Lorde and Lana Del Rey are two of the most influential figures in music, not just for our generation, but of all time, IMO. I see music lovers praising them for years to come, the same way we still worship Stevie Nicks, despite the fact that her most beloved songs were released before we were even born.
And naturally, since they’re two powerful women in music, there’s bound to be rumours of beef between them. But unfortunately in this case, it’s not so much a matter of tabloids drumming up beef for clicks, there’s a legit backstory to this rumoured feud, and apparently it’s just heating up.
A wild new report by The Sun is claiming that Lana Del Rey was offered royalties from Lorde’s latest album Solar Power, after it was noted that some of the songs, including ‘Stoned At the Nail Salon’, supposedly feature similar melodies to Lana’s songs, ‘Wild At Heart’ and ‘Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have’.
An insider “from the songwriting business” told the publication: “The disagreement between Lana and Lorde has been quietly bubbling for a while. But nobody involved wants it to escalate further if possible.”
After “Lana’s team agreed” that the songs were too similar, “an expert got involved and some discussions were thrashed out between everyone involved.”
Lorde’s camp have allegedly offered Lana “a percentage of the publishing rights to the song,” but apparently Lana isn’t interested in financial compensation, she just wants it to be publicly known that her tunes have supposedly been usurped.
“It means the only last course of action would be to sue – but everyone is very keen to avoid that if at all possible and hopes there can be an amicable resolution instead,” the source added.
“The forensic experts agree with the fans, so it seems to be quite a clear cut case.”
There’s been no official word from either singer as of yet, so take it with a grain of salt for now, but let’s delve into how these feud rumours got started in the first place, shall we?
It actually kicked off way back in 2013 when Lorde first entered the music scene.
While promoting her breakout single, ‘Royals’, the then-teenager revealed that the song was sort of inspired by the likes of Lana Del Rey.
“What really got me is this ridiculous, unrelatable, unattainable opulence that runs throughout,” she told the New Zealand Herald. “Lana Del Rey is always singing about being in the Hamptons or driving her Bugatti Veyron or whatever, and at the time, me and my friends were at some house party worrying how to get home because we couldn’t afford a cab. This is our reality.
“If I write songs about anything else then I’m not writing anything that’s real.”
In a subsequent interview, she threw shade at Lana once again, this time taking aim at the supposed anti-feminist message in her songs.
“I think a lot of women in this industry maybe aren’t doing so well for the girls,” she told Fader. “I’ve read interviews where certain big female stars are like, ‘I’m not a feminist.’ I’m like, That’s not what it’s about. She’s great, but I listened to that Lana Del Rey record and the whole time I was just thinking it’s so unhealthy for young girls to be listening to, you know: ‘I’m nothing without you.’
“This sort of shirt-tugging, desperate, don’t leave me stuff. That’s not a good thing for young girls, even young people, to hear. I don’t really have any girls songs [for the new record]. I should have. But I think the way in which I assert myself as not being about that stuff is by writing about it in a way that’s a bit less obvious and less cloying. There are a couple songs on the record about relationship-y stuff, but I make sure to write about it in a way that you don’t know if it’s a friend or a relationship, because that’s something that’s personal to me.”
Lana seemingly clapped back at Lorde in a not-so-subtle way by liking a tweet that was shared by a Lana Del Rey fan account, which featured an image of a bracelet made of pointy thumbtacks. The tweet said that the bracelet was meant for Lorde. Ouch… literally!
And that was pretty much the last we heard of this feud until now, and, if the rumours are true, it looks like a legal battle may soon ensue.
As a stan of both singers, I hate this…
Matty Galea is the Senior Entertainment Editor at Pedestrian who also dabbles in woo-woo stuff like astrology and crystals and has been penning horoscopes since the start of his career. He also Tweets about pop culture and astrology and posts spicy content on Instagram.
