Lana Del Rey is one of the most interesting and mysterious artists of her generation. This has enabled her to maintain the attention of the listeners without revealing too much, as she made her debut in 2011 with the beautiful retro-pop song “Video Game,” which sounded shocking but at the same time terrifyingly familiar. Most people think, “Does Lana Del Rey support Israel?” Lana Del Rey is an artist who has showcased her support for Palestine. She added that the matters do not dictate her; she is entitled to her individuality.
Further, she alleged that she would not see everyone concur with her on the subject. In 2018, Lana Del Rey was reportedly scheduled to perform in Israel, but considering the controversy surrounding her support of Israel and her comment justifying the aggressive policies of the Israeli state on the Palestinian people, she not surprisingly canceled her concert in Israel. This was perhaps a relief to the larger Israeli population.
Career of Lana Del Rey
Although a college student in the spring of 2005, Del Rey registered a seven-track extended play with the US Copyright Office under the name Rock Me Stable. Young Like Me was not left out either. The name May Jailer, under which Del Rey had performed at the time, was also used to record a second extended play, From the End. In the May Jailer project, she also made the acoustic album Sirens in 2005-2006, which was leaked online in mid-2012. Van Wilson is an A&R representative with the independent record label 5 Points Records, run by David Nichtern, who met Del Rey when she was performing at the Williamsburg Live Songwriting Competition in 2006.
It was a demo CD of acoustic songs, known as No Kung Fu, in 2007, when she was a senior at Fordham, that she mailed for 5 points a CD, and they awarded her a recording contract worth 10,000 dollars. She started working with producer David Kahne after she used the money to move to an apartment at Manhattan Mobile Home Park, a trailer park in North Bergen, New Jersey. Nichtern told how they had planned everything, kept a record at hand, and after she finished college, wanted her to begin making tours.
As Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, she was brought up in upstate New York, and she began to write songs when she was eighteen years old after her uncle taught her the six fundamental chords on the guitar. It was her debut EP that she released in 2008 as Lizzy Grant, which changed the stage name she was crafting since it was glitzy but had a melancholy underbelly. She said in a 2011 Vogue interview, “I wanted a name that I could mold the music in the direction of.”
Lana Del Rey’s support for Israel or Palestine
Del Rey has stated that she is a close follower of the confrontation and desires to end it, but she is still optimistic that a peace treaty can solve this problem despite the challenge and sensitivity of this action. The last public comment on Israel by Lana Del Rey has not been made.
After some fans and pro-Palestinian organizations condemned and angered her, Lana Del Rey announced that her scheduled show in Israel would be delayed. They presumed that she did so in order not to be seen to condone the Israeli occupation or even to insult Palestinian activists. Lana Del Rey made strong words in support of Palestine.
On Instagram, she wrote that she offers prayers to Palestine every day and that the war, especially for innocent people, is in her heart.
Lana Del Rey’s statements about Gaza
In her comments since high-profile events in Gaza, Lana Del Rey has demonstrated that she is a humanitarian, concerned with peace and not party politics involvement due to the collapse of the conflict in October 2023:
- Lana did not pay attention to the promotion of the work of certain military actions or political parties, but to the human sufferings and the perspectives of long-term peace.
- She made such a statement at a time when the international humanitarian agencies were highlighting the appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza, which she termed hell on earth, which must have factored into her humanitarian voice.
- The open public acknowledgment of the conflict by Lana appears to be focused on the humanitarian affliction of Palestinians and not outright political campaigning, as was usual of her previous circumspect but sympathetic acknowledgment of the conflict.
Lana Del Rey has gone on record in the recent past as a result of major events in Gaza that have been sympathetic to the human plight of the Palestinian scenario, which is to call for a ceasefire and peace, and emphasized the human element of the conflict without taking any political or military sides.
Boycott campaign against Lana Del Rey
The center of the boycott against Lana Del Rey is her planned concerts in Israel, attracting considerable criticism from pro-Palestinian movements and protesters:
- The actions of her performance, as these campaigners believe, would legitimize Israeli policies. Del Rey initially defended her choice to perform and use music as a political statement with the argument that music is global and therefore not a political statement, but later on expressed her fear of Palestinian backing and vowed to go to Palestine herself.
- Del Rey is not the only modern-day pop mystery who has lost her composure lately. Similar to Del Rey, Sia has constructed some distance around her persona: since 2014, when she capped her commercial breakthrough with the number one album in the US, 1000 Forms of Fear, she has mostly concealed her face with a giant wig that has been her witty visual signature. By ensuring that she was recognizable as herself but at the same time rendered invisible, she appeared like she were one of the smoother workers of music.
- This notwithstanding, the boycott movement has persisted, and the activists are pressuring her to postpone her operations in Israel. After the usual violence and perceived apartheid policies of Israel, certain organizations such as CODEPINK and the larger BDS movement have urged her to leverage her platform to defend Palestinian human rights by canceling Israeli shows. To them, playing in Israel is like promoting apartheid and occupation.
- Other concerns, like the social movements, like the hashtag # LanaDontGo and the petitions, have been on the rise, getting her to boycott Israel in favor of Palestinians. Such boycott campaigns have been received in a mixed way by the fans and the general population.
To have played in Israel, Lana Del Rey has faced organized boycott campaigns, and campaigners have advised her to delay her performances and speak up on behalf of Palestinian rights. Despite the retaliation in the form of traveling to Palestinian territories and using concerts as an excuse to request peace, the boycott pressure continues to be a major element in her efforts in the Palestinian-Israeli matter.
