Poor Lana Del Rey. Exactly one week ago today, this girl made her American television debut on Saturday Night Live, and even though she tried her best, everyone won’t stop talking about how bad her performance was. And I get it, it was a weird thing to see, but come on now, she new to this whole fame thing! She doesn’t even have an album out yet! She’s a baby! There’s no reason to be mean!
But that is exactly what everyone is doing: being mean. One of the most amusing cases of this happened in an email NBC’s Brian Williams sent to Nick Denton, the founder and managing editor of Gawker. The two dudes are friends, and in a private email that ended up on the site, Brian Williams decided to give some constructive criticism, which included this tidbit:
Brooklyn hippster [sic] Lana Del Rey had one of the worst outings in SNL history last night — booked on the strength of her TWO SONG web EP, the least-experienced musical guest in the show’s history, for starters.
NBC tried to have the post “taken down immediately,” but no such luck.
Mr. Williams comment was just one of many, many negative remarks about Lana’s performance. She got so much criticism and outright hate that precious little Daniel Radcliffe, the host of last week’s episode, even stepped up to defend her:
“It was unfortunate that people seemed to turn on her so quickly. I also think people are making it about things other than the performance,” he continued. “If you read what people are saying about her online, it’s all about her past and her family, and stuff that’s nobody else’s business.”
Little Daniel, always a gentleman! Speaking of gentlemen, Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg, along with Rashida Jones, also stepped forward to defend Lana:
“People gave her a lot of crap. I saw it online. BriWi,” he said when asked about Del Rey, referring to “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams’ assessment of the performance as “one of the worst outings in ‘SNL’ history.”
“But ‘Video Games’ is a great song,” Samberg added.
Also there to offer support was Samberg’s “Celeste and Jesse” co-star Rashida Jones, who doesn’t envy anybody who has to grace the pressure-filled “SNL” stage. “It’s a tough venue,” she said. “You’re not actually performing in front of an audience; you’re performing in front of cameras. But I didn’t see it, so I don’t know.”
“Yeah, I didn’t see it either, so I can’t really speak to it,” Samberg quickly added, followed by a long pause and an uncomfortable look.
Aww, thanks for trying, guys.
Probably the most important person to speak for Lana, however, is Lana herself. She hasn’t made any comments, as far as I can tell, since last weekend, but she give a pretty important little statement just a few days before that fateful Saturday night:
“You can’t expect too much from my show,” Del Rey said, explaining that her real fans are probably aware that she’s more of a songwriter and studio musician than performer and that she thinks people who come to see her show are really just there to hear the songs they already like.
“Sometimes I feel less nervous than other times,” she added. “I don’t love live television. The only tip I have is just pray and just hope that things work out.”
I was into Lana’s music, the little I’ve heard of it, before this whole debacle, and I still enjoy it, but I have to say that her performance was just weird. She looked so nervous, and it didn’t seem like she was in any way ready for that huge step in her career. I’m not going to say that she was awful or that she is awful, but she just wasn’t ready. But reading that little quote from Lana, where she admits that she can’t really sing live? That doesn’t sound too great. Isn’t being able to sing kind of important to being a singer?
Poor Lana del Rey? Poor Brian Williams!
It didn’t even really read like an earnest dig at Lana del Rey; it read like Williams was pitching a story (which, in the full email, he kind of was). Denton probably forwarded it to his Gawker staff out of excitement. Poor Brian Williams. I love him.
I love Lana so much, and people won’t even listen to her music, just bash her. It was too early for her to perform in SNL, but her music is brilliant and if people weren’t so hellbent on hating on all female artists, maybe she wouldn’t be so fucking nervous every time she is in front of a camera.
I was too curious after the post and gave it a listen. Okay maybe I’m tone deaf but she didn’t sound bad to me. Not too far from the samples I’ve heard on Amazon. What’s with the spreading of negativity anyway. Like when people don’t like someone etc. they have to take to the ‘airwaves?’
It’s fun bashing this seems out of place. She was fine. Fucking singing. What did people want? Her singing and swinging from a fucking trapeze too?
Sounds like she has a speech impediment and her timing is way off with the music.. listen to the lyrics.. she missed a few words of her song.. or swallowed them instead of singing them..
I thought it was a comedy skit at first with Kristen Wiig until I looked closer. I did love her dress, I but I thought she was awful. She sounded like she was so nervous that her throat would not function. I think the video game song was catchy, but she is not ready for performing in front of an audience. IMNSHO. :)
I just read a crazy Daily Mail story about how Lana Del Rey used to call herself Lizzy Grant. What’s up with that?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090216/When-Lana-Del-Rey-failed-singer-Lizzy-Grant.html