Culture

2024 Is Shaping Up To Be The Year Of Lana Del Rey

by Ky Stewart  19 January 2024
lana del rey coachella 2024 skims

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Mark my words, 2024 will be the year the rest of the world catches up to the power of Lana Del Rey. Granted, this could have happened any year since 2012. 

I woke this morning to the news that Lana Del Rey was the face of the Skims Valentine’s Day campaign. More importantly, I woke up to the photos of the campaign and let me tell you my little gay heart skipped several beats. 

Safe to say I almost passed out. Nadia Lee Cohen was the photographer for the Skims shoot — and she was also responsible for one of my favourite Lana Del Rey photoshoots of all time. It’s beauty beyond comprehension. Just look at the material.

 

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A post shared by LANA DEL REY (@honeymoon)

Skims campaign aside, 2024 is already shaping up to be one of the biggest years in Lana’s career. Just this week she was announced as one of the headline acts of the 2024 Coachella music festival in California, joining Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat, the festival’s first female rapper headliner. No Doubt are also making a return for the first time since 2015 to provide an essential nostalgia hit.  

Lana performed at Coachella back in 2014 but times have drastically changed since then. At the time, she was about to release her second studio album (under the name Lana Del Rey. She released her first studio album Lana Del Ray under the name Lizzy Grant), Ultraviolence. The media had not been kind to Lana following her debut Born To Die. She was accused of being an industry plant, a fake, and lacking authenticity. 

But now, she’s one of the most respected songwriters and artists of the 21st century. Her music has opened the floodgates for other young, talented female musicians like Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo to sing openly about their melancholy without the fierce backlash Lana received. Six studio albums in, Lana is returning to the Coachella stage as a headliner and a beloved icon in the music industry. It’s what she deserves. 

After dominating alternative pop for over a decade, she’s decided to try her hand in country music. Despite releasing the exquisite Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd last year, Lana has teased a new country song and her long awaited American classics covers album. 

On top of all of that, Lana is also heading into the 2024 Grammy Awards with five nominations. Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd has been nominated for Album of the Year and best alternative album while ‘A&W’ was nominated for song of the year and best alternative performance. Her song ‘Candy Necklace’ with Jon Batiste also snagged a nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Any Lana fan will know our checkered history with the Grammys. Most of us haven’t recovered since Lana’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! famously/tragically lost Album of the Year to Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2019.

But it’s okay because this year things will be different. Several publications, including Pitchfork, NME, and The Guardian named ‘A&W’ the best song of 2023. It was only a few years ago that Lana was blasted for not being real enough or her music lacking depth, which, of course, is outrageous and offensive. How the tides have turned.

Ky is a proud Kamilaroi and Dharug person and writer at Junkee. Follow them on Instagram or on X.

Image: Skims / Nadia Lee Cohen