Lana Del Rey is as versatile a songwriter as she is a performer. The pop superstar has not only written many of her own hits like “Summertime Sadness” and “Young and Beautiful,” she’s also equipped to help her peers in the songwriting process.
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The singer’s whimsical voice shines through not just in her recordings, but also in the songs she writes. From fellow superstars to her producers, check out four songs you didn’t know Del Rey wrote.
1. “Snow on the Beach” by Taylor Swift ft. Lana Del Rey
Written by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Jack Antonoff
Lana Del Rey is not only a featured vocalist on “Snow on the Beach,” she also helped Taylor Swift and frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff write the lyrics. The collaboration was a long time coming, as Swift had referred to Del Rey in 2019 as “the most influential artist in pop music.”
“I had no idea I was the only feature [on that song],” Del Rey told Billboard about her contribution to “Snow.” “Had I known, I would have sung the entire second verse like she wanted. My job as a feature on a big artist’s album is to make sure I help add to the production of the song, so I was more focused on the production.”
Though it wasn’t officially released as a single, the song hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made history as the most-streamed song on its opening day for a female collaboration in the history of Spotify, amassing 15 million streams in a single day.
2. “Party Monster” by The Weeknd
Written by The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey, Benjamin Diehl, Martin McKinney and Ahmad Balshe
Lana Del Rey proved to be a “Party Monster” when she teamed up with The Weeknd, Benjamin Diehl, Martin McKinney and Ahmad Balshe to pen this track off The Weeknd’s groundbreaking 2016 album, Starboy. The hip-hop-leaning track features subtle background vocals from Del Rey as The Weeknd sings, Got up, thank the Lord for the day/Woke up by a girl, I don’t even know her name/Bitches in my new spot, crowdin’ up my space/Had to check the safe, check the dresser for my chains.
“Me and Lana have been friends for a long time,” The Weeknd claimed in an interview with Pitchfork. “I’ve inspired her. She’s inspired me. I feel like we’ve always been talking to each other through our music. She is the girl in my music, and I am the guy in her music.” Del Rey is also a guest vocalist and co-writer on “Stargirl Interlude” off Starboy.
[RELATED: 7 of Lana Del Rey’s Most Poetic Lyrics]
3. “Don’t Go Dark” by Bleachers
Written by Lana Del Rey and Jack Antonoff
While Jack Antonoff has been one of Del Rey’s longtime co-writers and producers, they turned the tables when she contributed to Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, the third album Antonoff created under his alter ego, Bleachers. The synthesizer-heavy track is supported by intimate lyrics like, And you’re waitin’ to be saved but ain’t nobody comin’/It’s the same party trick/You dream until you’re running/Do what you want, just don’t go dark on me. She was also a featured guest on another deep cut, “Secret Life.”
“I wasn’t writing when I met him…he was like, ‘I know I have good stuff for you,’ which no one ever says because I usually bring my stuff to them,” Del Rey recalled in a 2019 interview about when she met Antonoff in 2011. Antonoff is one of the producers of Del Rey’s critically acclaimed 2019 album, Norman Fucking Rockwell! and 2021 follow-up, Chemtrails over the Country Club.
4. “Wait for Life” by Emile Haynie
Written by Lana Del Rey, Emile Haynie and Thomas Bartlett
Like with Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey also paid it forward when one of her influential collaborators, Emile Haynie, released his 2015 album, We Fall. Three years after Haynie helped produce Del Rey’s biggest hit, “Summertime Sadness,” in 2012, Del Rey returned the favor by being a co-writer and featured vocalist on a track off Haynie’s debut album. “Wait for Life” finds Del Rey on lead vocals, her whispy voice shining as she croons over the cinematic melody, But it never comes around/And I can’t hear you call/And I can’t hear me shout/I wait for it to break/But it never comes around/Don’t know me/I’m lonely.
Photo by Matthew Baker/Getty Images for ABA
