Lana Del Rey On Her ‘SNL’ Performance: “I Actually Felt Good About It”

Becky Bain | January 30, 2012 4:12 pm

It was only a matter of time before someone asked Lana Del Rey specifically about her much-maligned performance on Saturday Night Live. And since the lady has an album to promote, she pretty much has no choice but to discuss it. “I actually felt good about it,” she told Rolling Stone a few days after her SNL gig. “I thought I looked beautiful and sang fine.” (Well, we can all agree she looked beautiful, right?) Check out excerpts from her RS interview below.

How did it feel to sing on live TV? It felt OK. The cast and crew said they loved it. I know some people didn’t like it, but that’s just the way I perform, and my fans know that. Are you comfortable onstage? I’m nervous. I’m not a natural performer or exhibitionist. When I was younger, I hated the focus, and it made me feel strange. The backlash to that performance has been pretty harsh. There’s backlash about everything I do. It’s nothing new. When I walk outside, people have something to say about it. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was absolutely excellent. People don’t have anything nice to say about this project. I’m sure that’s why you’re writing about it. Have I given you the impression that I don’t like your music? I do! Especially the song “Radio.” No. I don’t know how you feel about it. It’s not easy to gauge how people feel about it. I don’t really want to go into it. But thank you, I love “Radio” too.

Lana’s interviewer, Austin Scaggs, certainly doesn’t share the opinion of Rolling Stone‘s reviewer Rob Sheffield, who (as we highlighted in our Review Revue of Lana’s album) gave the LP two stars: “Her voice is pinched and prim, and her song doctors need to go the fuck back to med school. As any fan of Madonna, Britney or Steely Dan could tell you, lyrics about the perils of seduction work better when attached to seductive tunes.”

Maybe they’ll change their opinion of Lana when they get a listen to the re-release of her debut album?

Read the whole interview in the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone, on newsstands February 16.

[Via Rolling Stone]

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