Into The Music
Lana Del Rey is currently at war with a drag brunch. This is where we are.
On Sunday, a venue called Lore Atlanta is hosting an “Ethel vs. Lana” themed drag brunch, pitting Team Del Rey against Team Ethel Cain. Lore announced the event on Instagram last week. Del Rey found out, commented “Sadly, none of this is funny. She’s abusive and that’s all there is to it,” and then apparently sent a direct message to the venue reading simply: “Fuck you.”
Lore seems to have blocked Del Rey after this exchange. The comment is no longer visible on their post. The DM screenshot, however, has been circulating widely.
Some context: Del Rey launched a one-sided public feud with Ethel Cain last August, when she posted a snippet of what appeared to be a diss track. The lyric audible in that clip was “Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post.” Cain has not publicly responded to any of this. Del Rey’s specific grievances against Cain remain opaque to most observers, though the internet has speculated at length.
Annie Agurl, one of the drag performers booked for the brunch, addressed the situation on her Instagram story Saturday night, noting that the event was her idea and that she had received DMs from Del Rey fans encouraging her to “unalive” herself after the story broke. Agurl’s response was, reasonably, not sympathetic to the people sending those messages.
Separately, Del Rey recently DM’d Stereogum “shut up” after they featured her in a meme carousel. Their editor has chosen to interpret this as “shut up” in a shocked, appreciative sense. That interpretation seems optimistic.
The broader picture here is that Del Rey has been on a fairly sustained campaign of online confrontation in recent months – not with anyone in particular but with the general concept of being written about, discussed, or used as reference material without her approval. This is, of course, an entirely unwinnable battle for someone at her level of fame, but that does not appear to be slowing her down.
What makes this specific episode notable is less the drama itself and more what it reveals about how Del Rey experiences her own cultural presence. She is one of the most influential artists of the last 15 years. Ethel Cain, whether Del Rey likes it or not, is one of the clearest examples of that influence taking root and growing into something independent and meaningful. The feud, such as it is, seems to stem from Del Rey wanting that acknowledgment to look different than it does – which is, to be fair, a very human thing to want.
The drag brunch will reportedly proceed as scheduled. Tickets are still available.
Okay wait , Lana Del Rey sending ‘Fuck You’ to a drag brunch venue over an Ethel Cain event?? This is genuinely unhinged and I cannot look away. The crossover between Lana stans and Ethel stans was already complicated but this just turned it into a whole THING. Somebody’s publicist is earning their money today.
In my experience the most dramatic feuds always happen in the most unexpected places , and a drag brunch! My polka friends would have settled this with a good mazurka and some pierogi. But genuinely, the idea that an artist can just DM a small venue ‘fuck you’ and it becomes international news is both wild and fascinating to me. Music communities are something else.
Growing up between two cultures, you learn early that influence is complicated , it’s not ownership, it’s conversation. Ethel Cain clearly absorbed something from Lana’s aesthetic, but she’s also doing something distinctly her own with Southern gothic, with religion, with a very specific American darkness that Lana doesn’t inhabit the same way. The ‘vs’ framing of the brunch is playful, not a verdict. What bothers me most about Lana’s reaction is that it misreads the love in it , this is a community celebrating both artists, finding the tension between them generative, not threatening.
I’m going to be honest , I had to have my granddaughter explain to me who both of these women are, and once she did I still wasn’t entirely sure I followed the story. What I can tell you is that in my day, when Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf had their differences, it stayed between them and the bandstand. The idea that a musician would reach out to a venue directly over a tribute event would have been unthinkable. Times change, I suppose, though I’m not convinced they always change for the better.
the drama is giving main stage energy but nobody asked for this set.
lana sending ‘fuck you’ to a drag bar over an ethel cain brunch is genuinely the most chaotic thing she’s done in years and i’m kind of here for it
Celebrity conflict as content cycle. The actual music of either artist has nothing to do with any of this.
What strikes me is how much passion Lana’s music has always carried , that ache, that longing. And yet here we are, watching it spill sideways into something so small. Ethel Cain has her own kind of wounded beauty. These two artists deserve better than to be pitted against each other in a drag bar dispute.
ok the ‘fuck you’ to a drag bar over an Ethel Cain brunch is sending me ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ like the chaotic energy of this is so specifically a 2026 thing?? Lana has been in her main character era for SO long but this is genuinely next level unhinged and I’m not even mad I’m just in awe. also the Ethel Cain fans are going to have a field day with this for at least three weeks minimum 💀
The thing that’s actually interesting here, if you strip away the chaos, is what it reveals about how Lana positions herself relative to the artists she’s influenced. Ethel Cain has absorbed a lot of the Lana DNA , the gothic Americana, the long-form suffering as aesthetic , and now there’s a tension there. It’s a bit like how Thom Yorke always seemed vaguely uncomfortable when bands he’d clearly influenced started getting compared to Radiohead. Derivation is complicated when the original artist is still active. The ‘fuck you’ is an inelegant way to work through that, but the underlying anxiety is real.
Okay but a drag bar hosting an Ethel Cain vs Lana brunch is genuinely inspired programming and I’m upset it’s not happening in Cape Town because I would be THERE 🙌 The fact that Lana responded personally makes the whole thing so much richer. You can’t buy that kind of energy.
What’s interesting to me as a producer watching this unfold is that the “Ethel vs Lana” brunch concept isn’t really about competition , it’s the market correctly identifying two distinct emotional archetypes that coexist in the same fan ecosystem. Both artists trade in a very specific kind of melancholic feminine mythology. The drag bar saw that clearly. Lana apparently didn’t. The real story here is that fan communities build their own culture around your music whether you sanction it or not, and how an artist responds to that tells you a lot about their relationship with their audience.
Look, I respect Lana’s catalog , she’s got real songwriting chops , but mate, messaging a drag bar with ‘fuck you’ over a brunch theme?? Ethel Cain’s guitar-drenched, brooding sound clearly draws from the same well, and that’s a COMPLIMENT to Lana’s influence. Clapton influenced a whole generation and he didn’t send cease-and-desist energy to every blues bar doing a tribute night. Let the kids love what they love!
As a singer-songwriter myself, I have to tip my hat to Lana Del Rey. Sure, she’s got a prickly side, but when it comes to the music, the woman knows what she’s doing. There’s an honesty and rawness to her craft that really resonates with me. This whole ‘Ethel Cain vs Lana’ business might make for juicy gossip, but at the end of the day, it’s the songs that matter. And Lana’s got a catalog full of ’em. I reckon if she and Ethel put aside their differences and got in a room together, they might just come up with something magical. Music has a way of bringing people together, even when the rest of the world tries to divide us.
Look, I get that the whole ‘Ethel Cain vs Lana Del Rey’ thing is the talk of the town right now, but as an audiophile, I can’t help but wonder – what about the music itself? Lana’s got a rich, atmospheric sound that’s just perfect for vinyl, all warm analog tones and vintage crackle. And from what I’ve heard of Ethel Cain, she’s got a similar cinematic, textural quality to her production. Imagine the two of them collaborating on an album – the sonic possibilities would be endless! I’d be first in line to snag a limited edition double LP of that. At the end of the day, that’s what really matters, isn’t it? The craft, the artistry, the sound. All this other drama is just noise.