Lana Del Rey and the rise from Tumblr icon to a serious artist
Lana Del Rey and the rise from Tumblr icon to a serious artist. On August 30, Lana Del Rey released her sixth studio album, Norman F—cking Rockwell. The album is her best-reviewed to date.
In the early 2010s, Del Rey was a prominent fixture on the social media site Tumblr, a multimedia sharing platform. This online era saw many GIFs from her music videos, along with many picture edits of her, often romanticizing her emotionally complex lyrics. But, who is Lana Del Rey outside of the famed 2012-2013 Tumblr, sad girl aesthetic era?
Del Rey was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant on June 21, 1985, in New York City. Grant grew up in Lake Placid, New York. She had attended a Catholic school and sang in her church choir.
At the age of fifteen, after developing a drinking habit, she was sent away to a Connecticut boarding school. She took a year off of school after graduating and worked as a waitress. This is when she began performing and songwriting. She claims to have never expected to take this path seriously.
Grant soon attended the Bronx’s Fordham University as a philosophy major. During these college years, she did a great deal of volunteer work, helping homeless youth, drug and alcohol abusers and rebuilding homes on Indian reservations in Utah. She graduated in 2008 with a degree in metaphysics and philosophy.
Del Rey used several stage names before her current one, such as May Jailer, Sparkle Jump Rope Queen and Lizzy Grant.
In 2010, her debut album, Lana Del Ray A.K.A Lizzy Grant was released for a brief amount of time on iTunes. The album was pulled due to insufficient funds from her label at the time. Eventually, Del Rey bought back the rights to the record.
She first found fame in 2011 when her homemade music video for the song “Video Games” went viral. A video for her song “Blue Jeans” followed suit. “Video Games” won her a Q Award for “Next Big Thing” that year.
In January 2012, Del Rey served as a musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live, earning herself criticism from viewers. She was slammed for seeming emotionless and dull. Her stage presence was dubbed “insecure,” and she was called the worst SNL performer in history by many. The performance may have been objectively bad, but this flop got people talking about Lana Del Rey.
