In 2011, a Video Games song was released by an unknown singer named Lana DelRey. The song was not only emotional and deep, it was very different from what many are used to, and so many people fell in love with the song and the singer. Less than a decade later, Del Rey has grown into a massive band with six albums to their name, multiple Grammy nominations, and more.
Biography of Lana Del Rey
Singer, poet, video director, songwriter and music producer, Lana was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant on June 21, 1985. While her father, Robert England Grant, Jr., was an editor at the Gray Global Group, her mother Patricia Ann also worked with the company before later becoming a school teacher.
Of Scottish descent, Elizabeth was raised alongside sister Caroline Grant and brother Charlie Grant in Lake Placid, New York. The singer was educated in a Catholic primary school before going to high school where her mother taught for a year.
By the time Lana Del Rey was 14, Grant who was raised in a Catholic home already had a drinking problem and so she was sent to a boarding school, Kent School to sober up. After graduation, she was admitted to the State University of New York at Geneseo. However, she decided not to attend and instead work as a waitress on Long Island where she lived with her aunt and uncle.
Also known earlier as Lizzy Grant, the singer started singing since she was a child and was even part of her church choir. While living with her uncle, she taught him to play the guitar and soon after began writing songs with the six chords she had learned. Before too long, she was already performing in nightclubs under several names, including Sparkle Jump Rope Queen and The Phenomena.
When Lana Del Rey moved to New York City at age 18, she continued making music for fun. She went to Fordham University when she was 19 and decided to get involved in volunteering. It was when she started that she realized she had a choice between becoming a singer or a social worker and so she chose the former.
Lana started her career in 2005. She released an EP Kill Kill (2008) as Lizzy Grant and then she later released an album, Lana Del Ray. Her breakthrough came in 2011 when she uploaded “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” to her YouTube channel. In 2012, she released her next album, Born to Die which became a huge hit followed by Ultraviolence (2014), Honeymoon (2015), Thirst for Life (2017), and Norman Putain de Rockwell (2019).
She has sold millions of copies of her albums and won numerous awards including Brit Awards and MTV Europe Music Awards.
Net value
Since breaking up with Videogames in 2011, Lana Del Rey has pursued a lot that has helped her amass an estimated net worth of $14 million. She has made a large fortune from her singing career while deriving a bit more fortune from other things she is involved with, including movies.
Boyfriend
Looking at his love side of things, the Video Games singer has dated a number of men in the past. One of her best-known relationships was with her former boyfriend Barrie-James O’Neill who is a member of rock band Kassidy.
The two dated from 2011 to 2014 before going their separate ways. The next person she was linked with was rapper G-Eazy although nothing came of it.
Plastic surgery
Lana Del Rey has been a story of so many changes that at one point she was considered a scam. She started her career as Lizzy Grant and after failing, she changed her name to Lana Del Rey and then came back as something new and was accepted.
The question of who she really is came up again in 2012 when she performed live on SNL. The performance was deemed by some to be the worst performance in SNL history. Beyond the change in her music like Lizzy and Lana, there have also been some changes in her appearance.
Due to Lizzy and Del Rey’s differences in appearance, speculation began that she likely had injections or even plastic surgery. This was, however, strongly denied by the singer who insisted she was rather sulky.