Musician Lana Del Rey offered a fiery rebuke of her critics and several of her pop contemporaries this week while confirming plans for a new album, set to drop later this year.
In a lengthy note posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Del Rey took aim at those who claimed she’d “glamorised abuse” on albums like 2012’s “Born to Die” and 2014’s “Ultraviolence.”
“Question for the culture,” she wrote. “Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating etc. — can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money — or whatever I want — without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorising abuse??????”
“I’m just fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorise abuse when in reality I’m just a glamorous person just singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are all very prevalent emotionally-abusive relationships all over the world,” she continued.
Describing herself as “not not a feminist,” Del Rey said she believes her work has made a lasting imprint on pop culture by encouraging female artists to express themselves authentically.
“It’s been a long 10 years of bullshit reviews up until recently and I’ve learned a lot from them,” she wrote. “But I also feel it really paved the way for other women to stop ‘putting on a happy face’ and to just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music.”
She concluded the post by announcing plans to release two books of poetry as well as a new studio album. While she didn’t elaborate on the followup to 2019’s “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” she said the record would be unveiled Sept. 5.
By Thursday morning, Del Rey’s post had received more than 1 million likes on Instagram. The response from fans, however, was decidedly mixed. Though some praised the frankness of her words, others accused her of unfairly criticising female artists of colour.
Of course, the six-time Grammy nominee is familiar with controversy on social media. Last year, she slammed NPR music journalist Ann Powers who ― in a mostly positive review of “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” ― compared the singer unfavourably with artists like Joni Mitchell.
“I don’t even relate to one observation you made about the music,” Del Rey tweeted at the time. “There’s nothing uncooked about me. To write about me is nothing like it is to be with me. Never had a persona. Never needed one. Never will.”
In a second tweet, she added: “So don’t call yourself a fan like you did in the article and don’t count your editor one either.”