The singer’s cryptic Tweet is confirmed as a reference to occult rituals
Steven Kline

12:31 27th February 2017

Lana Del Rey has Tweeted her support for a series of occult rituals being held in an attempt to topple Donald Trump.

“At the stroke of midnight Feb 24, March 26, April 24, May 23. Ingredients can be found online” Del Rey wrote, referencing dates which coincide with waning crescent moon ritual dates. Occult members have previously stated that ‘binding rituals’ aimed at bringing down Donald Trump are set to be held on these dates, which are associated by occult practitioners with times to remove stress from your life.

The ingredients in question have been revealed as a bowl of water, a stub of an orange candle, a Tower tarot card and an unflattering picture of Donald Trump. A representative of Del Rey confirmed to Pitchfork that her Tweet was in reference to the rituals.

Azealia Banks reacted angrily to Del Rey’s suggestion, believing that the plan could backfire. “Leave that motherfucker alone,” she wrote. “You witches are only going to make Trump stronger. *rolls eye* hashtag. White girl magic… No shade I will go toe to toe with these white witches because Hillary Clinton losing was a major loss for white feminism.”

An alt-right figure has also claimed that Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl half time show was a form of witchcraft. “They say she’s going to stand on top of the stadium, ruling over everyone with drones everywhere, surveilling everyone in a big swarm,” wrote InfoWars founder Alex Jones ahead of the performance. “To just condition them to say ‘I am the Godess of Satan’ ruling over them with the rise of the robots in a ritual of lesser magic.”

 

  • From her very first, breakout single 'Video Games' to last week's 'High By The Beach', here's every Lana Del Rey single ranked from worst to best.

  • 16. 'Burning Desire': Channeling sultry lounge singer vibes, 'Burning Desire' layers two versions of the same melody over each other, slightly staggered, and the result is disorienting and not entirely effective. It's also all on pretty much one note, but Del Rey's vocal charisma means you just about forgive her.

  • 15. 'Ride': We'll put aside the problematic Native American headdress she wears in the video, and the three and a half minute spoken word introduction (though some of the lyrics in that are truly beautiful). After a sultry, gravelly verse and bridge, 'Ride' trips itself up by resorting to a pleasant, but ultimately generic and forgettable chorus.

  • 14. 'Dark Paradise': This is one of Del Rey's most upbeat, major key singles, and it's slightly jarring as a result. There's something unconvincing about its melody, and borderline comic about the refrain, "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, that's how you sang it." Its saving grace, though, is an infectious bridge that pops up partway through.

  • 13. 'Blue Velvet': Though its heavy use in a prominent advertising campaign threatened to dull the effect somewhat, this cover of the 1950s "doleful prom anthem" is Del Rey at her dolorous best. Bonus points for not pulling a "no homo" and changing the gender pronouns for no reason.

  • 12. 'National Anthem': Stepping Del Rey's faux-submissive persona up a notch with a sly wink to camera, 'National Anthem' begins as a fawning love song, before gleefully exposing its narrator's muddied motives: "He said to be cool but I'm already coolest / I said to get real, 'Don't you know who you're dealing with? Um, do you think you'll buy me lots of diamonds?'"

  • 11. 'Once Upon A Dream': Written for the soundtrack for Maleficent - the dark, live-action reimagining of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, which portrays the story from the perspective of the antagonist, Maleficient - Del Rey has taken her brief and run with it, creating a woozy, sinister lullaby.

  • 10. 'Ultraviolence': Borrowing a term from Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, as well a lyric from a 1963 Crystals song ("He hit me and it felt like a kiss") the album's title track manages to rhyme "violins" with "violence" and get away with it.

  • 9. 'High By The Beach': It's hard to talk about this without going off on a tangent about the incredible music video. Just when you think you've settled into the format - Del Rey writhing around on the bed and sprawling herself across the walls while a paparrazzi helicopter photographs her - she grabs a huge great rifle out of a guitar case and shoots it down in a ball of flames. All she wanted to do was get high by the beach.

  • 8. 'Video Games': From its eery, off-kilter harp introduction, it's not difficult to tell why 'Video Games' launched Lana Del Rey, with very little warning, into the world's consciousness. It's Del Rey at her languid, minimalist best, with a killer pop hook tying everything together. Although we have to say, the song's subject sounds like a scrub of the highest order.

  • 7. 'Shades Of Cool': She might be oft-praised for her low-pitched, sultry vocals, but Del Rey's never been particularly known for her range. In 'Shades Of Cool' though, her voice soars up and down the scale with an ease and purity we've never quite seen for her before.

  • 6. 'Born To Die': After a few breaths of orchestral cinematics, the song swerves instead towards hip hop samples and a glitchy drum beat, as Del Rey croons about the juxtapositions of love: "Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain / You like your girls insane /Choose your last words / This is the last time /Cause you and I, we were born to die."

  • 5. 'Summertime Sadness': One of Del Rey's richest, both musically and thematically, singles. Her voice has a little more heft behind it, and oozes and catches like syrup laced with cyanide. Its Cedric Gervais remix - Del Rey's highest charting release to date - manages to make the song club-appropriate without sacrificing its melody or essence.

  • 4. 'West Coast': As the first song revealed from Del Rey's second album, Ultraviolence, 'West Coast' revelled in taking fans by surprise. It's dreamy, beach pop, with the first outing of the scuzzy guitars that dominate the album, and the tempo suddenly drops just as you think it's going to speed up. It's as if the song itself has just taken a massive hit from a bong as it languishes by the beach.

  • 3. 'Young and Beautiful': Del Rey's contribution to Baz Luhrmann's 2013 Great Gatsby, this song manages to be both boldly dramatic and cinematic whilst still dripping with vulnerability. She doesn't pause for a breath between "Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?" and "I know you will, I know that you will" - as if to hesitate will betray her own uncertainty. It's an absolute triumph of a song.

  • 2. 'Blue Jeans': Lyrically, 'Blue Jeans' manages to be both touching and sinister, sweetly innocent and darkly disturbing: "You're so fresh to death and sick as ca-ca-cancer," she sings before insisting, in the song's chorus, "I love you more / Than those bitches before / Say you'll remember." It could be the words of either a lovesick romantic or a deranged stalker. Perhaps both.

  • 1. 'Brooklyn Baby': Aside from a slightly eye-rolling passion for shoehorning in references to beat poetry, 'Brooklyn Baby' is a stunning, sprawling ballad that meanders between Arabic scale falsetto and the deep, gravelly vocals for which Del Rey has made a name: "They judge me like a picture book / By the colours, like they forgot to read," she sings, remorsefully. Her most concise, moving effort to date.


Photo: Press