The increasingly controversial Lana Del Rey continued her meteoric rise to fame over the weekend with her debut album ‘Born To Die’ officially topping the charts in the UK, as well as reaching #1 on the iTunes charts in over 11 countries.
But the huge backlash over questions of authenticity are starting to take their toll on the 25-year-old singer, including a savaging by the blogosphere over her questionable performance on Saturday Night Live.
Now in an interview with Vogue, which the singer appears on the cover, Del Rey has indicated that this may be her only record she releases as she’s run out of things to say and has grown tired to seeking fame.
Del Rey admits “I don’t think I’ll write another record. What would I say? I feel like everything I wanted to say, I’ve said already. The album is a tribute to living life on the wild side. I’m sort of kidding because I’m not that wild any more… used to drink a lot. Too much. I haven’t had a drink for seven years now.”
Her statements add further fuel to comments she made earlier in the week while speaking to the Press Association. “Rejection and not getting anywhere changed me,” she told reporters. “I’ve gone from wanting to be a world-famous singer to wanting to focus on becoming an active, helpful member of my community who lives their life with dignity and grace.”
The backlash against the singer has got so vocal Vogue‘s UK editor Alexandra Shulman was forced to defend her decision to choose the songstress as the issues covergirl. In her editor’s letter Shulman writes “I am many of the thousands of people enraptured by the throaty, seductive voice of Lana Del Rey.”
“Once I had seen Lana play at a small event in London, I was convinced that she would be a great Vogue cover girl, even though she is probably one of the newest stars in her field that the magazine has ever had on the cover.”
But despite a vocal group hell bent on discrediting the singer continuing to savage her credibility, fans remain unperturbed. Born To Die, which was released last week, has already sold over 117,000 copies in the UK and is expected to make a Top 10 appearance in the Billboard charts in the US when results come out later this week.
Del Rey is also travelling down under at the beginning of March for two sold-out showcase shows in Melbourne and Sydney to promote her record. A few double passes to the Sydney show have been put up in various auctions on eBay and are currently fetching in the vicinity of $900 each.
