Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. Cobain’s daughter, Frances, criticized her for the remark.
Sometimes her songs have touched on sensitive topics and hot-button political issues. Del Rey’s 2014 song “Ultraviolence” featured the controversial line “He hit me and it felt like a kiss.” Three years later, Del Rey said she’s no longer comfortable with the lyric. In 2019, she earned attention for the August release of “Looking for America,” with lyrics like “I’m still looking for my own version of America/One without the gun, where the flag can freely fly” inspired by recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Del Rey’s track “Judah Smith Interlude” on her 2023 album caught flack from some fans over her inclusion of megachurch pastor Judah Smith’s sermon.
In early 2018, news broke that Radiohead asked for some of the publishing rights to Del Rey’s “Get Free” due to similarities to their hit song “Creep.” During a performance that March, the singer said her and the band’s dispute had been resolved.
Del Rey has come under fire more than once over matters of race and representation. In a May 2020 Instagram post, after she cited Ariana Grande, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé as singers who “have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f––g, cheating, etc,” Del Rey asked why was being condemned for “glamorizing abuse.” Critics wondered why she was mainly singling out women of color and pointed out that the other artists named in her post had also endured plenty of negative comments.
The next year, Del Rey released the cover of her album Chemtrails Over the Country Club, which featured a photo of the musician surrounded by a group of women. Fans criticized her for its lack of diversity. “No this was not intended — these are my best friends, since you are asking today,” she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. “As it happens when it comes to my amazing friends and this cover, yes, there are people of color on this record’s picture and that’s all I’ll say about that.” However, she added another statement, in part saying, “We are all a beautiful mix of everything - some more than others, which is visible and celebrated in everything I do.”
In a bizarre turn, in September 2023, Del Rey was spotted at a Waffle House in Florence, Alabama, apparently working a shift. Fans speculated she was working on a new project or possibly promoting one. However, the “A&W” singer told The Hollywood Reporter it wasn’t a stunt, nor a new job, but something that happened organically after she spent several days visiting the restaurant. “We were on our third hour, and the servers asked, ‘Do you guys want shirts?’ ” Del Rey explained. “Hell yeah! We were thrilled.”
Quotes
- I’m not afraid of a fight. I’ll go from zero to 100 real fast, but that’s what you can do when you’re at home with yourself. You can fight fast, love fast, all that stuff.
- Here’s the thing. It’s good to know that the coolest of the cool can still be so messy because it’s like—there’s no competition. Your life is your art. I just feel lucky that you said yes, because I couldn’t see it any other way.
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Emily Shiffer has worked as a writer for over 10 years, covering everything from health and wellness to entertainment and celebrities. She previously was on staff at SUCCESS, Men's Health, and Prevention magazines. Her freelance writing has been featured in Women's Health, Runner's World, PEOPLE, and more. Emily is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she majored in magazine journalism at the Medill School of Journalism and minored in musicology. Currently residing in Charleston, South Carolina, Emily enjoys instructing barre, surfing, and long walks on the beach with her miniature Dachshund, Gertrude.
