1. By: Nicole Filia
Construct of Celebritydom
Long Auburn hair blown out by 60’s glam, mounted on a British GQ cover
with stained red lips and eyes lined black as coal, Lana Del Rey stares at me from
atop my dorm room desk. A desk that has schedules and make-up and Disney
movies stacked on top of French VOGUE. A graduation tassel hangs with the number
’13 etched into it’s gold plate, like decorative jewelry to accent sketches of collector
Barbie Couture hung on the cold wall behind her centerfold. “Lana Del Rey is GQ’s
Woman of the Year!” titled in black upon her white naked body, as if she’s the winner
of a grand prize, which calls for calligraphic font. There’s something significantly
different about her that seems to catch my eye. Maybe it’s the way she continues to
dazzle us with her self-proclaimed unusualness, or the reason behind her vintage
throes of love and time lost. Whatever your beast of burden may be, her music is a
counterpart to the specific weight that we as women have carried since Eve was
condemned for the sin rushing through our veins—forbidden fruit we can’t seem to
forget. Her melancholy melody is a living commentary, which could be compared to
the modern-day mourning of Tennyson’s, The Lady of Shalott.
“No one really ever asks for me to smile in my pictures, they want me to seem
sad.” Del Rey accounts to BBC reporter. It’s as if her life of fame has been framed on
a wall as the next Marilyn Monroe of the music world, an out of place artist from an
era of old Hollywood glam. Once known Lizzy Grant, since has become the condition
of celebritydom. Leaving her name behind in the sake of art, Del Rey compares the
two girls she embodies. “[Lizzy and Lana] They’re very much the same person.
When I started singing, I considered what I was doing as an art project. It was

2. always a plan to create a sonic and visual world that I found to be beautiful.” She
adds in GQ, “People act like I’ve been trying to rewrite history. “ She clarifies, “I
wanted to have a name that was as beautiful as the music I was going to make.”
And did she ever. Her voice feels like nostalgic projections of the past, paired
with a cinematic score to a romantic drama, where death and heartbreak all lead to
a heavenly place with a bittersweet ending. Her orchestral influence makes a simple
four chords resonate like a lure version of Tchaikovsky’s Overture pulling at our
heartstrings in a deep alto.
Making the modern pop-star Kesha, sound like a prepubescent child, this
starlet croons a morose tune, which displays a similar thematic message. “My
strongest recurring theme [in my music] is honoring love, even when it’s lost,” she
says. Lingering on the idea of letting go she adds, “Staying strong in the midst of true
love lost and hopeful and soft, even when things get really difficult and hard as they
do for everyone.” Is this why she has the tattoo “Die Young” written in cursive
across her finger? Del Rey smirks as she explains to the reporter, “It’s inspiration to
live everyday like it was my last day, even if I keep on going. An inspiration to stay
young in my mind, even when I feel tired and old.” As if this 80’s child has aged past
her mesmerizing 26 years of life. As if her beauty surpasses the fact that she’s
battled alcoholism since the age of 14, when she was sent away to boarding school.
As if the soft serene look she has, washes away any pain someone of her stature
could possess. She’s painless to us.
Constantly reinventing herself, Del Rey has been criticized by the overrun
judge of ‘authenticity’. Is she real or just a construct of the industry’s best try? Getting
heat for calling herself a "gangster Nancy Sinatra" she has built an image of wildly
dark cinematic menagerie, infused by the 20’s meeting the 50’s meeting the
millennium with a smoldering nuance.
Her break out song “Video Games” rose to the top off mass viewings of her
homemade YouTube video, then becoming the debut single off her album Born to
Die, which grew to produce five more singles: “Born to Die”, “Blue Jeans”, “National
Anthem”, “Summertime Sadness”, and “Dark Paradise”.
