Lana Del Rey responds to criticism over her IG post that confused the hell out of the world

Lana Del Rey typically has never really pissed people off, but uh, this week that all changed after a post appeared online seemingly ready to call out black female musicians. On Thursday, a series of IG posts surfaced online from Del Rey ‘s account that swiftly caught reactions online.

Valerie Macon / Getty Images

Among the most brutal:

“Lana Del Rey erased the work of Black women and played the oppression Olympics, just to promote two poetry books and an album. The Caucasity of it all,” wrote Danielle Kwateng-Clark, culture and entertainment director at Teen Vogue. “I don’t know who was giving Lana Del Rey a hard time but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Black women,” said writer and speaker Jamilah Lemieux. 

The post appeared to be some sort of failed advertisement for apparent poetry books and an album by Lana. Strangely, Lana didn’t get the memo that using black voices and personalities (no matter the type) to promote things usually doesn’t go over well.

And boy did this not go over well.

“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, fucking, cheating, etc — 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 glamorizng abuse??????”

She goes on to claim that her albums have “really paved the way for other women to stop ‘putting on a happy face’ and just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music” and how she is “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.”

Lana Del Rey

The problem with the comments is that the black or otherwise minority performers mentioned have all been deeply criticised for their music; their lyrics, and especially their performances. I was shocked to see Lana’s post because I wasn’t really sure whether this was an intentionally blind post — or the fact that she just intentionally mischaracterised the situation.

UPDATE:

Lana has since responded to much of the criticism on Instagram. In several comments, Lana notes that she loves the artists mentioned but didn’t really address the post itself.

It’s worth noting that nobody is negating the criticism Del Rey receives. However, the problem arose when she compared herself to a group of largely black performers — whether she fucks with their music/them as people or not.

In her words:

‘It’s been a long 10 years of bulls— reviews up until recently,” which she has learned from, “but 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.”