Where is Lana Del Rey from?

Why do we even care where larger-than-life celebrity figures come from? Maybe it’s because knowing they once lived in some small, nondescript town makes them feel a bit more accessible, a bit more like the girl next door. Or maybe it’s just another piece of trivia to whip out at parties. Or maybe we’re just nosy.

And yet, there’s something undeniably intriguing about tracing the roots of our idols. With Lana Del Rey, it’s easy to see how her upbringing in the idyllic Adirondack Mountains might have influenced her aesthetic. The dreamy, vintage vibe that permeates her music and visuals seems to harken back to a simpler time, a nostalgia for an America that maybe never really existed.

Born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant on June 21, 1985, Lana spent much of her childhood in Lake Placid, a picturesque town in upstate New York known for hosting the Winter Olympics twice (in 1932 and 1980, for you trivia buffs out there).  She was inspired by the name Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey sedan, as well as her frequent trips to Miami, where she spent time with Spanish-speaking Cuban friends. The name allowed her to “shape the music towards” a specific aesthetic and probably led her to create the character of Lana Del Rey, a sultry, sad-eyed siren out of a 1960s Hollywood flick.

Growing up, Lana attended a Catholic elementary school before heading off to Kent School, a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut, due to her struggle with alcohol dependency as a teenager. At Kent she began to explore her musical talents, singing in the school choir and even learning to play the guitar. From there, she went on to study metaphysics and philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, pondering the meaning of life and crafting hauntingly beautiful melodies to go hand in hand. It was during her college years that she started to perform in clubs and bars around the city under various stage names such as “Sparkle Jump Rope Queen” and “Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena.” 

After graduating, Lana Del Rey’s career in music started to take a more professional turn. In the mid-2000s, she recorded some early EPs and albums under the name “May Jailer.” She signed her first recording contract in 2007 but didn’t break into significant mainstream success until 2011 with her hauntingly atmospheric track “Video Games.” This song, characterized by its cinematic sound and nostalgic visuals, became a viral sensation, leading to her major label debut album “Born to Die” in 2012. Then, of course, there was the mega-success of “Summertime Sadness” from the same album, which turned her into the legend she is in the eyes of the public. In the end, maybe it’s not so much about where Lana Del Rey is from, but about the journey she’s taken to become the artist she is today.