Lana Del Rey also known as her former stage name “Lizzy Grant” was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant on June 21, 1985. She is an American singer, songwriter and model and began her recording contract in 2007.
After graduating high school Del Ray moved in with her aunt and uncle, where her uncle taught her how to play guitar. Soon after she started playing in bars and nightclubs just for fun. She didn’t take her music seriously, just something fun for her and her friends to do. She later enrolled at Fordham University and found it hard to make friends. This was when she dove into her music. She uploaded some of her videos one day to YouTube and she was discovered and signed by Stranger Records and later release her debut single “Video Games”.
In an interview with GQ in 2012, Del Rey said that she suffered from alcoholism at a young age, but has been sober since 2004:
“I was a big drinker at the time. I would drink every day. I would drink alone. I thought the whole concept was so fucking cool. A great deal of what I wrote on Born To Die is about these wilderness years. When I write about the thing that I’ve lost I feel like I’m writing about alcohol because that was the first love of my life. 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 fucked. I am totally fucked’. Like, at first it’s fine and you think you have a dark side – it’s exciting – and then you realise the dark side wins every time if you decide to indulge in it. It’s also a completely different way of living when you know that…a different species of person. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me.” ~ Lana Del Ray
Del Rey is the most streamed female artist on the commercial music streaming service, Spotify
“Summertime Sadness” – Lana Del Rey
Her new album Honeymoon comes out September 18th and you can order it here: lanadelrey.com
