Lana Del Rey is facing major backlash for a statement she just posted on Instagram, in which she seemed to drag singers like Beyoncé, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, and Ariana Grande — and then wrote that she "really paved the way" for other female artists.
Lana opened her statement by saying she had a "question for the culture," and then calling out many female artists who, according to her, got famous for "songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating, etc":
Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had numbers 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 glamorizing abuse??????
"I'm fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse," she continued. "When in reality I'm 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."
In case you didn't know, Lana Del Rey has been criticized for her lyrics in the past, which some feel romanticize physical and emotional abuse. For example, her song "Ultraviolence" contains the controversial lyric, "He hit me and it felt like a kiss." Lana has since said she doesn't like that lyric, and she no longer sings it.
But in her statement posted today, Lana stood by her past songs, writing that her "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."
"Let this be clear, I'm not not a feminist," she continued. "But there has to be a place in feminism for women who look and act like me."
And in one of the most controversial lines from her statement, Lana wrote that she "really paved the way" for other female artists "to just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music."
Lana's statement immediately went viral, trending #1 on Twitter. The phrase "Oh Lana" also started trending.
Oh Lana, I don’t even understand because you’re extremely successful and don’t even face half the backlash & bullshit the artists that you named go through. Girl bye.
People took particular issue with Lana's implication that she paved the way for artists like Beyoncé:
lana del rey saying she paved the way for BEYONCÉ..............oj’s jury level of delusion
beyoncé at home googling “who is lana del rey”
i’m not even gon drag, just know that your teen mom suicide pact music didn’t pave the way for Beyoncé to do one single thing. not one. @LanaDelRey
Others pointed out how most of the artists Lana called out in her post are women of color:
think Lana’s post would have been fine if she hadn’t compared herself to a group of mostly black women with the clear tone that she thinks she’s been treated worse by the media when that’s observably untrue
And many Twitter users feel like this whole controversy is reminiscent of Alison Roman's recent remarks about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo — once again, a white person criticizing women of color in order to boost her own career:
Lana Del Rey clearly doesn’t follow Chrissy Teigen or Alison Roman because I swear to god WE JUST DID THIS.
Lana said she wanted some of that Alison Roman action.
In a nutshell, people are pissed.
lana del ray shoulda just sat there and ate her cigarettes
Lana has yet to respond to the controversy, but we'll update you if she does.