In an interview at the famed Chateau Marmont Hotel, Del Rey discussed the
timely charm behind the video that launched her into the scene and why this
boutique hotel means so much to her. “The Chateau [Marmont] was one of the most
beautiful places I had seen in Hollywood. It had a lot of the muted blues and greens
that I was sort of inspired by. And because they were so faded it also lent a sense of
nostalgia.” She adds shyly as she looks down at the dark mahogany table, “It’s a
place that has inspired so many of my videos and influenced a lot of my visuals.” Del
Rey begins to divulge on her past, “I’ve been making videos since I was seventeen.
When I first started, I was originally collecting vintage clips of exotic places that I
considered to be beautiful and inspiring, and started setting it to classical music.
Maybe they were places I had been where nice things had happened.” She explains
her personal touch, “Eventually I started setting those clips to my own music, and
slowly splicing myself in and turning them into music videos.” Del Rey addresses the
nostalgic feeling of the film used, ”Some of them were vintage clips from the 50’s
and 60’s of certain icons, or just shots of things that I considered to be really
beautiful and timeless.”

3. Catching a glance of the old Lizzy, Lana remembers her life before the fame
fantasy struck. “When I wrote the song “Video Games” it was one of my most
happiest times.” She goes on to explain why there’s a mix of modernity in her video,
with young skater boys gliding down the So Cal streets of Santa Monica. With an
innocent look she smiles, “I liked the skaters because we used to skate in New York,
and you know, it just reminds me of back when things were pretty easy and simple.”
Slowly the childlike glow in her eyes fades when she says, “The kids skating and the
kids by the swimming pool—you really felt like they were just living for the
moment, it was very young. And I miss that. I missed that at the time that I was
writing.”
The title to her latest piece “Young and Beautiful” speaks to the ambiance of
days gone by. Del Rey says, “I had a vision of making my life a work of art, and I was
looking for people who also felt that way.” She need not look any further,
considering this track just dropped accompanying the trailer to Baz Luhrmann’s
blockbuster The Great Gatsby, set to release in theaters May 10th. Her involvement
with the soundtrack couldn’t have been more fitting, when it comes to the roaring
20’s and life of idolized glam. Jack White’s Third Man Records does her right as she
sings, “I've seen the world/Done it all, had my cake now/ Diamonds, brilliant, and
Bel-Air now/ Hot summer nights mid July/ When you and I were forever wild/ The
crazy days, the city lights/The way you'd play with me like a child,” asking the
ultimate culmination of Del Rey’s quest, “Will you still love me when I'm no longer
young and beautiful/ Will you still love me when I got nothing but my aching soul.”
Lana Del Rey is famous for the ride or die mentality she possesses lyrically.
Her latest album Paradise showcases her fame-obsessed identity, “Find someone
who has a life that you want and figure out how they got it. Read books, pick your
role models wisely, find out what they did and do it.” Del Rey uses her own advice
delving into lyrics from songs like “Body Electric” where she sensually sings lines,
“Elvis is my daddy/Marilyn's my mother/Jesus is my bestest friend/We don't need
nobody 'cause we got each other/Or at least I pretend.” She continues to trail down
this lonely lull in the song “Bel Air” where she idealizes, “Roses, Bel Air, take me
there/ I’ve been waiting to meet you/ Grenadine, sunshine, can you break this heart
of mine/ Darling I’m waiting to greet you, come to me baby.” Del Rey comments on
her work by saying, “I’m usually always singing about the same goddamn person. I’ll
love him forever, but you know, it’s all good…it’s all good.”
It leaves one to wonder, who broke this enigmatic heart and how does she go
about to fix the Tennyson tapered lady in waiting? “I just look for someone who
makes me feel like life is an exciting opportunity- you know, just to be alive.
Someone that makes me feel electric. “(Body Electric, maybe?) As she brushes her
hair away form her face, with vamp nails the color of blood accented by gold
triangular tips, it’s hard not to notice the tattoo etched into the side of her hand.
“Trust no one,” it reads.