The five best Lana Del Rey collaborations
When Lana Del Rey released her first three major label studio albums, there were no featured artists to be found. Yet, in 2017, her album Lust For Life arrived with vocal appearances from artists as varied as Stevie Nicks and Playboi Carti. It was a change from what listeners were used to, but it wasn’t her first time inviting other people to her songs.
The musician had previously collaborated with musicians like Smiler, Theophilus London and A$AP Rocky during the early days of her career, recording songs that never got an official release. Evidently, Del Rey enjoys working with other artists, having invited artists like Zella Day, Weyes Blood, Tommy Genesis, Jack Antonoff, Father John Misty, and The Weeknd, among others, into her sonic world since the release of Lust for Life.
Del Rey has also sung on tracks by many popular artists, from Bobby Womack and Cat Power to Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber – her versatility is seemingly endless. But which Del Rey collaborations are the best? We’ve picked out five tracks that Del Rey has performed on with other musicians, and to keep things easier, we’ve only included songs that have been officially released.
So, from Del Rey’s stunning duet with John Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon to her unforgettable feature on The Weeknd’s album Starboy, here are the five best Lana Del Rey collaborations.
The five best Lana Del Rey collaborations:
‘Tomorrow Never Came’ – Sean Ono Lennon
The Beatles are a big inspiration for Del Rey, who references ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ in her song ‘Bartender’. Thus, she must have been incredibly excited to collaborate with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, for the song ‘Tomorrow Never Came’ from Lust For Life. The name a play on The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, the song makes a few little nods to Ono Lennon’s impressive family history. Del Rey sings, “And I could put on the radio/ To our favourite song/ Lennon and Yoko/ We would play all day long/ ‘Isn’t life crazy?’, I said/ Now that I’m singing with Sean.”
The lyrics run the risk of being a little corny, but in the context of the melancholic song, it works. Ono Lennon’s distinctive voice fits nicely with Del Rey’s, with the pair singing about a romantic relationship that is not working out. “You said you’d love me like no tomorrow/ I guess tomorrow never came,” they sing bittersweetly. It’s a beautiful track and one that is surprisingly underrated in Del Rey’s discography.
‘Summer Bummer’ – A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti
It wouldn’t be a list of Del Rey’s best collaborations if it didn’t feature A$AP Rocky. The rapper first performed with the singer on the unreleased track ‘Ridin’ before starring as the President in Del Rey’s ‘National Anthem’ video, in which they recreated the assassination of JFK. However, their first released songs together came on the collab-heavy album Lust For Life, which features A$AP Rocky on ‘Groupie Love’ and ‘Summer Bummer’.
It’s the latter that we’d argue is the greatest, with Del Rey turning her attention to a dark trap-inspired beat with Playboi Carti’s adlibs adding texture to the background. While Del Rey encourages an “undercover” romance, the rapper chimes in and requests they “quit the playin’.” It’s a playful and sexy song, with the highlight being Del Rey’s angelic backing vocals that swirl in the background of the final third of the track.
‘Stargirl Interlude’ – The Weeknd
Del Rey first collaborated with The Weeknd in 2015 when she featured on the song ‘Prisoner’ from his album Beauty Behind the Madness. He would go on to appear on the song ‘Lust for Life’ from her album of the same name in 2017, but the year before, Del Rey could be heard on his track ‘Stargirl Interlude’, taken from his acclaimed record Starboy. She takes most of the vocal duties here, singing sexually charged lyrics like “Scratching counter tops, I was screaming/ My back arched like a cat.”
As the song builds, Del Rey’s vocals reach a higher, dreamier pitch before The Weeknd chimes in with a few repeated lines, leading the song to fade out. It’s criminally short at less than two minutes long, and it’s likely you’ll find yourself playing it on repeat so that you can immerse yourself in the seductive atmosphere of the track for much longer.
‘Let The Light In’ – Father John Misty
Father John Misty, real name Josh Tillman, has worked with Del Rey several times, appearing as a Charles Manson-esque figure in her music video for ‘Freak’ back in 2016. However, following Del Rey’s appearance on his song ‘Buddy’s Rendezvous’ in 2022, the pair duetted on ‘Let The Light In’ from the album Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. It’s one of the best songs on the record, with Del Rey and Tillman’s voices working perfectly together as they sing of a romantic affair.
The pair are close friends, with Misty supporting the singer during her London headline show in 2023, although they did not perform together. Del Rey has even referenced the singer in several of her songs, singing “fear fun” – the name of his debut album – in ‘Venice Bitch’, and referencing the time she watched him perform in ‘Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind’.
‘Dealer’ – Miles Kane
When rumours of a collaborative album between Del Rey and The Last Shadow Puppets – the side project of Miles Kane and Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner – emerged, a certain intersection of the internet went wild. Sadly, the album never came to be, but the track ‘Dealer’, written in collaboration with TLSP’s Zachary Dawes and Kane (and the band’s live members Loren Humphrey and Tyler Parkford) made it onto Del Rey’s 2021 album Blue Banisters. Turner might be absent, but Kane’s vocals shine alongside Del Rey’s, and it’s one of the record’s most unforgettable moments.
Kane takes charge of the verses, while Del Rey gives an unrestrained delivery on the choruses, singing, “I don’t wanna live/ I don’t wanna give you nothing” and “Why can’t you be good for something?”. It’s one of her most compelling vocal performances, and it sits in perfect opposition with the mellowed instrumentals, led by a hazy beat and organ.
