Lana Del Rey is one of the most influential female artists in the world today. Her music has often been described as cinematic and mystical and she has been labeled one of the most mysterious artists of her time. Even her Instagram is private and not titled under her name! People enjoy her because she doesn’t make her main goal to be relatable or normal. Her songs are all unique unto themselves, and each album focuses on a different aspect of life and abnormality.

Her birth name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant but she is now known as Lana Del Rey. She was born in 1985 and raised in Lake Placid, New York. She was brought up as a Roman Catholic by her parents, Robert Grant and Patricia Hill. Lana struggled with alcoholism from ages 14-15 and was sent to Kent School for rehabilitation. She had issues with making friends as a teenager and in her early adult years mostly because she was hyper-fixated on death and had terrible anxiety about the ones she loves passing away. After she graduated from Kent School, she went to go live in Long Island with her aunt and uncle. He taught her to play guitar while she stayed here, and it was then that she realized she had a gift. Then she started playing for clubs, hidden under the names “Sparkle Jump Rope Queen” and “Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena.” Her abnormal stage names are one of the factors that makes her so different from other artists and mysterious to the world.

“I was always singing but didn’t plan on pursuing it seriously. When I got to New York City when I was eighteen, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn—I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point—and that was it,” she said.

In 2004, she enrolled at Fordham University, a private Jesuit research school. She majored in philosophy. She wanted to discover where the lines were between God and science, having an interest and belief in both. She continued to practice singing and playing instruments as she went through college, and in 2005 she registered a seven-track E.P. with the United States Copyright Office titled, Rock Me Stable with another, Young Like Me, also listed. At this time she went under the stage name May Jailer. A few years later in 2008, Lana graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. Her first studio album was released in 2010 titled, Lana Del Rey. She now has nine studio albums, four extended plays, 38 singles (including four as a featured artist), 16 promotional singles, and one box set. Her most famous album is Norman F****** Rockwell! which was released in 2019 and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Album of the Year, and won NME for Best Album in the World, both in 2020. 

All of her albums are phenomenal and completely their own. My personal favorites are Born to Die and Ultraviolence, released in 2012 and 2014. She continues to make music currently and released a new album today titled, Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, featuring 16 songs. She also published a poetry book titled, Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass, in 2020.