Little
Story
about
Lana
"I meet her for the interview at a John Lautner house she rents in Los Angeles. Lautner was a seminal Southern California architect, and Del Rey says her choice of lodging was deliberate. She production-designs her life. She greets me in the drive -- inquisitive, friendly and aware. For a moment, she looks like Elvis and Priscilla, all in one. The hair is old-school Clairol dark, the eyes siren green, the auburn ’do the most done thing about her."
-Joe Pugliese
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, is an American singer, songwriter, and model. Born and raised in New York, Del Rey embarked on a music career in 2005 and first received widespread attention in 2011, when the music video for her single "Video Games" became a viral internet sensation. Del Rey received further recognition after her major-label debut Born to Die peaked at number two on the U.S. charts and was the fifth best-selling album of 2012. A remix of its single "Summertime Sadness", produced byCedric Gervais, peaked at number six on the U.S., and the Paradise EP followed that November, garnering Del Rey her first Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Three of the EP's tracks were featured in her short film Tropico, which premiered in December 2013.
In 2014, Del Rey released her third studio album, Ultraviolence, to positive critical and commercial reception; it became her first number-one record in the United States. In 2015, following a North American tour with Courtney Love, Del Rey released her fourth studio album, Honeymoon, to further positive critical and commercial response; it had the fourth highest first week sales by a female artist in 2015. As of 2015, she is the most streamed female artist on Spotify in the United States, and the fourth worldwide.Her music has been noted for its cinematic style, its preoccupation with themes of tragic romance and melancholia, and its references to pop culture, particularly 1950s and 1960sAmericana.
Lana Del Rey was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant in New York City on June 21, 1985 to Robert England Grant, Jr., a Grey Group copywriter turned entrepreneur, and Patricia Ann "Pat" (Hill), a former Grey account executive turned high school teacher.[8][9][10][11] She has one younger sister, Caroline Grant (born 1988/1989), and one brother, Charlie (born 1993/1994). Her paternal grandfather, Robert England Grant, Sr. was a Kidder, Peabody & Co. investment banker, a vice president for Plough, Inc and Textron, and venture capitalist.She is of Scottish descent.
Del Rey grew up in rural Lake Placid, New York, and attended a Catholic elementary school and for one year, a high school where her mother taught. She began singing in her church choir when she was a child, where she was the cantor. At age fifteen, she was sent to Kent School by her parents to deal with her rampant alcohol abuse; her uncle, an admissions officer at the school, secured her financial aid to attend.
Before becoming a singer, Del Rey wanted to be a poet.As a child, her father wrote country songs for personal enjoyment, while her mother was interested in singing; the former introduced her to The Beach Boys, while the latter was a fan of Carly Simon.[25]
After graduating, Del Rey was accepted to the State University of New York at Geneseo, but she decided not to attend and instead spent a year living on Long Island with her aunt and uncle while working as a waitress. During this time, Del Rey's uncle taught her how to play guitar, and she "realized [that she] could probably write a million songs with those six chords". Shortly after, she began writing songs and performing in nightclubs around the city under various names such as "Sparkle Jump Rope Queen" and "Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena". "I was always singing, but didn't plan on pursuing it seriously", Del Rey said. "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".
The following fall, she enrolled at Fordham University where she majored in philosophy.Del Rey said she chose to study the subject because it "bridged the gap between God and science... I was interested in God and how technology could bring us closer to finding out where we came from and why". According to Del Rey, she had trouble making friends in boarding school and college, and said, "that was when my musical experience began. I kind of found people for myself". She lived in The Bronx and later moved to New Jersey while in college, and volunteered at homeless youth and drug and alcohol outreach programs, as well as helping paint and rebuild houses on an Indian reservation in the western United States.After college, she moved to Brooklyn, where she resided for another four years.