“It’s a song that I love, because I didn’t compromise when I wrote it at all. I wrote exactly what I felt, and put a melody to it that was perfect for the words”: The making of Lana Del Rey’s classic sleeper hit

Lana Del Rey.

In January 2012, as she embarked on press interviews in support of her hugely-anticipated second studio album Born To Die, Lana Del Rey was asked by presenter Eoghan McDermott of XFM radio which song she would listen to if the world was ending tomorrow and she could only listen to one of the album’s tracks.

“I would say, probably hands down, Summertime Sadness,” replied the 26-year-old Del Rey, who up until that point had been living at the house of one of her managers in London’s East End. “It’s just my favourite. It’s about nothing but I like to put it on in the car, driving along by the ocean. It’s just heaven for me. I absolutely love it.”