Season 10 - Celebration Del Rey

Lana Del Rey

## Enter The Season

**Celebration Del Rey** is the name of the **tenth** season of Jaracza Music Getaway series. As a celebratory number, the season is focused again on *Elizabeth Grant,* known as *Lana Del Rey* (previously presented in *Współlokatorskie Lana Review & Re-Listen*). It is also the last season of the first era of the getaway, closing *The Genesis*.

## About The Artist

**Elizabeth Woolridge Grant** (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as **Lana Del Rey**, is an American singer-songwriter. Grant was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Robert England Grant Jr., a copywriter at Grey Group, and Patricia Ann "Pat" (née Hill), an account executive at the same organization. She has a younger sister, Caroline "Chuck" Grant, and a younger brother, Charlie Grant. She was raised Roman Catholic and is of Scottish descent. When she was one year old, the family moved to Lake Placid, New York. In Lake Placid, her father worked for a furniture company before becoming an entrepreneurial domain investor; her mother worked as a schoolteacher. There, she attended St. Agnes School in her elementary years and began singing in her church choir, where she was the cantor.

She attended the high school where her mother taught for one year, but when she was 14 or 15, her parents sent her to Kent School to get sober from alcoholism. Grant shared in an interview: "That's really why I got sent to boarding school aged 14—to get sober." Her uncle, an admissions officer at the school, secured her financial aid to attend. According to Grant, she had trouble making friends during much of her teenage and early adult years. She has said she was preoccupied with death from a young age, and its role in her feelings of anxiety and alienation.

After graduating from Kent School, she spent a year living on Long Island with her aunt and uncle and working as a waitress. During this time, Grant's uncle taught her to play guitar and she "realized [that she] could probably write a million songs with those six chords". Shortly after, she began writing songs and performing in nightclubs around the city under various names such as "Sparkle Jump Rope Queen" and "Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena". "I was always singing, but didn't plan on pursuing it seriously", she said. "When I got to New York City when I was eighteen, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn—I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point—and that was it."

In fall 2004, at age 19, Grant enrolled at Fordham University in The Bronx, New York City, where she majored in philosophy, with an emphasis on metaphysics. She has said she chose to study the subject because it "bridged the gap between God and science... I was interested in God and how technology could bring us closer to finding out where we came from and why."

In spring 2005, while still in college, Del Rey registered a seven-track extended play with the United States Copyright Office; the application title was *Rock Me Stable* with another title, *Young Like Me*, also listed. A second extended play, *From the End*, was also recorded under Del Rey's stage name at the time, May Jailer. Between 2005 and 2006, she recorded an acoustic album, *Sirens*, under the May Jailer project, which leaked on the internet in mid-2012.

> I wanted to be part of a high-class scene of musicians. It was half-inspired because I didn't have many friends, and I was hoping that I would meet people and fall in love and start a community around me, the way they used to do in the '60s.
>
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At her first public performance in 2006 for the Williamsburg Live Songwriting Competition, Del Rey met Van Wilson, an A&R representative for 5 Points Records, an independent label owned by David Nichtern. In 2007, while a senior at Fordham, she submitted a demo tape of acoustic tracks, *No Kung Fu*, to 5 Points, which offered her a recording contract for $10,000. She used the money to relocate to Manhattan Mobile Home Park, a trailer park in North Bergen, New Jersey, and began working with producer David Kahne. Nichtern recalled: "Our plan was to get it all organized and have a record to go and she'd be touring right after she graduated from college. Like a lot of artists, she morphed. When she first came to us, she was playing plunky little acoustic guitar, [had] sort of straight blonde hair, very cute young woman. A little bit dark, but very intelligent. We heard that. But she very quickly kept evolving."

Del Rey graduated from Fordham with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 2008, after which she released a three-track EP, *Kill Kill*, as Lizzy Grant, featuring production by Kahne. She explained: "David asked to work with me only a day after he got my demo. He is known as a producer with a lot of integrity and who had an interest in making music that wasn't just pop." Meanwhile, Del Rey was doing community outreach work for homeless individuals and drug addicts; she had become interested in community service work in college, when she "took a road trip across the country to paint and rebuild houses on a Native American reservation".

Of choosing a stage name for her feature debut album, she said: "I wanted a name I could shape the music towards. I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba—Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue." The name was also inspired by actress Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey sedan, produced and sold in Brazil in the 1980s. Initially she used the alternate spelling Lana Del *Ray*, the name under which her self-titled debut album was released in January 2010. Her father helped with the marketing of the album, which was available for purchase on iTunes for a brief period before being withdrawn in April 2010. Kahne and Nichtern both said that Del Rey bought the rights back from 5 Points, as she wanted it out of circulation to "stifle future opportunities to distribute it—an echo of rumors the action was part of a calculated strategy".

