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Everyone on the Internet is buggin' about Lana Del Rey's SNL performance
By EJ DicksonJanuary 16th, 2012, 10:30 pmComments (31)
Today, most of us commemorated the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday by reflecting on the life and accomplishments of one of the most influential, revered figures in American history. Celebrities, bloggers, and other assorted internet types, however, celebrated the federal holiday by ripping YouTube celebrity Lana Del Rey a new asshole. The hipster sexpot's performance on SNL Saturday night has attracted a shitstorm of controversy within the Twitterverse and Tumblralaxy, and not even NBC anchorman/ostensible serious person Brian Williams has been able to STFU about it.
The virtual tarring/feathering began late last Saturday night, after Del Rey performed her singles "Blue Jeans" and "Video Games." Although the performance wasn't any worse than 85 percent of the sketches that Kristen Wiig has ever appeared in, Del Rey appeared disoriented and somewhat nervous on camera, and celebrities promptly took to their keyboards to savage the indie chanteuse.
"Watching this 'singer' on SNL is like watching a 12 year old in their bedroom when they're pretending to sing and perform," Juliette Lewis tweeted. Perez Hilton and Eliza Dushku agreed, respectively tweeting, "who is this whack-a-doodle chick performing on SNL?" and "Seems like the overwhelming consensus is that @LanaDelRey was HORRIBLE on SNL last night." Even Brian Williams got in touch with Gawker's Nick Denton to ask him to do a post on what he referred to as "one of the worst outings in SNL history."
Since then, everyone and their mother has collectively decided to pitch a hate boner over Lana Del Rey, whose major-label debut, Born To Die, hasn't even been released yet (it comes out January 31, making her the first performer in SNL history since Natalie Imbruglia to appear on the show before the release of her first album). It's gotten to the point where I'm honestly expecting President Obama to issue a statement to the White House press corps, calling her performance "pitchy, dawg" and her hair "like a pair of fugly, muslin curtains."
If you guys would like to see for yourself what caused everyone from Brian Williams to Juliette Lewis to have explosive, aurally-induced hate diarrhea, here's Del Rey's performance. It's clear that she's not the best vocalist in the world, but neither is Jennifer Lopez or Ashlee Simpson or T-Swift or any of the dozens of other hot-lady singers of questionable talent who've made asses of themselves on SNL (also, it must be stated: goddamn, that dress she was wearing was awesome). But! Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, so please feel free to disagree in the comments section.
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lana del rey
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Commentarium (31 Comments)
There's not much to be said. Tentative, bland, uneven, uninspiring. You know, terrible.
She just sang too low for her range. Her studio songs are excellent.
You spelled "terrible" wrong.
What are you doing Fawkes? I wanted you to wait in my house. Get back to Megaton!
Here she singing on Jools Holland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOP2Yd_jpYQ
Much better, put together. I love her. She could shit on a plate, and I'd buy. SNL wasn't good. So what? Who cares. I'll buy the album, and damn if I won't cry from the emotions she provokes in me.
Sorry that performance is just as boring, though her vocals are a bit better. For such an emotional song, she puts absolutely zero feeling into the performance.
she's got really long fingernails
Well at least she's really singing it, right? It's a shame this happened since I just learned who she was via Maxim yesterday.
She's hot, the song is good, the singing is ok, the performance was weird, the hair was terrible, and Kristen Wiig is amazing.
HipsterWorld- stop obsessing with this girl, she's a hipster Katy Perry
>> she's a hipster Katy Perry
-- You say that like it's a bad thing.
Not if you mind that she's a product.
She's more like what katy perry did imitating Florence from Flo and the machines...but watered down..
i just liked her better when she spelled her name "fiona apple." since then, she's lost a bit of range, and talent.
since when are perez hilton and eliza dushku opinion leaders? bitch, please...
Just like Lily Allen, she didn't make a great live performance. Why so many people find it necessary to point this out and then some is part of our temporary culture. If I were Lana I'd sit back and enjoy this moment of infamy thinking of the old adage: "Any PR, is good PR".
Trufax. I remember watching Lilly Allen on SNL and she was as equally bad at preforming as here. But, Lilly Allen had some very fantastic studio singles.
it was far from great, but i've heard far worse musical abominations. no one seems willing to call out dave grohl even though i've never heard him sing on pitch for even 30 seconds.
@EJ Dickson
Your 'dawg'/Obama comment is racist...just an fyi.
If by "racist," you mean, "a dated 'American Idol' reference," then yes, it is quite racist. My apologies.
@EJ
No, by racist I meant that the Obama quote would come from the black judge on Idol...and you know what I meant.
Apology accepted.
And I'm sure you have tons of black friends.
I also wrote that Obama would call Lana Del Rey's hair "fugly." Are you going to suggest that I'm prejudiced against fourteen-year old girls as well?
I already accepted your apology, so we're done...drop it already.
I believe these "celebrities" are being rather harsh about this young woman's performance. If anybody understands the schedule one has when prepping an SNL show, it's a rather stressful process. We don't know how much time she had to rehearse or how many times she ran through her performance before filming. However, going from an empty studio to a live audience can be quite scary. Throughout my school years, I was in several singing groups and choirs. Practice makes nearly perfect, but things change quickly once you are "live". It can either make you or break you. I see great potential in her and hopefully she will just see this as a lesson to not only prepare for the worst but also demand what she thinks will better her performance. If that doesn't help her in the future then she should seek the advice of other artists that have been there. With SNL it opens the lines of communication with many other musicians that I'm sure that would be willing to lend a helping hand.
It's her job. She's rehearsed this song before. She should be able to nail it.
Saw that coming. She sucks, I can't believe her manager agreed to that. I can't believe people are still singing video games. Get a life.
Did anyone try listening to the audio without actually watching the video? She's definitely trying to sing too low, but she isn't that pitch-y. She actually reminds me a bit of Chan Marshall, not a bad thing. WHY HATE DO?
The song itself is terrible, so no surprise there.
The adult rebecca black.
This is a shame. I quite like some of her singles.
This is really bad, but how awesome would it be if an all-girl hardcore band covered this song?