Del Rey's full-fledged debut album, Born to Die, appeared to considerable anticipation in January 2012. By the fall of that year, she released 'Video Games' on Stranger Records, an independent division of Interscope/Polydor in the U.K., and she won the Next Big Thing trophy at the Q Awards. The first unveiling of Lana Del Rey arrived in 2011 via YouTube videos that quickly became a viral sensation, led by the moody, murky 'Video Games' and followed by 'Blue Jeans.' Much of her success was limited to the Internet, but it soon started to spill over into U.K. Not long after its release, she teamed with managers Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, who helped her separate from 5 Points (rights to her recordings reverted back to her), and she moved to England, where she began crafting the Lana Del Rey persona. Kill Kill appeared digitally in 2008, and over the next two years, Grant became Lana Del Rey, digitally releasing a full self-titled album under that name in 2010. Reverting to the name Lizzy Grant, she signed with 5 Points Records in 2006, recording an EP called Kill Kill with producer David Kahne, who would prove to be her first pivotal collaborator. Copyright Office and recorded elsewhere, finishing up an unreleased folky album called Sirens under the name May Jailer. In April of that year, a CD of originals was registered under her birth name with the U.S. While she attended Fordham University, she continued to play music, and she started getting serious around 2005.

Her uncle taught her how to play guitar, and soon she was writing songs and playing New York clubs, sometimes under the name Lizzy Grant. Born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant in New York City to a pair of wealthy parents, she was raised in Lake Placid, not starting to pursue music until she was out of high school and living with her aunt and uncle on Long Island. Lana Del Rey's journey to this stardom was a long, steady climb. By the time of albums like 2019's Grammy-nominated Norman Fucking Rockwell!, 2021's Blue Banisters, and 2023's Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, Del Rey's character of the damaged torch singer and tragic romantic icon had become nuanced and complex, and her increasingly orchestrated and often cuttingly direct songwriting had evolved in tandem.

Her popularity grew after a hit remix of her single 'Summertime Sadness,' and her second LP, 2014's Ultraviolence, received positive reviews to accompany her sales. This dream world was on display in its rudimentary form on her 2012 debut album, Born to Die, but became more personal with subsequent releases.

Lana Del Rey is one part songwriting superpower, one part constructed character, embodying a Southern California dream world of sad girls and bad boys, manufactured melancholy, and genuine glamour, and reflecting all of it back in her stylized, meticulously arranged noir-pop songs.

Download lana del rey unreleased