Growing Up:

Born on June 21, 1985, to the parents of Patricia Ann Hill and Rob Grant was Elizabeth Grant (better known as Lana Del Rey.) She grew up in a house on the mountains in New York with her siblings Caroline Grant and Charlie Hill-Grant. Lana went to Kent School and Fordham University while she started singing in her church choir.

Starting her singing career, Lana Del Rey AKA Lizzy Grant, Born to Die

When she started singing she was known as Lizzy Grant, and started doing open mic nights. After earning $10,000 from an indie label, she moved into a trailer park to be independent. She released her first album in 2010 with 5 Points Records which had a tracklist of 13 songs called Lana Del Rey AKA Lizzy Grant, and that’s when she decided to change her name to Lana Del Rey.

After releasing her first album, she left that label and worked with Justin Parker to make “Video Games” while she was in London which would change her career forever. She then created and released  Born to Die on January 27, 2012, which had a tracklist of 13 songs including Born to Die, Blue Jeans, Diet Mountain Dew, Dark Paradise, Carmen, Summertime Sadness, etc. Listeners were captivated by the songs which put the album in the Top 5 for Billboard 200 album chart and became a very influential album. The song Summertime Sadness became one of her most popular songs and still is.

Born to Die: The Paradise Edition, Born to Die (Bonus Track Version), Paradise:

On November 9, 2012, Lana Del Rey Released Born to Die: The Paradise Edition. This album had 23 songs, including all the songs from Born to Die and Yayo from Lana Del Rey AKA Lizzie Grant. Some of the new songs on the album are Cola, American, and Bel Air. The album charted on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Two other versions were released including Born to Die (Bonus Track Version) which had all the Born to Die songs with the new ones being Without you, Lolita, and Lucky Ones. While the other version was just called Paradise having all the songs in the Born to Die: The Paradise Edition that weren’t in Born to Die.

Ultraviolence & Ultraviolence (Deluxe):

Lana Del Rey released Ultraviolence on June 13, 2014, and Ultraviolence (Deluxe) on June 14, 2014. The two albums feature the same songs except the Deluxe version has 3 more songs. Ultraviolence (Deluxe) tracklist has 14 songs and some were posted as singles before the album was released such as Brooklyn Baby, Shades of Cool, and Ultraviolence.

The album conveys a story about an abusive relationship with the genres of soft rock, dream pop, jazz fusion, etc. The songs in the album bring many emotions to the listeners’ ears including anger, sadness, mourning, and more. The album had a darker tone than her previous album, Born to Die. Ultraviolence charted number 1 on Australian Albums, UK Albums (OCC), US Billboard, etc. Ultraviolence (Deluxe) also won ARIA Charts, Number One Chart Award. 

Honeymoon:

On September 18, 2015, Lana Del Rey released the album Honeymoon with the same label that produced Ultraviolence, Interscope, and Polydor Records. The album included 14 songs with the listening time being 1h 5 minutes.

Elise Boucher interpreted the meaning of her album: “More sad and melancholy and at the same time slow and beautiful. You can interpret it as her saddest album even though it may not sound like it on surface level. I find it interesting how she titled it Honeymoon as it’s supposed to be one of the happiest weeks of your life, but the album is one of her saddest.” The album features genres such as pop and jazz, and some of the songs appear to be in the same genre as the songs in Born to Die. The album peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard 200. 

Lust for Life:

On July 21, 2017, Lust for Life was released. The tracklist has 16 songs and features the artists The Weekend, A$AP Rocky, Playboy Carti, Stevie Nicks, and Sean Ono Lennon. The album was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards. The album is considered one of the happier albums compared to the others she had released at this time and features the genre of pop and alternative. The happiness of the album, “lets a bit of light into the darkness of Del Rey’s moody past works,” notes The Daily Telegram. Lust for Life and many of her other albums have many different interpretations, but for Lust for Life, many agree there is less sadness.