Lana Del Rey covers the new issue of Elle UK. It’s actually a nice editorial, and I kind of think Lana has eased up a bit on her facial “adjustments.” Her lips in particular look a tad smaller and more realistic. Since I rarely read Lana’s interviews, I went into this piece with a shrug and a thought of “I bet she doesn’t say anything controversial.” She does not.
Her persona: She tells us her famed chanteuse persona has become less of a prop for her now. ‘I know that if I had more of a persona [before], I have less of one now. And I think it comes down to getting a little older. Maybe I needed a stronger look or something to lean on then. But I feel like it wouldn’t be hard for me today to play a mega show in jeans without rehearsing and still feel like I was coming from the right place.’
On love: Talking about feeling more positive at this time in her life, she tells us, ‘All the tough things that I have been through – that I’ve drawn upon [in my work] – don’t exist for me anymore. Not all my romantic relationships were bad, but some of them challenged me in a way that I didn’t want to be challenged and I am happy I don’t have to do that now.’
She’s learned to avoid the bad boys she used to fall for: ‘For me, the dream is to have a little bit of edge, the sexiness, the magnetism, the camaraderie, be on the same page and all that stuff, but without the fallout that comes from a person who is really selfish and puts only their needs first, which is like a lot of frontmen if we’re talking about musicians! I’m going to write a book one day called, “The curse of the frontman and why you should always date a bassist.”‘
On happiness: She also stresses the importance of being happy and why society needs to change. “I think happiness is the ultimate life goal. I think it’s the only thing that’s important. There are no mechanisms in place for routes to happiness, that’s the whole f**king problem. I think people are unhappy in school – the education structure has been the same for a long time and kids are still not satisfied with their educational experience. And you don’t have enough conversations when you’re young about what makes for a satisfying, mutual relationship. Those collective life experiences – your youth, your academic education and your education about business, marriage or relationship goals – they all lead up to your collective happiness. I think the emphasis is on the wrong things and it has been for a long time.”
The headlines I would draw from this are that Lana is avoiding bad boys and that the idea of happiness is more complicated and nuanced than the Happiness Industrial Complex would have you believe. But what was Spin’s takeaway? Their headline was “Here’s a Lana Del Rey Interview About Nothing.” Which… I mean, that also sounds like a headline I would write about someone, possibly Lana, possibly about, like, Karlie Kloss. But Lana saw Spin’s headline and… she DM’d them this three-word tweet: “Go f–k yourself.” Spin published the DM with the headline “But Lana, We Love You.” This is actually the most interesting part of Lana’s Elle interview!!
Covers courtesy of Elle UK.
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