photo cred | Karim Sadli

When Lana Del Rey took to the Saturday Night Live stage last week for her performance debut, the world had high hopes. Unfortunately, those hopes got shattered real quick. The performance was uncomfortable. The critics were ruthless. I felt so bad for the poor girl! I started giving her the benefit of the doubt though – because there weren’t too many people on her side after that. Maybe that’s just how she performs! She does he own thing, you know? I thought if I left it at that, then there would be no reason for any other explanation.

Well to address the criticism, Lana Del Rey hit back with comments that I wish she just wouldn’t.

• “I think like, the people who have been listening to my music for a little while know that I’m more of a writer and, like, a studio singer. So I think if you come to the show, you just come to hear the songs on the record that you might like.”
• “Sometimes I feel less nervous than other times. I don’t love live television. The only tip I have is just pray and just hope that things work out.”
• “You can’t expect too much from my show.”

This raises some concerns with me.

Don’t like live television? Why go on a show known for their live performances? I’m not even sure if I have ever heard a band or a musician say basically that they would rather be heard on a record and not known for being a performer. Bands and musicians LOVE performances. They live for it. It’s the performance that help bring that music from the record to life – it gives fans the opportunity to become a part of a unique one-of-a-kind experience.

Miss Lana Del Rey, your performance on Saturday Night Live is not something that I have an issue with, but I do have a problem with your statements. I read this morning that you will begin a new tour in 2012 that includes 15 cities and a venue capacity of 900. May I suggest to you that instead of actually performing at these venues, that you save yourself the trouble and bring out a big ‘ol record player out on stage with you to play your new record to those 900 people. I mean, you didn’t want them to expect much, right?

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