When Lana Del Rey arrived on the alternative pop music scene in the early 2010s some questioned the authenticity of her “Gangsta Nancy Sinatra” image. But languid intensity of her take on classic torch balladry was hard to deny. Del Rey has gone on to have a career her detractors couldn't have imagined, evolving as a singer and songwriter with each album while deepening her Queen of Sadness persona to become one of this century's most significant pop figures.

Born Elizabeth Grant on July 21, 1987 in New York City, Del Rey was raised in Lake Placid, NY. In 2005, she returned to New York City to attend Fordham University and pursue a music career. Del Rey began performing at small clubs and venues around the city, recording at least three demos under various stage names before landing on her current one. 

In 2011, Del Rey uploaded a DIY music video for her new song “Video Games” on YouTube. The mix of vintage footage and self-directed Photobooth clips of the crooning singer immediately went viral, gaining Del Rey a cult following on Tumblr. Subsequently, Del Rey signed to Interscope Records and released her major-label debut album Born to Die. The 2012 major-label debut created a blueprint for alternative pop music steeped in sadness, paving a path for successors like Phoebe Bridgers and Billie Eilish. Del Rey's 2014 follow-up Ultraviolence proved her staying power with a more sophisticated, textured sound that was a step-up from the trip-hop-tinged Born to Die.

Del Rey continued to release albums with a range of sonic influences while writing songs that played with her own moody image while ingeniously excavating American musical and lyrical archetypes. 2019's Norman Fucking Rockwell! brilliantly displayed Del Rey's penchant for dark lyricism and her ability to evoke the golden-age of Seventies radio rock and pop, garnering the singer her first Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Song of the Year. Her 2023 album Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd earned five Grammy nominations.

In 2024, Del Rey announced her upcoming album Lasso, which will venture into country music. — Maya Georgi