Lana Del Rey envisioned a Southern California dream world constructed out of sad girls and bad boys, manufactured melancholy, and genuine glamour, and then she came to embody this fantasy. At first, her stylized noir-pop garnered skeptical sneers -- the rise of her 2012 debut, Born to Die, was impeded by a tentative live debut on Saturday Night Live -- but Del Rey proved to be tougher than her soft exterior suggested. Following a hit remix of her single "Summertime Sadness," she steadily gained not only popularity but respect; her second album, 2014's Ultraviolence, received positive reviews to accompany her sales, and her imitators (of which there were many) became merely an alluring accessory. With subsequent albums like 2020's Grammy-nominated Norman Fucking Rockwell, Del Rey grew more and more into ideal she intended to be: a damaged torch singer designed as the tragic romantic icon for her age.

Lana Del Rey's journey to this stardom was a long, steady climb. Born as 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