Lana Del Rey bio, name, age, height, dating

Unraveling the mystery of Lana Del Rey

Name: Lana Del Rey
Age: 34 years old
Born: June 21, 1985 in New York, NY
Zodiac sign: Gemini
Relationship status: Single
Height: 5’ 7”
Profession: Singer, songwriter, musician, record producer
Nationality: American

Lana Del Rey image

Get to know Lana Del Rey – 35 FAQs

Let’s take a closer look at the life of musical superstar by answering the following frequently asked questions (FAQs).

1.) What is Lana Del Rey’s real name?

Her birth name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant.

2.) How did she come up with her name?

Lana Del Rey explains how she chose her exotic-sounding name, “I wanted a name I could shape the music towards. I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba – Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.”

Some have suggested her first name is also a tribute to actress Lana Turner.

3.) What other names did she use in the past?

She has used the stage names May Jailer, Sparkle Jump Rope Queen, and Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena in the early years of her singing career.

4.) Where does Lana Del Rey live?

In 2016 she purchased two houses on adjoining lots in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles, California for $5.87 million. She also owns a home in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and a beach house in Malibu.

5.) What ethnicity is she?

The American singer-songwriter is of Scottish descent.

6.) Who is Lana Del Rey dating?

Lana Del Rey broke up with her latest boyfriend, Sean Larkin, in March 2020. The Tulsa police officer is known for the A&E police shows Live PD, PD Cam, and Live Rescue. He goes by the nickname “Sticks”.

In 2017 she dated rapper G-Eazy for several months after the two were spotted together at Coachella. There were even rumors she may have dated Axl Rose of Guns ’n’ Roses back in 2012.

Del Rey was in a relationship with Barrie-James O’Neill of the Scottish band Kassidy from 2011 to 2014 and musician Steven Mertens before that.

She has talked about being in a relationship with a record label executive on and off over seven years but has never named the individual.

7.) Are her lips real?

Del Rey has always denied the rumors that her lips have been surgically enhanced.

VIDEO: Video Games

8.) What does Lana Del Rey’s tattoo say?

Here is a list of the tattoos on her body (that we can see):

  • She has two tattoos on her right hand. One tattoo reads “trust no one” and the other (on her ring finger) says “die young”.
  • Her right forearm has a tattoo that reads “Nabokov Whitman”—honoring her two favorite authors, Vladimir Nabokov and Walt Whitman.
  • On the left hand are the tattoos “paradise” and the letter “M”—a tribute to her grandmother Madeleine.
  • Her left forearm tattoo says “Chateau Marmont”, representing her second home.
  • She has “Nina Billie” printed on her left collar bone area, honoring her two favorite singers Nina Simone and Billie Holiday. On the opposite collar bone, she has tattooed “Whitney Amy” for singing inspirations Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse.

9.) What is her connection to Lolita?

Del Rey’s tattoo “Nabokov Whitman” honors one of her favorite authors, Vladimir Nabokov. He is the author of the famous novel “Lolita”. The book was made into a film of the same name starring Peter Sellers, Shelly Winters, James Mason and Sue Lyon as Lolita.

Her other connections to Lolita include the song “Lolita” from 2012 and her use of the name in many other songs, including “Dark Paradise”, “National Anthem”, “Blue Jeans” and “Without You”.

10.) How do I contact Lana Del Rey?

The cover art on Del Rey’s 2015 album “Honeymoon” features the singer in a car showing a phone number: 1-800-268-7886. Lana reportedly took calls from fans on the hotline occasionally.

11.) Where can I find Lana Del Rey merch?

All current Lana Del Rey merchandise can be purchased at lanadelreystore.com.

Family and childhood

12.) Who are Lana Del Rey’s parents?

Lana’s father is Robert England Grant, Jr. He made millions as an entrepreneur selling domain names and before that was an advertising copywriter. Her mother is Patricia Ann Hill, a school teacher, and an advertising account executive.

Both of her parents had musical interests. Her father wrote country songs as a hobby and her mother enjoyed singing.

13.) Does she have siblings?

She has a younger brother named Charlie Grant and a younger sister named Caroline Grant.

14.) Where did she grow up?

