Blue Jeans

Lana Del Rey (real name Elizabeth Woolridge Grant) is an American singer-songwriter, whose music and sound has been compared to the likes of Adele and female singers from the 1950’s. “Blue Jeans” was the third track from her 2012 album: “Born to Die”.

“Blue Jeans” tells the tale of an ex-lover who was a “bad boy” (who Del Rey compares to James Dean in terms of looks) and how “he was fresh to death and sick as cancer”, meaning that she knew the relationship would be the end of her but didn’t mind. However, Del Rey is sure that she will love him “until the end of time”.

Del Rey told Dazed magazine in an interview with Courtney Love: “I have to say, that track has this guy Emile Haynie all over it. I remember ‘Blue Jeans’ was more of a Chris Isaak ballad and then I went in with him and it came out sounding the way it does now. I was like, ‘That’s the power of additional production.’ The song was on the radio in the UK, on Radio 1, and I remember thinking, ‘Fuck, that started off as a classical composition riff that I got from my composer friend, Dan Heath.’ It was, like, six chords that I started singing on.” The track has heavy hip hop influences but is still, at heart, a love ballad dedicated to an unrequited lover.

The music video was met with a lot of positive reaction, with it receiving nominations for awards at the UK Music Video Awards in 2012. Directed by Yoann Lemoine, a French director who had previously directed another music video for Del Rey (“Born to Die”), as well as directing other music videos for other female pop artists such as Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”. The video is filmed in black and white and echoes elements of film noir. It is set by the poolside of a typical American style house, with Del Rey in the pool with her lover, who is played by Bradley Soileau, who was also Del Rey’s love interest in her “Born to Die” music video. There are many hints to possible drowning and death in the video, as well as slow motion shots and many smoking scenes. The music video has almost 250 million views on YouTube, and over 1.2 million likes.

Release Date: 8th April 2012

Songwriter/s: Lana Del Rey, Emile Haynie & Dan Heath

Producer/s: Emile Haynie

Label/s: Interscope, Polydor, Stranger

Music Video Release Date: 12th March 2012

Music Video Director: Yoann Lemoine

Chart Rankings, Nominations and Certifications: The track received a Gold certification in both Italy and Canada, and went Silver in the UK. It also reached the charts in several countries, such as Belgium, the UK, the US, Spain, Italy, France, Greece, and Brazil. The music video was nominated for both “Best Pop Video – International” and “Best Cinematography In A Video” in the UK Music Video Awards.