David Bowie and Madonna are notorious shape-shifters. I don't think that is fake at all," he said.ĭespite the outrage directed at her, Del Rey is employing one of the oldest tricks in the book: the creation of a stage persona. "I think she cares about the art that she is creating. Horowitz said that whatever the truth of her emergence there is little doubt about her talent or commitment. "She is just a gorgeous creature," said Noah Levy, senior news editor at In Touch Weekly magazine. That's just how I look when I sing," she insisted.ĭel Rey has many defenders too. "I haven't had anything done at all… I'm quite pouty. It is a charge she vehemently denied in a recent interview. Pictures of Lizzy Grant when contrasted to Del Rey have led many to speculate that she has had collagen injections in her lips and perhaps even plastic surgery. Actress and musician Juliette Lewis tweeted: "Watching this 'singer' on SNL is like watching a 12-year-old in their bedroom when they're pretending to sing and perform." Even news anchor Brian Williams weighed in, sending an email that was later published on gossip website Gawker that called Del Rey's performance one of the "worst outings in SNL history".īut it is not just Del Rey's music and SNL performance that is being hauled over the coals. She gave a hesitant, uncertain performance – suddenly more Lizzy Grant than Del Rey – that triggered brutal criticism.Ĭelebrities even got in on the act. Last weekend Del Rey appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Some influential music websites, such as Hipster Runoff, have turned insulting Del Rey into an art form. Music blogs poured vitriol on her talents. Suddenly, many of the fans that had boosted Del Rey turned on her in spectacular fashion. "There are a lot of things that don't seem organic about it," said Steven Horowitz, who wrote a cover story about Del Rey for Billboard magazine. There has been much speculation as to exactly when Del Rey teamed up with her current label Interscope and how much influence their savvy marketers might have put into her original emergence. People were suspicious of the way Grant's failed album, and all her social media websites, appeared to have been scrubbed from the internet just before Del Rey appeared. Rather than being an outsider struggling for recognition, Del Rey is in fact the daughter of a millionaire father who has backed her career. Her stage name was chosen by her management. A few critics began to wonder if, far from being some organic wunderkind, the transformation from Grant to Del Rey had been planned all along. She won the Next Big Thing prize at the Q awards. Del Rey's few live gigs suddenly sold out. The follow-up, Blue Jeans, with a similar feel, netted 6 million views. It currently has a staggering 20 million views on YouTube. Del Rey's amazing voice crooned the haunting song against a backdrop of grainy out-takes of home movies and Hollywood scenes.
When Video Games first went viral it became an underground sensation praised for its authentic feel. Some people feel victims of an immense confidence trick. That revelation has made Grant/Del Rey one of the most controversial figures to emerge in US music for years. Of course, Lana Del Rey and Lizzy Grant are the same person. "It's a place that has inspired so many of my videos and influenced a lot of my visuals," she said through a mouth now framed by pouting, bee-stung lips. In an interview recently shot poolside at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, Del Rey explained her attraction to the notorious celebrity haunt. She married her music to a mysterious image, self-styled as a "gangster Nancy Sinatra", that paid homage to 1960s fashions and seedy showbiz glamour. After first appearing on the internet last year with an apparently home-produced video of a song called Video Games, she became a cult hit. Her soaring vocals and melodies, reflecting genres as diverse as hip hop and indie music, have won millions of fans. It is over-the-top and wildly eccentric.īut that suits Del Rey's sound. By the end of the video, she is covered in blood, wearing only a red bra. The short film begins with her posing half-naked with a tattooed, shirtless man in front of the stars and stripes, then shows her sitting on a throne in a figure-hugging white dress flanked by two tigers. The video for her new song, provocatively called Born to Die, is slick and lavishly produced.
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