Lana Del Rey was born in Manhattan, New York, NY. At an early age, her family moved to Lake Placid in upstate New York.

As a young girl, she sang in a church choir and attended a Catholic elementary school, St. Agnes School.

In her teen years, Del Rey’s parents sent her to Kent School, a Connecticut boarding school, because of her growing alcohol abuse.

15.) Where did she go to college?

In 2004 Lana Del Rey enrolled at Fordham University in Bronx, NY. She graduated in 2008 with a degree in philosophy with an emphasis on metaphysics—which tries to explain the fundamental nature of being.

She said she was interested in philosophy because it “bridged the gap between God and science… I was interested in God and how technology brings us closer to finding out where we came from and why.”

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Music and acting career

16.) When did Lana Del Rey’s singing career begin?

Lana Del Rey’s singing career began in 2005 when she moved to NYC to live with her aunt and uncle. She got a job working as a waitress during this time.

After her uncle taught her how to play guitar, she began to write songs and perform in nightclubs using the stage names “Sparkle Jump Rope Queen” and “Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena”.

While still enrolled at Fordham, she released two EPs “Rock Me Stable” (with the alternative title “Young Like Me”) and “From the End” using the name May Jailer.

She later recorded the acoustic album “Sirens” as May Jailer. The record was never officially released, however, it has since leaked out through online sources.

In 2006 she was a finalist in the Williamsburg Live Songwriting Competition. It was her first public performance.

17.) How was LDR discovered?

In 2007 she met Van Wilson, A&R rep for 5 Points Records. She signed with the label for $10,000 and later released her “Kill Kill” EP record using the name Lizzy Grant. The next year she released the album “Lana Del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant” (2008). After this point, she would be known only as Lana Del Rey.

The young singer didn’t achieve widespread recognition until the release of her 2011 hit single “Video Games” and accompanying viral YouTube video. The video for the hit song has been viewed over 60 million times. She also uploaded her popular single “Blue Jeans” at this time.

Del Rey signed with Stranger Records and then Interscope Records and Polydor later in 2011, producing her second studio album, “Born to Die”.

18.) What are her music labels?

Her music labels over the course of her career are Polydor, Interscope, 5 Points, and Stranger.

19.) Who is her manager?

Lana Del Rey has two managers: Ben Mawson and Ed Millett of Tap Management.

20.) What is her new album?

Her latest album is called “Norman F-ing Rockwell” (2019).

21.) What are the names of her albums? (Discography)

Here’s a list of Lana Del Rey’s albums:

  • Norman F-ing Rockwell, 2019
  • Lust for Life, 2017
  • Honeymoon, 2015
  • Ultraviolence, 2014
  • Paradise, 2012
  • Born to Die, 2012
  • Lana Del Ray, 2010

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22.) What was her debut album?

Her first major-label release was “Born to Die” in 2012. It was technically her second studio album after 2010’s “Lana Del Ray”.

It featured the single “Summertime Sadness”—a Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hit—along with “Blue Jeans”, “Born to Die” and “National Anthem”.

23.) What is Lana Del Rey’s biggest hit?

The single “Video Games” from the album “Born to Die” launched Lana Del Rey’s career and remains her biggest hit, according to Billboard.

24.) What are her famous songs?

Here are some of her most acclaimed songs:

  • Video Games
  • Born To Die
  • Ride
  • Old Money
  • American
  • Freak
  • Pretty When You Cry
  • National Anthem
  • Radio
  • Music To Watch Boys To

25.) What is her musical genre?

Lana Del Rey’s music falls into the musical genres of baroque and dream pop, as well as alternative rock. Critics sometimes use the term “Hollywood sadcore” to describe her style.

Her music often has one or more of the following characteristics: a cinematic sound, bleak lyrics, downbeat melodies, slow tempo or even upbeat melodies contrasted with depressive undertones and imagery.

Del Rey’s songs can be playful, emotional, romantic and gloomy. The major themes she explores are those of indecisiveness, submissiveness, and self-destructiveness. She even throws in touches of the 1950s and ‘60s Americana culture and icons.

26.) Who is LDR’s musical inspiration?

She says Kurt Cobain of Nirvana is one of her main inspirations. “I thought he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen,” she says. “Even at a young age, I really related to his sadness.”

