Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die” Lyrics Meaning

The song “Born to Die” is very-philosophical in its approach, which is one of the reasons why it has appealed to fans in the first place. It is based largely on the concept of romantic love, though Lana also delves into some general idea concerning life. Indeed the title is founded specifically on the concept of living life – and loving your partner – hard and fast, if you will. However, it also originated from Del Rey’s reflections on a subject as deep as mortality. But for the most part within the context of this song, the statement “we were born to die” can be taken to allude to the risk people take in romantic relationships. In other words, despite being deeply in love, the singer recognizes that the romance expounded on herein can indeed be fleeting. However, this realization does not ultimately prevent her from deciding to fall freely in love with the addressee anyway.

Thus the song begins with Lana obviously being single. At this time she is apparently contemplating whether or not to get romantically involved with the addressee. But she decides to do so while simultaneously acknowledging the risk as detailed above. Or another way of looking at the statement “born to die” in relation to this scenario is that since she knows she’s going to ultimately die anyway, then all things considered there’s no harm in taking the chance.

Second Verse

Meanwhile the second verse, which seems to be relayed after she has made the decision to go ahead and fall in love, has the songstress exclaiming that she was “lost but now… found”, “blind”, “confused”, “scared” and other such adjectives. And it has been postulated that she is speaking to her life in general (and not specifically this romance), which could very well be true. But the underlying sentiment is that via the relationship she is now undergoing with the addressee, she has achieved a sense of relief from these matters.

Lana Del Rey talks about meaning of “Born to Die”

And the understanding above is in conjunction with one of the explanations Lana has given about “Born to Die”. She has stated that it is based on how in real life she ‘felt really happy’ and in that regard ‘so different to the way she had felt before’ due to her romantic relationship with a particular guy. Her other explanation of the tune is that it is a “homage to true love and a tribute to living life on the wild side”.

So the “true love” part is what both of these descriptions have in common. In this song the singer has met a special someone, and she is recognizing the positive impact her relationship with him has had on her life. Meanwhile living life on the wild side can deemed to be the track’s philosophical aspect which, to some degree, extends outside the realm of romance. That is, as the title and chorus suggest, “we were born to die”. And in specific regards to said relationship, operating under this disposition has made the singer less inhibited in terms of loving her partner freely.

Facts about “Born to Die”

“Born to Die” is also the name of Lana Del Rey’s first album, which this song is featured on.

“Born to Die” was released as the second single from the album on 30 December 2011 (though it actually premiered, on BBC Radio 1, on 2 December 2011). The labels which brought it out are Interscope Records, Polydor Records and Stranger Records.

The music video to “Born to Die”, which featured American model Bradley Soileau as Lana Del Rey’s romantic interest, was directed by Yoann “Woodkid” Lemoine. And Woodkid based the video on a concept Lana herself had originated.

Moreover one of the main reasons Bradley Soileau was chosen to play the lead is because he reminded Del Rey of one of her former lovers, in fact the selfsame one she originally based “Born to Die” on.

The video was shot at the Place of Fontainebleau, which is a huge medievel castle in France. It should also be mentioned that the clip featured live tigers.

In a way you can say the music video was more celebrated than the song itself, as it won a 2012 UK Music Video Award in the category of Best Pop Video – International in addition to being nominated for an MTV Video Music Award.

However the track itself was also quite successful, going Gold in Australia, Canada, Denmark and Germany.

Indeed “Born to Die” charted in 20 countries all over the globe, which included peaking at number 9 on the UK Singles Chart.

There’s a line in this song which reads “let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain”. Originally the word “kiss” in that statement was rather “f*ck”, a term often used to describe hard sex. And whereas it is understandable why Lana was compelled to replace “f*ck” with “kiss”, it is said that she still uses the original phrase during live renditions of “Born to Die”.

Lana Del Rey wrote “Born to Die” alongside Justin Parker, who has worked on more than a few songs with the songstress.

And the track was produced by another of her frequent collaborators, Emile Haynie.