Lana Del Rey

Del Rey has been married to Cajun swamp tour boat operator Jeremy Dufrene since September 2024. They were first linked after she shared photographs from a bayou tour in Louisiana, where Dufrene was her guide, and their relationship became public later that year.

Del Rey has said that she became sober after struggling with alcohol dependence as a teenager. At age fifteen, she was sent to Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut, to address the problem.

Born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, Del Rey was raised in Lake Placid, New York, by Robert England Grant Jr. and Patricia Ann Hill. She has a younger sister, Caroline Grant, and a brother, Charlie. She began singing in her church choir as a child, where she served as cantor.

After graduating, she declined a place at the State University of New York at Geneseo and spent a year living on Long Island with her aunt and uncle while working as a waitress. Her uncle taught her to play guitar, and the six chords she learned became the foundation for her early songwriting. She later attended Fordham University, where she studied philosophy with an emphasis on metaphysics and graduated with a bachelor's degree.

While at Fordham, Del Rey volunteered with homeless youth and drug and alcohol outreach programs. She also helped paint and rebuild houses on an Indian reservation in the western United States, an experience she identified as important to her decision to pursue songwriting.

Del Rey began writing and performing in New York clubs under several names, including May Jailer, Sparkle Jump Rope Queen, and Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena. Between 2005 and 2006, she recorded the acoustic album Sirens as May Jailer. The album was later released unofficially online, while an early extended play titled Young Like Me was registered in 2005.

In 2007, she submitted the acoustic demo No Kung Fu to 5 Points Records and received a recording contract. Working with producer David Kahne, she released the three-track EP Kill Kill in 2008 under the name Lizzy Grant. Her first full-length album, Lana Del Ray, was released in 2010, but was subsequently withdrawn from circulation after she bought back its rights from the label.

The name Lana Del Rey emerged during this period as she developed a new musical identity. She said the name evoked the glamour of the seaside and suited the sound she wanted to create. In 2011, she uploaded videos for "Video Games" and "Blue Jeans" to YouTube, and the rapid attention surrounding them led to her signing with Stranger Records, followed later that year by a deal with Interscope Records and Polydor Records.

The viral success of "Video Games" made Del Rey a major new presence in pop music. The song won the Q Award for Next Big Thing in 2011 and the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song in 2012. She performed on Saturday Night Live in January 2012 before the release of her major-label debut Born to Die, making her the first artist since Natalie Imbruglia in 1998 to appear on the program before releasing a debut album.

Born to Die became an international success and reached number two on the U.S. Billboard 200. Its follow-up EP, Paradise, was released in 2012 and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Del Rey supported the releases with performances at venues and festivals around the world.

Her song "Young and Beautiful" was written for Baz Luhrmann's 2013 film The Great Gatsby. It reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media. A Cedric Gervais remix of "Summertime Sadness" became her first U.S. top-ten hit, reaching number six, and won the Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.

Del Rey followed Paradise with Ultraviolence, released in 2014. She first recorded the album with Rick Nowels before rerecording it with Dan Auerbach and a live band. The album topped the U.S. charts and produced the single "West Coast". She also recorded "Big Eyes" and "I Can Fly" for Tim Burton's film Big Eyes, with "Big Eyes" receiving a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.

Her fifth studio album, Honeymoon, arrived in 2015. Written and produced with Rick Nowels and Kieron Menzies, it reached number two in the United States and the United Kingdom and entered the top ten in almost every country where it charted. She promoted the album through festival performances and the Endless Summer Tour, with selected dates supported by Courtney Love and Grimes.

Released in 2017, Lust for Life became Del Rey's second number-one album in the United States and her third number-one album in the United Kingdom. The record included collaborations with The Weeknd, Stevie Nicks, A$AP Rocky, and Playboi Carti, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Del Rey also contributed to The Weeknd's Starboy, appearing on "Stargirl Interlude" and providing background vocals and co-writing for "Party Monster".

Del Rey's sixth studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, was released in 2019. It was preceded by the singles "Mariners Apartment Complex", "Venice Bitch", "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman like Me to Have, but I Have It", and her cover of Sublime's "Doin' Time". The album and its title track received Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Song of the Year.

She released Chemtrails over the Country Club and Blue Banisters in 2021. Her ninth studio album, Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, followed in 2023. The album received five Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Alternative Music Album, and Best Alternative Music Performance for "A&W".

Del Rey wrote, directed, and starred in the short music film Tropico, which premiered in Hollywood in 2013. She also released the poetry collection Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass in 2020, accompanied by an audiobook.

Del Rey's music has been characterized by a cinematic, theatrical sound that combines dream pop, baroque pop, rock, indie music, trip-hop, and elements of hip-hop and trap. Her lyrics frequently draw on tragic romance, glamour, nostalgia, and American popular culture. Critics have described her sound as "Hollywood sadcore" and her vocal style as smoky, gravelly, highly emotive, and capable of shifting between girlish highs and low, jazzy tones.

She has cited artists including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Eminem, Amy Winehouse, Billie Holiday, Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin, Nina Simone, and Kurt Cobain as influences. Poetry has also shaped her songwriting, particularly the work of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg. In 2013, she recited Whitman's "Song of Myself" for L'Officiel Paris.

Her honors include an Ivor Novello Award for "Video Games", a BRIT Award for International Female Solo Artist, an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Alternative, and Billboard's Trailblazer Award. In 2023, she became the first woman to receive the Visionary Award at the Billboard Women in Music Awards.