Music

Lana Del Rey Has Become 2020’s Most Unfortunate Meme

"Lana Del Rey adding Ariana into her essay so she doesn't come across as racially insensitive."

by Jules LeFevre  25 May 2020
lana del rey memes photo

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To use the technical phrase, Lana Del Rey really shat the bed last the week.

It started off well intentioned enough: last Thursday, the singer shared a long type-written letter to Instagram, posing a “question to the culture” and calling out criticism that she glamourises abusive relationships in her lyrics.

“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 glamorising abuse??????”, she wrote.

“In reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the relations of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world,” she went on. “… I think it’s pathetic that my minor lyrical exploration detailing my sometimes submissive or passive roles in my relationships has often made people say I’ve set women back hundreds of years.”

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Her comments didn’t exactly land well, with people pointing out that Del Rey had chosen to name mostly women of colour in her letter, and that her comments seemed to slut-shame the artists in question. But Del Rey dug in her heels, dismissing the accusation that her comments were racist.

“I fucking love these singers and know them,” she wrote in a comment under her original post. “That is why I mentioned them. I would also like to have some of the same freedom of expression without judgment of hysteria. There you go.”

“This is sad to make it about a WOC issue when I’m talking about my favourite singers,” she continued in another comment.. “I could’ve literally said anyone but I picked my favourite fucking people.

“And this is the problem with society today, not everything is about whatever you want it to be. It’s exactly the point of my post  — there are certain women that culture doesn’t want to have a voice, it may not have to do with race. I don’t know what it has to do with. I don’t care anymore but don’t ever ever ever ever bro — call me racist because that is bullshit.”

Ignoring the pitiful cries of her publicity team in the distance, Del Rey then released yet another written statement.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Lana Del Rey (@lanadelrey) on

“I’m sorry that the folks who I can only assume are super Trump/Pence supporters or hyper liberals or flip-flopping headline grabbing critics can’t read and want to make it a race war, when in fact the issue was with *female critics and *female alternative artists who are dissociated from their own fragility and sexuality and berate more sexually liberated artists like myself and the women I mentioned,” she wrote.

“But in truth making it about race says so much more about you than it does about me — you want the drama, you don’t want to believe that a woman could be beautiful, strong, and fragile at the same time, loving and all inclusive by making personal reparations simply for the joy of doing it.”

It was a somewhat stunning course of events, with Del Rey’s awkward and stubborn responses garnering fierce criticism across the board.

And naturally, the internet responded in its usual way: by making some blistering memes. In a matter of days, Lana Del Rey went from a generally beloved figure, to the laughing stock of 2020. Scroll down to see some of the best.