Lana Del Rey Most Controversial Moments

Del Rey’s, real name Elizabeth Grant, reputation has suffered in recent years, thanks to a string of controversial public statements, questionable choices during a global pandemic, and her tendency to dig a hole when forced to comfort her statements.

Many fans of the singer have taken to social media to say they’ve “lost respect” for the singer, and she’s increasingly being described as a “problematic white woman.”

Here is some of her most controversial moments over her career.

8 The time Lana Del Rey Was Accused Of Cultural Appropriation

Lana Del Rey has been plagued by accusation of cultural appropriation. It goes as far back as 2012, when she wore a Native American headdress in the music video for “Ride.”

Her Tropico short film was also accused of appropriating Latino gangster culture. She played a stripper with two teardrop tattoos and a belly stamp that says “Trust No B****.” In her 27-minute art film/music video her and her gangster lover shed seraphical clothing and redeemed themselves as a white-clothed couple going to heaven. She told Maxim that she had always been inspired by her life on the Eastside of Los Angeles and had “always spoken Spanish in all [her] songs.”

7 When Lana Del Rey Wore A Mesh Mask During The Pandemic

In October 2020, Lana Del Rey hosted a signing at a Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles for her poetry book, “Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass.” It was during the global pandemic and she angered fans by wearing a mesh-style mask.

Fans left comments on her Instagram posts, which she has since deleted, begging her to wear a “real mask,” as the mesh would have not helped to protect her or others from coronavirus. The image of COVID-19 slipping through the holes in her mask also became a meme on Twitter. The mask was parodied in Knives Out 2, when Kate Hudson’s character wore a similar mesh mask.

Del Rey later explained that her mask had a plastic lining. “The mask had plastic on the inside,” Del Rey wrote. “They’re commonly sewn in by stylists these days. I don’t generally respond to articles because I don’t care. But there ya go. Same goes for everyone’s masks in my video. I’m lucky enough to have a team of people who can do that.”

She also seemed to poke fun at the controversy in her music video for “Chemtrails Over the Country Club,” when she wears a nearly identical mask.

6 When Lana Del Rey Said Trump ‘Doesn’t Know That He’s Inciting A Riot’

During an interview with BBC‘s Annie Mac, Lana Del Rey compared President Donald Trump to “people who didn’t know they hurt other people.”

“You know, he doesn’t know that he’s inciting a riot and I believe that,” she said, adding that Trump has “delusions of grandeur.” Five people died during the violent riot at the US Capitol on January 6th, and he has since been impeached for “incitement of insurrection.”

“The madness of Trump… As bad as it was, it really needed to happen. We really needed a reflection of our world’s greatest problem, which is not climate change but sociopathy and narcissism,” she explained, “Especially in America. It’s going to kill the world. It’s not capitalism, it’s narcissism.”

She later hit out at the Complex news story about her statements, “OK complex not that our 10-year relationship matters I guess,” she tweeted. “Thanks for the cool soundbite taken out of context, I said that the bigger problem is Sociopathy-so, whether he meant to incite a riot, is less important than the larger issue in America at hand -the problem of sociopathy.”

Del Rey continued tweeting about her BBC interview, clarifying that she meant to criticize Trump’s “significant lack of empathy” and “the issue of sociopathy and narcissism in America.”

5 When Lana Del Rey Hit Out At Music Critics

Lana Del Rey’s sixth album may have debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and received two Grammy Award nominations, but it wasn’t met with universal praise by critics.

NPR’s longtime music critic Ann Powers described Lana’s persona as “a bad girl to whom bad things are done” with “uncooked” lyrics. This deeply upset Lana who took to Twitter to say. “So don’t call yourself a fan like you did in the article and don’t count your editor one either — I may never have made bold political or cultural statements before- because my gift is the warmth I live my life with and the self reflection I share generously.”

4 Lana Del Rey’s Controversial Album Cover

When Lana Del Rey revealed the artwork for her seventh studio album Chemtrails Over the Country Club, she posted a caption that many were unhappy with.

The album cover features a black-and-white image of a diverse group of women sitting around a table. “As it happens when it comes to my amazing friends and this cover yes there are people of color on this records picture and that’s all I’ll say about that,” she commented on the Instagram post, presumingly addressing controversy before it could appear.

“In 11 years working, I have always been extremely inclusive without even trying to. My best friends are rappers my boyfriends have been rappers. My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I’m not the one storming the capital, I’m literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven.”

This comment led to controversy, with fans wondering why she referred to all rappers as being black men.

3 Lana Del Rey Vs. Azealia Banks

The “High By The Beach” singer had a run in with Azealia Banks on social media in October 2018, after criticizing Kanye West’s support of then-president Donald Trump. “To me this just looks like the typical White woman taking using a weakened target to ‘pretend’ to be an ally,” Banks tweeted at the time, claiming Del Rey wasn’t “consistent” in her opinions

“Don’t use Kanye for your own vapid attempts to seem politically aware when there is SO MUCH MORE bootleg witchcraft you could be doing to TRY and take down 45. … Kanye is not your enemy or THE enemy.”

Lana was unimpressed and quickly fired back: “I won’t not f*** you the f*** up. Period,” she replied. “Banks. u coulda been the greatest female rapper alive but u blew it. don’t take it out on the only person who had ur back. … I’ll send you my surgeon’s number and a good psychiatrist I know in LA – your psych meds aren’t working.”

2 Is Lana Del Rey Turned Off By Feminism?

In a June 2014 cover story for Fader, the singer admitted that she was turned off by the topic of women’s empowerment. “For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept,” she explained.

“I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, ‘God.’ I’m just not really that interested.”

She has been called out for the message her music sends to young women. Singer Lorde described her music as being “so unhealthy for young girls to be listening to.”

1 Does Lana Del Rey Glamorize Violence In Her Music?

In 2020, Lana Del Rey shared a poorly received open letter on Instagram where she praised her own legacy and described her critics as “pathetic.”

“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, f******, cheating etc,” she wrote, “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 glamorizing abuse?”

“I’m fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse,” she added, “when in reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world.”

She also defended writing songs about being “submissive” in relationships, despite “a long 10 years of b******* reviews.”

“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 wrote, “unlike my experience where if I even expressed a note of sadness in my first two records I was deemed literally hysterical as though it was literally the 1920s.”