Lana Del Rey Says 'It's Amazing Female Singer-Songwriters Have the Freedom to Write About Absolutely Whatever They Want'

Lana Del Rey was honored with the Special International Award Thursday at the 2024 Ivor Novello Awards Thursday (May 23) in London.

The "Video Games" singer used the occasion to talk about female songwriters and how she was criticized early in her career for the themes she focused on in her songs.

"When I started, I think a lot of things were written about how the songs were sort of navel-gazing and just about me and my experience with challenging relationships," she recalled.

"Now I think what we've seen is that those songs were not written about a small microcosm of people and women. We're seeing a huge amount of things written about difficult relationships," Del Rey continued. "And even when COVID began, the second epidemic in the United States was interpersonal relationships violence, it increased by 300%. So, I just think it's amazing that female singer-songwriters have the freedom to write about absolutely whatever they want," she said, as the crowd applauded.

"It was always nerve-racking to think that writing about your relationships were maybe something that could be seen as self-gratuitous, feigning vulnerability," Del Rey added. "I heard that a lot. But I mean it's a very vulnerable thing, not just for women. But for men. I've learned so much in the last few years from my peers about having a challenging time in music."

Del Rey will also soon be honored with another award. The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) announced on Thursday (May 23) that she'll be this year's recipient of the NMPA Songwriter Icon Award. The honor will be presented on June 12 in New York City at the organization's annual meeting.

Other big winners at the Ivor Novello Awards included Raye, Bruce Springsteen, Bernie Taupin and KT Tunstall.

The Songwriter of the Year With Amazon Music award went to Raye, who is known in the U.S. as a songwriter for Beyoncé, John Legend and others, but is a star in the U.K., having won six Brit Awards in one night back in March.

Springsteen was honored with the Fellowship of The Ivors Academy award, the highest honor from the organization.

Taupin, Elton John's longtime songwriting partner, was honored with the Ivor Novello for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. It's the ninth award he's received from the organization.

Tunstall picked up the Outstanding Song Collection for PRS for Music award.