Lana Del Rey has accused critics of “wanting drama” as she doubled down on her defence of a controversial post on Instagram.
The Video Games singer faced a backlash earlier this week when she lamented how many female artists are having success with songs about “being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, cheating etc.”, when she had been “crucified” and accused of “glamourising abuse” when she’d explored these themes.
Lana name-checked high-profile female stars including Doja Cat, Camila Cabello, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, with many noting that the majority of artists she’d contrasted herself to were women of colour.
After Lana hit back at “bullshit” accusations of racism in the comments of her post, claiming she had “picked my favourite fucking people”, she has now shared a “couple of final notes” on the matter.
“Despite the feedback I’ve heard from several people that I mentioned in a complimentary way, whether it be Ariana or Doja Cat – I want to say that I remain firm in my clarity and stance in that what I was writing about was the importance of self-advocacy for more delicate and often dismissed, softer female personality, and that there does have to be room for that type in what will inevitably become a new wave/3rd wave of feminism that is rapidly approaching,” she wrote on Instagram.
She said anyone making the issue about race might be “super trump/pence supporters or hyper liberals or flip flopping headline grabbing critics (who) can’t read and want to make it a race war”.
Lana reiterated that her issue was with “female critics and female alternative artists who are dissociated from their own fragility and sexuality and berate more sexually liberated artists”.
She added: “You want the drama, you don’t want to believe that a woman could be beautiful, strong and fragile at the same time… Nothing new here in your reaction.
“Same as ten years ago when a million think pieces came out about me feigning emotional fragility or lying about coming from no money when that was the truth.”
Lana concluded the post by saying: “If the women I mention don’t want to be associated with me that’s absolutely fine by me.”