Her other musical influences include:

  • Joan Baez
  • Leonard Cohen
  • Julee Cruise
  • The Crystals
  • Miles Davis
  • Bob Dylan
  • The Eagles
  • Eminem
  • Billie Holiday
  • Julie London
  • Courtney Love
  • Cat Power
  • Elvis Presley
  • Lou Reed
  • Nina Simone
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Bruce Springsteen
  • Bobby Vinton
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber
  • Amy Winehouse

27.) What instruments does LDR play?

Aside from vocals, she plays guitar and keyboard.

28.) Does she write all her songs?

Lana writes most all her own songs. But occasionally her songs are co-written with other people.

29.) Has she won any Grammys?

She has not won a Grammy yet, but in 2020 she was nominated for Album of the Year and Song of the Year. That makes a total of 6 Grammy nominations in her young career.

30.) What other musical honors has she received?

Here is a selection of awards and honors she has received so far:

  • 19.1 million albums sold
  • 13 million singles sold
  • 6 Grammy Award nominations
  • Golden Globe Award nomination
  • 2 Brit Awards
  • 2 MTV Europe Music Awards
  • Satellite Award
  • 9 GAFFA Awards

31.) What films has she been in? (Filmography)

In 2010 Del Rey began her acting career in the short film “Poolside” with several of her friends. She later wrote and starred in a short music film called “Tropico” (2013). Other film projects include:

  • Poolside, 2010
  • National Anthem, 2012
  • Ride, 2012
  • Tropico, 2013
  • Hi, How Are You Daniel Johnston? 2015
  • Freak, 2016
  • Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen, 2017
  • The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show, 2019
  • Norman F-ing Rockwell, 2019

32.) What are her concert tours?

Here is a list of her major concert tours over the years:

  • Born to Die Tour, 2011-12
  • Paradise Tour, 2013-14
  • The Endless Summer Tour, 2015
  • LA to the Moon Tour, 2018
  • The Norman F-ing Rockwell! Tour, 2019-20

33.) What is Lana Del Rey’s net worth?

The singer-songwriter is worth an estimated $20 million.

34.) What charitable work is she involved in?

Lana has worked for charitable concerns from an early age, including community outreach work to help homelessness and drug addiction. Her community service work in college included painting homes on a Utah Indian reservation and work at a homeless shelter.

More recently she has offered several recordings to contribute to Native American land conservancy rights groups and to Native American civil rights organizations.

35.) How do I connect with Lana Del Rey on social media?

You can find the latest news and tour information about Lana Del Rey at the following social media sites:

Instagram: @lanadelrey

YouTube: @LanaDelRey

Facebook: @lanadelrey

Twitter: @LanaDelRey

Website: lanadelrey.com

7 fun facts about Lana Del Rey

  1. Lana once lived in a trailer park in North Bergen, New Jersey. She had just graduated from Fordham University.
  2. She is a soccer fan, especially of the team Liverpool FC.
  3. The singer first spelled her name with an ‘a’ as in ‘Lana Del Ray’. But that only lasted for her first album. Thereafter, she spelled her name ‘Lana Del Rey’.
  4. Her manager termed her look “Gangster Nancy Sinatra”. She isn’t exactly a fan of the term.
  5. Lana joined the Next Model Management modeling agency in 2012.
  6. Before beginning her singing career, Lana Del Rey wanted to be a poet.
  7. She has been sober since 2004.

Lana Del Rey quotes

On her alcohol abuse

When I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too. I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal. For some reason that knowledge sort of overshadowed my experience. I was unhappy for some time, I got into a lot of trouble, I used to drink a lot. That was a hard time in my life.

Thinking about not drinking forever was very scary, but once I did it wasn’t hard anymore because I had all of these miracles happen that let me know I was on exactly the right path.

On the beginning her career

I was always singing but didn’t plan on pursuing it seriously. When I got to New York City when I was eighteen, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn—I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point—and that was it.

On singing and performing

I sing low now, but my voice used to be a lot higher. Because of the way I look, I needed something to ground the entire project. Otherwise, I think people would assume I was some airhead singer. Well, I don’t think… I know. I’ve sung one way and sung another, and I’ve seen what people are drawn to.

