Death and Lana Del Rey: From Glamour to Grief

TW: Death and Suicide

Lana Del Rey burst onto the music scene in 2012 with her album Born to Die. I remember the single of the same name being released, which prompted a lot of comments from people in my age group at the time. I remember many saying, ‘she sounds depressed’, ‘why is she singing about death?’ and ‘she sounds like she is whining.’ Her image was everywhere – the beautiful, ultimate ‘sad girl’ who sung about older men, drugs, and death. I was hooked. Death seems to be everywhere in her music and imagery – something I’ve noticed now more then ever with the release of her new album Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard? What I find particularly interesting about her contemplations of mortality is that it seemed to resonate with so many people, particularly young women. Death was mainstream in music. Del Rey has been accused of glamourising death and the ‘live fast die young’ lifestyle. Is this something detrimental to many, or is she simply embodying the ‘death positive’ movement on her own terms? In this post I will try and dive deeper into the death and dying aspects of her work, something important to acknowledge with the singer exploding again all over Tik Tok and playing an important role in the pop culture of the 2010s.

Born to Die

Del Rey dies in a fiery crash at the end of her Born to Die music video. She is seen bloody and beautiful and is adorned in an ethereal white gown in a highly decorated church. She sings about the inevitability of death surrounded by religious imagery. In one scene she lies on a bed surrounded by flowers, almost like the flowers seen around a coffin in a chapel of rest. There is no denying that the video is impressive – with many comments on the page stating how much they relate to the music that Del Rey produces. Death doesn’t seem to be a divider here. Fans don’t seem to feel she is romanticising dying young but is singing about her own contemplations on mortality. In the comment section of one of her videos in fact, a fan states they listen to Del Rey when they have suicidal thoughts to see how beautiful the world can be, and that they feel comfort in knowing someone else feels how they feel. The video in question is Ride, where Del Rey states ‘Live fast. Die young’ as part of the video monologue. But is this literal?

Del Rey also uses imagery and writes lyrics associated with celebrities who died young, including Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, Elvis, and JFK. National Anthem shows Del Rey playing both Marilyn and Jackie O, almost as if she is playing the role of Marilyn if she had become JFK’s wife. At the end of the video, we see the recreated assassination of JFK with a distraught Del Rey in the back seat of the car. Americana imagery is rampant, something she stepped away from a bit with the growing turmoil of American politics in recent years.

The JFK assassination is recreated in the Nation Anthem music video (Source: Genius.com)

27 Club

Frances Bean Cobain criticised Del Rey for romanticising the death of young musicians after the Guardian released an interview with her in which she is reported to have stated, ‘I wish I was dead already.’ In fact, Pop Matters in an article from 2014 stated that, ‘By re-imagining her life as a blown-out Hollywood production about someone who really wants to join the 27 Club, Del Rey acknowledges the world’s fascination with tragic woman and invites them to watch a new train wreck.’ In the same Guardian piece, Del Rey cites Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain as two of her heroes (In fact, she even has Amy tattooed on her collarbone) – both of which are members of the infamous 27 Club. Lana later criticised the interview, saying her words were taken out of context and that she mentions her heroes because they are talented, not because they died young.

Suicide or suicide ideation is also mentioned in some of Del Rey’s lyrics. In Dark Paradise she sings, ‘I wish I was dead’. On her Honeymoon albums she sings ‘Dying by the hand of a foreign man happily’ (Salvatore) and on her Lust for Life album one of the demo versions of the songs states ‘She wants to die, lie-la-lie, And she should fucking try, lie-la-lie’ (Beautiful People Beautiful Problems). In fact, the song and music video Lust for Life is thought to reference the 1930s suicide of Peg Entwistle. In 2017, Crack Magazine and Genius discussed the video stating there were a lot of parallels between the video and the famous 1932 death. Entwistle was an English actress who jumped from the ‘H’ of the sign after being cut from a movie.

Del Rey and the Weekend in the Lust for Life video pictured beside Peg Entwistle (Source: veryinutilpeople.it)

On her Norman Fucking Rockwell album, some have interpreted her song ‘How to Disappear’ as a reference to suicide, and on her Blue Bannisters album Del Rey screams ‘I don’t wanna live’ in her song Dealer. On her new album, in the song ‘Fingertips’, some think she may be referring to a suicide attempt in the lines, ‘When I was fifteen, naked, next-door neighbors did a drive-by/Pulled me up by my waist, long hair to the beach side/I wanted to go out like you, swim with the fishes’. Can these lyrics be seen as a glamourisation of death/ suicide, or are they songs written by someone who has these type of thoughts and feelings?

A Funeral Song, Grief, and Loss

Del Rey poses in a hearse for Billboard Magazine 2023 (Source: celebmafia.com)

Del Rey’s new album was released last week entitled Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard? Death is a theme in this album – but it feels more a move towards grief rather than Del Rey’s contemplation of her own mortality in her earlier albums. ‘The Grants’ (Del Rey was born Lizzy Grant) has been making the rounds of TikTok, with some saying that they want the song played at their funeral. The song mentions heaven and how memories are the only things you bring with you when you die. Del Rey lost her grandmother, the memory of her smile is what she wants to take with her – ‘My grandmother’s last smile/I’m gonna take that too with me.’ Lana also mentions the death of her uncle Dave and Grandparents in ‘Fingertips’, as well as a family mausoleum. ‘Kintsugi’, a beautiful track referring to the Japanese art of repairing pottery cracks using gold, is almost like a love letter to her own grief. Del Rey mentions how she couldn’t be at a death, who will be with you at your death, and laments, ‘Daddy, I miss them.’ ‘Kintsugi’ seems to refer to the cracks that form in the grieving process, and ‘that’s how the light gets in.’ Del Rey has been ‘cracked open’ by grief but it is now something beautiful. This type of imagery is very different to the glamourous, sultry visuals of her early career when she mentions death. Even though this album mentions the death of loved ones, it almost seems more serene.

Death – authentic or aesthetic?

Del Rey seems to be a multi-layered artist, with mortality featured throughout all eras of her career. Even though the way in which it is discussed has changed and developed over time, it has remained a constant in her craft. Even though she has faced criticism for this aspect, one can’t help but notice the consistency which suggests authenticity. Comments on a YouTube video by Mina Lee in 2021 (Lana Del Rey: the pitfalls of having a persona) suggest fans don’t find her mentions of death as a fashion statement, but rather that she was a rejection of being perfect and a way to champion expressing one’s emotions. Many also stated that as a female celebrity, she shouldn’t be pressured into being a good role model. Perhaps Del Rey’s mentions of death and dying allowed for many to move their interest into the ‘death positive’ movement – something I found her music pushed me towards.