Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, was born in 1986 in New York.
Parents – copywriter entrepreneur Rob Grant and customer accounts executive Pat Grant – awarded the daughter of a great gale of creativity. She is of Scottish descent with roots in Lanarkshire. She was raised in New York with two younger siblings. She began singing in the church choir when she was a girl. Feeling the wind of teenage Lana began to use more and more alcohol. Childish mind said to her that this is only “a bad girl” image and everything seemed just cool then. Such a way of life had become so important to her that today reminds her times when she equated alcohol to love of her life. However, Lana also recognizes that this is the worst thing that ever happened to her. When she was fourteen Lana was removed from school because of harmful way of life and sent to KentSchool (a boarding school in Connecticut) to control alcohol abuse. After rehab she returned home only at the age of 21.
Lana Del Rey then began to attend FordhamUniversity in New York City, studying a branch of philosophy known as metaphysics. This was choice because in Lana’s words it bridged the gap between God and science. “I was interested in God and how technology could bring us closer to finding out where we came from and why. That was when my musical experience began. I am kind of people who are finding themselves,” – she said in most interviews.
After her uncle taught her how to play the guitar, she realized that she could probably write a million songs with those six chords. She began performing at nightclubs around the city under various names such as Sparkle Jump Rope Queen, Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena. According to Lana Del Rey, she was always singing, but didn’t plan to pursue it seriously. When she was 18, she started to play in clubs in Brooklyn. There were good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene.
On April 25th, 2005, a seven-track compact disc was registered under Elizabeth Woolridge Grant name with the United States Copyright Office. The application title was “Rock Me Stable”.
When she was 20 years old, Del Rey signed a record contract for $10,000 and moved into a trailer park outside of the city. Unfortunately, her album was shelved causing her to shift her focus. Instead, she began working in the community. Communication with the homeless, drug addicts and alcoholics, rehabilitation and assistance to back them into the normal society – it was the recent activity of Lana.
A few years later, Lana Del Rey signed an independent contract with David Kahne who helped her to release the first three-track set titled “Kill Kill” by Lyzzy Grant name in 2008. After that Del Rey released her first full studio album titled “Lana Del Rey AKA Lizzy” in 2010. It was the singer’s first professionally released album by independent studio with the producer David Kahne. Her father, Robert Grant, helped with the marketing of the album which was available for purchase on iTunes for a brief period before being withdrawn.
About choosing her stage name she has said to “Vogue”: “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.”
She shot to fame in 2011 within months, when her song “Video Games” has become an Internet sensation on Youtube website. She told to the newspaper “The Observer” reporters: “I just put that song online, because it was my favorite. To be honest, it wasn’t going to be the single but people have really responded to it.” Later, in 2012, Lana Del Rey released a couple of successful albums – “Born to Die” and “Paradise”. Currently Lana prepares performances in different corners of the Europe and continues to amaze and delight their fans. Singer presents many cover music legend hits in her performances. Moreover a couple of months ago she introduced one of the soundtrack songs – the song “Young & Beautiful” to one of the most welcomes movie “The Great Gatsby”.
Lana Del Rey is already making her laurels in the fashion industry of the world. In early 2012 she signed a contract with one of the world’s most famous model agency Next Model Management and became advertising face of a famous clothing chain H&M and a luxury sports car the “Jaguar F-Type”. In addition, at the same year early September in ceremony of world’s most popular men’s magazine GQ Awards Lana Del Rey was elected “Woman of the Year”.
Lana Del Rey has recently become the cover face of the fashion magazine “Fashion” of Canadian publication for the summer season. During interview she uttered the words that best describe her current musical life: “Einstein once said that imagination is more important than intelligence, and I have a very wide imagination. I like to live in my internal world and will never stop seeking influences and visions for my art”.
