Lana Del Rey announces a new album, but nobody is talking about it
In a dramatic instance of burying the lede, Lana Del Rey announced an upcoming album in the wee hours of Thursday morning by uploading to Instagram a lengthy preamble in which she lashed out at critics who have allegedly accused her of “glamorizing abuse” through her music.
“Doja Cat, Ariana (Grande), Camila (Cabello), Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes ... cheating etc,” the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter wrote. “Im fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse 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.”
Backlash to Del Rey’s post arrived swiftly. Without denying that double standards exist within the music industry, critics found fault with her decision to name a largely black roster of female artists before stating that “there has to be a place in feminism for women who look and act like me.” Pieced together, her claims seemed to insinuate that these artists hadn’t faced the same level of criticism in their careers.
“Lana Del Rey really threw a bunch of black women under the bus before saying that feminism needs to accommodate women like her,” writer Zito Madu tweeted. “It’s art.”
Without naming the singer, writer Fariha Róisín tweeted, “thinking about how white women seem to be not as threatened or enraged by gatekeepers, or successful white men, or the countless disparities of capitalism – but by successful black and brown women that they really want to bring down, humiliate and dismiss.”
Del Rey addressed the backlash in the comments section of her post Thursday evening, writing that it “is sad to make it about a WOC (woman of color) issue when I’m talking about my favorite singers.”
“And this is the problem with society today, not everything is about whatever you want it to be. It’s exactly the point of my post.”