Lana Del Rey – the viral (and now Interscope) star – incorporates hip-hop producers and nabs an “SNL” slot before her album debut. Finally, her voice is bigger than her controversial persona!
The 25-year-old songstress became one of 2011’s most seemingly organic upstarts. Following the release of her breakout single “Video Games” and its vintage-shaded video, apparently filmed and edited on her Macbook, the Lake Placid, N.Y., native racked upwards of 13 million YouTube views and has sold 20,000 copies of her double A-side “Video Games” single since its October 2011 release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It debuted and spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart. Joining Ellie Goulding and Jessie J, Del Rey recently signed with Next Model Management.
Next week’s issue of Billboard features the lovely songstress where she talks about her rise to fame and her new album, “Born to Die.” Here a few excerpts from the interview:
On her viral success:
“The Internet’s been well-established for 14 years,” Del Rey says. “It’s not like 1962 where you can’t find out about me. My intention was never to transform into a different person. What other people think of me is none of my business. Sometimes, it hurts my feelings. But I have to just keep going. The good stuff is really good. Some of the other stuff is difficult, but I’ll be able to tour now, probably sing for a while. That’s nice for me.”
“I began getting messages on my personal Twitter account, really creepy messages, like, ‘The blogosphere that created you is about to destroy you,’” she says. “And within three days, the strangest things were happening.”
On singing to a major label:
“Signing someone and spending a lot of money, it’s a very dangerous thing to do. Largest failure-to-success rate in any industry,” Del Rey says. “I never had any help, and I really needed help.”
Performing live after a two year hiatus:
“I was noticeably scared,” says Del Rey, who popped her gum into the microphone throughout the performance. “I don’t get onstage trying to be spectacular. I act like it’s sort of still about the singing for me, because that’s all I have so far, are the songs.”
Regarding the new album:
“The good thing is that the record is beautiful. And I get to do so many things that I love. I get to work with [director Yoann] Lemoine and finally, I don’t have to make my videos by myself anymore. Thank God. It’s embarrassing,” she says. “I’m just going to get help in all the right ways.”
“I’d rather it was just as simple as being just the songs and no one else talking about it at all, because it makes things more bittersweet instead of just clear and easy,” she says. “It just seems to have taken a funny turn. I’m not really sure if it’ll come back around. I don’t know. But the record is really good. I have that.”