I ask how long she got to enjoy the success of Video Games before the backlash arrived and she looks surprised. Yet no sooner had the plaudits started rolling in (the Guardian voted it the best song of 2011) than Del Rey was placed under the intense scrutiny of endless blogposts and think pieces, with critics poring over her past for evidence of fakery: was her carefully studied aesthetic for real? Was she really just a major label puppet? Had her dad funded a previous bid for fame? Were her lips the result of plastic surgery? Was she really born as plain old Elizabeth Grant rather than emerging from the womb fully formed as the popstar Lana Del Rey? Arriving seemingly out of nowhere (although Del Rey had been posting her songs and homemade videos for some time), the video's Lynchian creepiness cast a spell on almost everyone who saw it, causing the song to go viral.
Perhaps the logical place to start, then, is with the extraordinary reaction to Video Games, her breakthrough song in 2011. Telling her story – a remarkable one that involves homelessness, biker gangs and being caught in the eye of a media hurricane – also involves working out why a songwriter who has sold more than 7m copies of her last album, Born To Die seems so disillusioned with life. Throughout our hour-long conversation she keeps returning to dark themes. "And I'm like: 'Yeah, a really fucked-up movie.'" "Family members will come on the road with me and say: 'Wow, your life is just like a movie!'" she says at one point. So serene is the setting, in fact, that it takes me by surprise when Del Rey begins to tell me how unhappy she is: that she doesn't enjoy being a pop star, that she feels constantly targeted by critics, that she doesn't want to be alive at all. "E"This place is magical," she says, sparking up the first of many cigarettes. Even her laptop has been doused in tomato ketchup, temporarily thwarting our attempts to hear songs from her new album Ultraviolence. Even inside Del Rey's elegant suite there is carnage: suitcases half-exploded bags of corn chips strewn across the floor. Head in the opposite direction and you can expect to be assaulted by the vibrant brass of the French Quarter's street jazz musicians. A couple of blocks from Lana Del Rey's hotel lies Bourbon Street, the scene of drunken rampages from morning till night. We're in New Orleans, a city not known for peace and quiet.
I would be scared if I knew was coming, but …" If it wasn't that way, then I wouldn't say it. Writer(s): Elizabeth Grant, Richard NowelsLyrics powered by do! I don't want to have to keep doing this.
Kiss me hard before you go Summertime sadness I just wanted you to know That baby, you the best I got my red dress on tonight Dancin' in the dark, in the pale moonlight Done my hair up real big, beauty queen style High heels off, I'm feelin' alive Oh, my God, I feel it in the air Telephone wires above are sizzlin' like a snare Honey, I'm on fire, I feel it everywhere Nothin' scares me anymore (1, 2, 3, 4) Kiss me hard before you go Summertime sadness I just wanted you to know That baby, you the best I got that summertime, summertime sadness Su-su-summertime, summertime sadness Got that summertime, summertime sadness Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh I'm feelin' electric tonight Cruisin' down the coast, goin' about 99 Got my bad baby by my heavenly side I know if I go, I'll die happy tonight Oh, my God, I feel it in the air Telephone wires above are sizzlin' like a snare Honey, I'm on fire, I feel it everywhere Nothin' scares me anymore (1, 2, 3, 4) Kiss me hard before you go Summertime sadness I just wanted you to know That baby, you the best I got that summertime, summertime sadness Su-su-summertime, summertime sadness Got that summertime, summertime sadness Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh Think I'll miss you forever Like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky Later's better than never Even if you're gone, I'm gonna drive (drive), drive I got that summertime, summertime sadness Su-su-summertime, summertime sadness Got that summertime, summertime sadness Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh Kiss me hard before you go Summertime sadness I just wanted you to know That baby, you the best I got that summertime, summertime sadness Su-su-summertime, summertime sadness Got that summertime, summertime sadness Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh