Lana Del Rey kicked off her Thursday with a ton of controversy. She posted a statement on Instagram where she seemingly dragged many popular singers — most of whom are women of color.
"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 glamorizing abuse??????" she wrote.
She also said that she's "fed up" with other women saying she glamorizes abuse in her music, 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."
But the part that people feel most offended by is: "I also feel like it really paved the way for other women to stop 'putting on a happy face' and to just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music."
People thought her post was tone-deaf, and took to social media to call her out.
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
Is this Lana Del Rey thing just last week but without the recipes?
all lana had to say was “i’m tired of people telling me what i can and can’t sing about, if you don’t like it don’t stream it.” she didn’t have to say literally any of that other shit 😭 now she’s toast smh
I don’t know who was giving Lana Del Rey a hard time but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Black women. Girl, sing your little cocaine carols and leave us alone.
Even Megan Fox spoke out about it.
UMMMM WHY DID MEGAN FOX JUMP INTO THE LANA DEL REY DRAMA ONLY TO DELETE IT 5 SECONDS LATER??!!?!??
After the backlash, Lana has finally spoken out, defending her words.
"To be clear because I knowwwwww you love to twist things. I fucking love these singers and know them. 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," she wrote.
"By the way, the singers I mentioned are my favorite singers, so if you want to try and make a bone to pick out of that like you always do be my guest, it doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t had the same opportunity to express what I wanted to express without being completely decimated and if you want to say that that has something to do with race that’s your opinion but that’s not what I was saying," she continued.
"This is sad to make it about a WOC issue when I’m talking about my favorite singers. I could’ve literally said anyone but I picked my favorite fucking people."
"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."
She ended her statement saying, "And my last and final note on everything – when I said people who look like me – I meant the people who don’t look strong or necessarily smart, or like they’re in control etc. it’s about advocating for a more delicate personality, not for white woman – thanks for the Karen comments tho. V helpful."
Most of the singers Lana singled out have yet to respond to her remarks, but Doja Cat did leave this comment on her post:
Doja Cat comments on Lana Del Rey’s Instagram post referencing her and other female artists: “Gang sunk that dunker”