Lana Del Rey has denied coming from a wealthy background and revealed she was living in a hostel when she made her Saturday Night Live debut in 2012.
As she attended boarding school as a teenager, Del Rey has been accused of coming from privilege. However, the singer-songwriter has now responded to the claims in a now-deleted video message on Instagram and revealed she was only able to attend the school after receiving “financial aid” as her uncle did administrative work for the education facility.
Del Rey described her hometown Lake Placid, New York as “not a wealthy town”, and claimed she was given the cruel nickname of “White trash from Lake Placid” by her fellow students at Kent School. She also said Lake Placid’s association with money is “a new phenomena”.
Additionally, in an Instagram comment, Del Rey wrote: “We had absolutely no money… that’s a little story the news loved to assign to me. I grew up in a mountain town in a little house, and we struggled as much as everybody else in the town of 900, there is no other truth than that… there are people who are well-known, who grew up rich – I’m not one of them.”
She also looked back at being poor during the early days of her career, recalling: “I didn’t have any experience having anything until I was 26 when I made my own money. I was living in a hostel on 17th Street when I played Saturday Night Live and how I played Saturday Night Live was because I’d got a publishing deal in Austria, Germany, Switzerland.”
Earlier this year, Del Rey released her latest album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. In a four-star review, Far Out wrote: “Devoted fans of Del Rey will find much to fawn over in Ocean Blvd. Diverse, nuanced and interrogative, it reminds us that mainstream pop doesn’t have to be apathetic and easily digestible.”
“It can also be conceptual, exploratory and multifaceted. Certain songs feel a little formulaic and forced, but there’s always something subversive or life-affirming lurking around the corner,” the review continued.