Del Rey met her managers, Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, three months after *Lana Del Ray* was released, and they helped her get out of her contract with 5 Points Records, where, in her opinion, "nothing was happening". Shortly after, she moved to London, and moved in with Mawson "for a few years". On September 1, 2010, Del Rey was featured by Mando Diao in its *MTV Unplugged* concert at Union Film-Studios in Berlin. The same year, she acted in a short film, *Poolside*, which she made with several friends.

## Background

The participants has together decided to celebrate the tenth season of Jaracza Music Getaway (series), by listening to the discography of Elizabeth Grant again, in the new, up-to-date formula. The season was promoted with a trailer, played straight after the end of Marina's gala. It consisted of a little introduction animation, Kama's poetry teasers for the weeks, reveal of the intro, as well as teaser of the first week - LANA DEL RAY A.K.A LIZZY GRANT.

## Did You Know That There's a Grand Lizzy Grant Gala Under 94th Apartment Door?

The participants have came together to celebrate the finale of the season on the gala called *Did You Know That There's a Grand Lizzy Grant Gala Under 94th Apartment Door?*. This is the first time since Season 8, where every participant was in the central base of the Jaracza Music Getaway series. The name of the gala was announced at the start of the season, in an introductionary message. Further discussions confirmed the dates planned for the gala, and a promotional poster was prepared.

For the final the participants were asked to prepare their answer to light-weighted categories, as well as album rankings, and additional information for each album. Moreover, at the end of the results of The Singles compilation, the participants got to know about another surprise held by the hosts - the ranking of Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass. For this reason, the participants were also asked to prepare their rankings, for a live-type of results in the second day of the gala.

While there was no official invitation of any previously known comitees, the gala was filled with various activities. In the first day the participants played the quiz revolving all 9 previous seasons of Jaracza Music Getaway. The winner of the Kahoot! was Werokicia who was the first to win an award - a pistachio chocolate bar.

Following that, the group has started watching the music videos. The first day was filled with music videos from A.K.A till Lust For Life era. The gala was revolutionary in a way, that all music videos were watched locally to gain the best quality possible and avoid potential problems due to the internet issues. Additionally, the thoughts of the participants were played in-between the music videos from given era. This was claimed a successful approach, as it was breaking the dullness of the constant music videos watching, and rather provided more interaction between the participants. In the first day, there were 9th, 8th and 7th places revealed only, as well as the answers to the four light-weighted categories. Additionally, there was Guess The Lyrics activity played, where participants were asked to fill the missing gaps of the lyrics, tell the song based on lyric, as well as translate the foreign language lyrics that appear in Lana's songs. The winner of the activity was Domcia, with Jules and Eric falling ex aequo in the 2nd place. The day has finished with the secret video message from The Group of Revolt.

The second day of the gala was supposed to start with the live results of Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass, however none of the participants prepared their ranking for this day. Instead, a live listening and discussion was conducted, and participants were asked to send their results in the following week. The activity of listening to the audiobook has been finished with a Associations game, where each participant had to give 3 words associated to a song, that the other players needed to guess the song by. The activity was won by Eric. After the activity the participants resumed watching the music videos from the Norman Fucking Rockwell! era. The participants were shown the 6th place, and after the COTCC era music videos, a presentation by Kama was shown, that was proving why Lana's Chemtrails Over The Country Club and Taylor Swift's reputation are sister albums.

[tu dam slajdy]

The participants followed into watching the rest of music videos, as well as a short special live performance of A&W recorded on the BBC's Glastonbury. The last four places were shown consecutively one after another. The participants had their emotions at high level, as the host Wiciu was specially pausing to make the waiting in between even longer. After the 1st place the participants had all-together ranking revealed, with *Say Yes To Heaven* playing in the background. There were also previous album ranking results shown, with symbols:
"**^**" - showing that the album is now ranked higher by this participant,
"**\***" - showing that the album is now ranked lower by this participant.

The second half of the song was spent on end-credits. After these, the second video message from the Group of Revolt has played, revealing the new era of the series, as well as the next season.

The materials played on the gala have been montaged together and put into collectional videos:

**Results and Thoughts** - Each place reveal, with thoughts for that album in the alphabetical order of the participants. It also includes the end credits.

**Eras Artwork** - Short introductionary logo videos followed by the montage of music videos from that era to the winning song of each era montaged in. It is played in the order of release.

**Story Line - The Rebellion** - Both storyline videos, followed by the Season 11 trailer prepared by Werokicia.

The season was officially finished a week after gala, after the results of Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass were sent.