Pop star Lana Del Rey responded to questions surrounding her personal political leanings in an interview with the New York Times and said that she is “really not more of a liberal than I am a Republican.”
The “Summertime Sadness” star dropped her fifth album Norman Fucking Rockwell! Friday and spoke to the New York Times about one of her more controversial lyrics in “The Greatest” — “Kanye West is blond and gone” – in the interview published Wednesday.
The Times mentioned the singer’s past decision to call out West’s support of President Trump and asked, “Have you heard anything in response?”
“I don’t want to elicit a response,” Del Rey said.
“You never feel better for having written something like that. But Kanye just means so much to us. And by the way, I’m grateful to be in a country where everyone can have their own political views,” she said before admitting that she does “not necessarily identify as a liberal.”
“I’m really not more of a liberal than I am a Republican — I’m in the middle,” the singer explained. “But it was more like the mood and the vibe around, Yo, this man is the greatest! Really? The greatest? It hurt me. Did I have to say anything? No. But it’s more just a line that represents a lot of things.”
Del Rey made waves earlier this month after dropping partial lyrics of her song “Looking for America” as a response to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
“Now I know I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to be so excuse me for having an opinion — but in light of all of the mass shootings and the back to back shootings in the last couple of days which really affected me on a cellular level I just wanted to post this video,” she wrote to her nearly 14 million followers on Instagram.
The lyrics read in part, “I’m still looking for my own version of America/ One without the gun, where the flag can freely fly/ No bombs in the sky/ Only fireworks when you and I collide/ It’s just a dream I had in mind.”
The Grammy nominee actively wondered if it “is it the end of an era? Is it the end of America?” in her 2017 album Lust for Life.