Those who looked to the web for answers soon found out that Del Rey had plenty of buzz online: the music video for “Video Games” had 20 million views on YouTube at the time. The mainstream public paid attention to her for the first time because of the surprisingly sharp backlash, so the question on everyone’s mind, then, was how such a subpar performer landed a gig on SNL. It’s my thing, I stand still and sing sad songs.” But there’s a perfectly good explanation for that.” “I think people thought I was stiff, distant, and weird. Seth Meyers, the news anchor interviewing her in the skit, asks her, “Why do you think you made people so angry?” In an episode three weeks later, SNL captured both the eccentricity of the performance and the public reaction to it in a Weekend Update skit: the singer, played by Kristin Wiig, says, “Based on the public’s response, I must have clubbed a baby seal while singing the Taliban national anthem.” (Juliette Lewis: “Wow, watching this ‘singer’ on SNL is like watching a 12-year-old in their bedroom when they’re pretending to sing and perform.”) In an email, NBC news anchor Brian Williams wrote, “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.” A headline on read, “Lana Del Rey Single-Handedly Ruins SNL, Music for Everybody,” and the Twitterverse exploded in criticism. I remember watching it on my living room television, asking, “Who is this again?” and then changing to another channel until it was over. She performed as though she were singing to herself or a mirror, and to viewers nationwide, it was disengaging, just bad. That in combination with the slow, underwhelming nature of the song made for a boring four minutes. In a white flower-lace dress, the statuesque singer awkwardly swayed back and forth on stage, occasionally adjusting her hair, while moaning in a low, unnatural voice. To put it simply, the performance was strange. Host Daniel Radcliffe announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Lana Del Rey.”

Most watchers, myself included, had never seen this girl before. It was a brunette with a long pretty doll face, a dainty nose, and big pouting lips.

It certainly wasn’t a big-name radio artist. On January 14, 2012, the image of the Saturday Night Live musical guest appeared on-screen as usual. The Anti-Indie: Lana Del Rey’s Polarizing Rise to Stardom

Lana del rey controversy snl