It’s just heavy performing for people who really care about you, and you don’t really care that much about yourself sometimes.

About her press

A lot of what’s been written about me is not true: of my family history or my choices or my interests. Actually, I’ve never read anything written about me that was true. It’s been completely crazy.

My career isn’t about me… my career is a reflection of journalism, current-day journalism… my public persona and career have nothing to do with my internal process or my personal life. It is actually just a reflection on writers’ creative processes and where they’re at in 2014. Literally has nothing to do with me. Most of anything you’ve ever read is not true.

Quotes about her life

I’m never the star of my own show. I have a very complicated family life. I have a complicated personal life. It’s not just my life, it’s everyone else’s in this extended family unit. It’s always about someone else, even with the people I work with. I’m the quietest person on the set, generally. I’m actually the one that’s trying to keep it all together. It’s pretty weird. It’s a weird, weird world.

I was just kind of playing, and, literally, I’m still playing. For me, being this way and dressed like this isn’t different than being out in a wig. It’s all the same to me. It’s all nothing, it’s all everything. I could really go any way. I’ve lived a lot of different lives. I lived down in Alabama with my boyfriend, I lived here in Brooklyn and in Jersey. I’ve been a lot of different people, I guess.

It has been a lifelong ambition and desire… to have a defined life and a defined world to live in.

All the good stuff is real but isn’t, myself included… Whatever you choose to be your reality is your reality.

On dating

I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m trying to do what feels right. I tried a lot of different ways of life, you know, things I never really talk about, just because they are kind of different. I didn’t really have one fixed way that I could envision myself living. Going from a good relationship to a good relationship—I thought that was healthy.

On feminism

For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept. I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, god. I’m just not really that interested.

My idea of a true feminist is a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants.

On politics

Because things have shifted culturally. It’s more appropriate now than under the Obama administration, where at least everyone I knew felt safe. It was a good time. We were on the up-and-up… Women started to feel less safe under this administration instantly. What if they take away Planned Parenthood? What if we can’t get birth control? Now, when people ask me those questions, I feel a little differently…

On living in a trailer park

There was a white trash element in the way there was a time that I didn’t want to be a part of mainstream society because I thought it was gross. I was trying to carve my own piece of the pie in a creative way.

Her thoughts on death

Death and paradise for me are linked. I expect after my death, something very calm and relaxed. This can already be described as paradise. It is so loaded with meaning. I just like the word paradise. I even tattooed it on my hand.

Quotes about her tattoos

I have tattooed on my arm the names of my favorite authors, Whitman and Nabokov. Whenever I look at it, I remember that life can be great.

I’ve been touring for the last three years and it gets lonely. That’s the reason I only have a script on my body; I’ve got Nabokov and Whitman and things like that. I just like the idea of carrying someone with me on the road. So I’m bringing Nina [Simone] and Billie [Holiday] on the road. I like doing good luck scripture stuff every year that stays with me. Because you’re alone a lot.

Quotes about Lana Del Rey

I’ve never understood this controversy about whether she’s real or fake. All artists have a persona. She’s not put together by some company. These are her songs, her melodies, her singing – she’s always had this Sixties aesthetic.
– Princess Superstar

That whole thing that she was backed by her millionaire dad is a bunch of crap, basically. Her father never had anything to do financially with supporting her creativity.
– David Nichtern, 5 Points Records

Our plan was to get it all organized and have a record to go and she’d be touring right after she graduated from college. Like a lot of artists, she morphed. When she first came to us, she was playing a plucky little acoustic guitar, [had] sort of straight blonde hair, very cute young woman. A little bit dark, but very intelligent. We heard that. But she very quickly kept evolving.
– David Nichtern, 5 Points Records

What’s next for Lana Del Rey – upcoming album?

Lana recently revealed in an interview that she is working on a new record to be released in 2020 titled “White Hot Forever”. She is also scheduled to release a soundtrack to the new version of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” around the same time.

In addition to her music, keep an eye out for her new book of poetry called “Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass” with a spoken word album. Half of the proceeds from album sales will benefit Native American causes.

— Claire Evans

Claire writes about pop culture, entertainment, personalities, and movies.

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