On January 27th 2012, Lana Del Rey released her major-label debut, Born To Die. This album and Lana herself have both influenced a variety of people in the last ten years. Myself included. Allow me to tell you a story of how my lifelong love for Lana started and about how Born To Die became my most listened to album in high school.
I was 14 years old and in 8th grade when Born To Die came out. I had found out about Lana over a month prior when randomly coming across the music video to the album’s title track on YouTube. I remember watching it and being like, “Who is she? She is absolutely amazing!”
Once I listened to the album and I got to the second track “Off To The Races”, I knew I was really hooked on Lana, her voice, her lyrics and musical style. I thought her lyrics were very deep and they gave me goosebumps when listening to each song.
After that first listen, I knew I wanted more of what Lana had to offer in her music. I remember thinking that her music was very different from what was popular in the world of music at the time and I think that’s what also made me gravitate towards it. Her musical style felt beyond refreshing to listen to.
I became invested fast. VERY fast. From that point on, that album became a huge part of my life. When I say I listened to that album pretty much everyday, I mean I listened to it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. I listened to a lot of music in high school, but Born To Die? I listened to that more than any other album and I listened to Lana more any other artist.
Three years after the release, I was in the last few weeks of my junior year of high school when I went to go see Lana Del Rey in concert for the first time ever. I had waited so long for her to come to Houston that when I saw her tour dates while I was at school, I almost squealed out of excitement.
Despite being in the lawn and so far from the stage, the second I saw Lana come out on stage - I burst into tears. In fact, the friends I went to the concert went thought I was going to pass out so they stood behind me just in case. I was mesmerized and I felt so happy knowing I was finally seeing my favorite singer of all time in concert. Nothing else mattered to me.
My senior year of high school months after that concert, my top most listened to albums that year consisted of three albums - Halsey’s Badlands album, Banks’ Goddess album, and of course Lana’s newest release at the time, Honeymoon. That came to show that Lana had a strong effect on my love for indie music and also having me introduce myself to more artists and bands in the indie world.
To add to my last statement - Over the last 10 years, I’ve also noticed that Lana paved the way for other women in indie pop/alternative - such as Lorde, Billie Eilish, Sky Ferreira, Halsey, Banks, amongst other artists. And those are also some of my other favorite artists.
Because of Born To Die, Lana became my all time favorite singer and the artist who meant the absolute world to me. Even now at 24, I still love her so much and I still get excited over every new album release from her. Her music means a lot to me now, just as much as it did when I was 14. I’ve seen her twice in concert, own almost all vinyl versions of her albums, I even still stay up late just to listen to her new albums the second they get released on Spotify.
With that being said, Born To Die will forever be one of my all time favorite albums and also one of those albums that holds a special meaning to me.
Thank you for creating my lifelong favorite music, Lana.