Women have dominated the charts over the past couple weeks, with songs by Ariana Grande, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion, and Beyonce all reaching the top of the Hot 100 or coming very close to it. This has prompted some words from Lana Del Rey, who hopes the success of these women can free her from some of the criticisms her music has faced.
In a lengthy Instagram post, Del Rey writes, “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 abuse relationships all over the world.”
She goes on to expand upon that point, and at the very end of her post, she reveals that her next album will be released on September 5.
Find Del Rey’s full post below.
“Question for the culture:
Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f*cking, cheating etc – can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money – or whatever I want -without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorizing abuse??????
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 abuse relationships all over the world.
With all of the topics omen are finally allowed to explore I just want to say over the last ten years I think it’s pathetic that my minor lyrical exploration detailing my sometimes submissive or passive roles in my relationships has often made people say I’ve set women back hundreds of years.
Ler this be clear, I’m not a feminist -but there has to be a place in feminism for women who look and act like me – the kind of woman who says no but men hear yes- the kind of women who are slated mercilessly for being their authentic, delicate selves, The kind of women who get their own stories and voices taken away from them by stronger women or by men who hate women.I’ve been honest and optimistic about the challenging relationships I’ve had.
News flash! That’s just how it is for many women.
And that was sadly my experience up until the point that those records were made. So I just want to say it’s been a long 10 years of bullsh*t reviews up until recently and I’ve learned a lot from them
but I also feel it really paved the way for other women to stop ‘putting on a happy face’ and to just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted in their music-
unlike my experiences where if I even expressed a note of sadness in my first two records I was deemed literally hysterical as though it was literally the 1920s
Anyways none of this has anything to do about much but I’ll be detailing some of my feelings in my next two books of poetry (mostly the second one) with Simon and Schuster. Yes I’m still making personal reparations with the proceeds of the books to my choice of Native American foundations which I’m very happy about. And I’m sure there will be tinges of what I’ve been pondering in my new album that comes out September 5th.Thanks for reading
Happy quarantining.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
