Lana Del Rey has always been mysterious.
A lot of people don’t know much about the singer who describes herself as the “Gangster Nancy Sinatra.”
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But that’s all about to change, as there are many interesting facts about the singer, like how she overcame addiction as a teen and how she once had beef with Lady Gaga.
1. She caught a lot of hate for that *SNL* performance.
After the singer took the SNL stage in 2012, she was soon called the “worst performer of all time.”
Even NBC News anchor Brian Williams, called it “one of worst outings in SNL history,” in a leaked email.
She opened up about the harsh criticism to *Rolling Stone* in 2012.
“There’s backlash about everything I do. It’s nothing new,” she said .
“When I walk outside, people have something to say about it. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was absolutely excellent. People don’t have anything nice to say about this project. I’m sure that’s why you’re writing about it.”
2. She once lived in a trailer park.
After she got her first small check from a record label, she moved into a park in New Jersey.
“It’s not something I cared to even share but people keep asking me about it,” she told Pitchfork .
3. She found her passion for singing while performing in a church choir.
Church has always been a big part of the singer’s life.
She attended St. Agnes School in her elementary years and soon began singing in upstate New York choirs. It was there that she found her voice.
When asked by Pitchfork about whether God would approve of her song, “Kinda Outta Luck,” which is about hitting men in the back of a head with a gun, she said yes.
“God has saved me a million times so I think he must’ve enjoyed that song,” she said.
4. She uses a stage name.
Her real name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant.
The singer went through several options, including Sparkle Jump Rope Queen and May Jailer, before settling on Lana Del Rey.
She “wanted a name that sounded sort of exotic and reminded me of like the seaside on the Floridian coast.”
5. She shares the same tattoo as Adele.
When Adele got “Paradise” inked on her left hand for her son (“cause Angelo is my paradise,” she told Rolling Stone ), she had no idea that the tattoo had already been done by Lana.
6. She has many tattoos.
In addition to the one she accidentally shares with Adele, she has the letter “M” on her hand for her grandmother Madeline and the words “die young” on the inside of her finger.
There are many more, all located on her hands or arms.
7. She studied metaphysics at Fordham University.
She’s a smartypants!
She graduated with a degree in metaphysics and philosophy from Fordham University in New York.
She told Tokyo Numero that she was “interested in God and how technology brings us closer to finding out where we came from and why.”
8. She’s best friends with her sister, Chuck (real name: Caroline) Grant.
Caroline is a successful photographer whose work has appeared in several major publications.
Lana is her biggest fan. “She captures what I consider to be the visual equivalent of what I do sonically,” she told Nylon .
9. She struggled with alcoholism at the age of 14.
“I was a big drinker at the time,” she told GQ .
“I would drink every day. I would drink alone. I thought the whole concept was so [expletive] cool. A great deal of what I wrote on ‘Born To Die’ is about these wilderness years.”
To help curb the addiction, her parents sent her to a strict boarding school.
“My parents were worried, I was worried. I knew it was a problem when I liked it more than I liked doing anything else. I was like, ‘I’m [expletive] I am totally [expletive].'”
10. She also struggled with drug addiction.
“It was everything in the end,” she said. After leaving boarding school, she was sent to rehab.
“I moved back to New York and worked at an outreach programme for drug and alcohol addicts in Brooklyn.”
11. She once had beef with Lady Gaga.
Before they were megastars, both were on the same path to fame: singing their songs in downtown New York City bars.
“Her manager, Bob Leone, was a confidante of mine,” Del Rey told Rolling Stone .
“He gave me a two-month scholarship to a songwriting class and put me on a list of Monday night lineups at The Cutting Room.”
“We played a couple of shows together, but never met.”
While it was never revealed what caused their drama, a leaked song by Lana had the lyrics, “Stefani, you suck” (Lady Gaga’s real name is Stefani Germanotta).
12. She was recently dating a police officer.
She dated Sean “Sticks” Larkin for six months, but they called it quits in March.
“Right now, we’re just friends,” Larkin told The New York Times . “We still talk and whatnot, we just have busy schedules right now.”
13. She records every interview she ever does to protect herself.
The singer saw what misquoting can do a star a few years ago.
She faced a ton of backlash when she reportedly told reporter Tim Jonze that she wishes she were dead already, like some of her music icons.
This includes Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain.
“[Expletive] that guy, though. I didn’t think he would print it and make it the headline. I was having a really tough time. I had been on the road for a year. I was really struggling,” she told Pitchfork .
“I was just stupid, I was like, ‘I [expletive[ want to die.’ Maybe I meant it. I don’t really know.”
After that bad experience, she decided to start recording everything.
This was due to “years of feeling manipulated and harangued by the media.”
