Lana Del Rey Feels ‘Playful’ Amid Upcoming Country Era: ‘The Music Business Has Gone Country’

The star announced her upcoming country album, ‘Lasso,’ earlier this year.

Lana Del Rey speaks onstage at the NMPA + Billboard Grammy Week Showcase at EDEN Sunset in Los Angeles, CA on January 31, 2024.

Nick Agrò for NMPA

Lana Del Rey is gearing up to release her upcoming country album, Lasso, and the superstar opened up about her incredible career trajectory in a new interview with NME.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

When asked about how she feels about proving haters wrong amid her success, the superstar replied, “No, maybe three years ago there would have been a sense of vindication, but now it just feels playful. I don’t know why. If you hang in long enough, it just feels easy. There’s no vindication, no nothing – I’m just kind of happy to be here. It’s easy-going in that way.”

As for her foray into the country world, Del Rey recalled a moment she had with friend and producer Jack Antonoff before the Billboard and NMPA Songwriter Awards in February, where she initially announced the forthcoming album. “When I gave Jack Antonoff his award for Best Producer Of The Year, I said, ‘Welcome Nashville to Hollywood and Hollywood, welcome to Nashville because the music business has gone, gone country. And it went silent; 5000 people, dead silent. Then the next week, we had three major artists announce big country albums.”

Trending on Billboard

She continued, “So where’s ‘Lasso’ going? I really have no idea now!”

The project is slated for release in September, and marks her 10th studio LP. The release is the followup to 2023’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox