Ethel Cain’s and Lana Del Rey’s feud has reached its zenith thanks to an Atlanta drag brunch. On March 19, the gay bar Lore posted on Instagram about its upcoming “Ethel vs. Lana” event. Del Rey must have some time on her hands after wrapping up production on her upcoming album Stove, since she dove straight into the comments, despite living nowhere near Atlanta (she wasn’t even tagged in the original post, so it remains unclear how she even came across it in the first place.) In a now-deleted comment, the singer chided LORE’s decision to hold the event, writing: “Sadly, none of this is funny. She’s abusive and that’s all there is to it.” But her crusade, presumably against Cain, didn’t end there—she then DM’d the gay bar a short and sweet “Fuck You.” (LORE took it on the chin, though; they promptly posted a screenshot of the message alongside the caption, “See you next Sunday! #blocked.”)
Of course, the “beef” between Del Rey and Cain extends far beyond the hallowed halls of a venue that hosted both a Heated Rivalry dance party and a Heated Rivalry watch party in one prolific fortnight. The clash between the two musicians was first publicized last summer, when Del Rey posted a clip of a forthcoming song featuring the lyrics “Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post / Think it’s cute re-enacting my Chicago pose.” Later, Cain announced that Del Ray had blocked her on Instagram. Del Rey’s “Chicago pose” line would seem to refer to a 2022 Instagram post of her alongside her ex-beau, Salem bandmember Jack Donoghue, outside a jail in the city. In response, Cain posted her own photo with Donoghue, with the caption “ok wait my turn.” As with all relevant pieces of evidence here, the post has since been deleted.
Del Ray’s snide lyrics are replete with easter eggs, and her tirade against Cain (apparently titled “All About Ethel”) was no exception: “The most famous girl at the Waffle House / I don’t regret it,” Del Ray coos on the diss track, referring to photo ops both women have had at Waffle House. Many online users speculated that Del Rey’s photoshoot was initiated in direct response to a 2022 New York Times feature in which the magazine photographed Cain in the joint, naming her “The Most Famous Girl At The Waffle House.”
Explaining her diss track, Del Ray noted in an Instagram comment, “I didn’t know who Ethel was until a few years ago – when someone brought to my attention the disturbing and graphic side-by-side images she would often put up of me next to unflattering creatures and cartoon characters making constant comments about my weight, I was confused at what she was getting at. Then when I heard what she was saying behind closed doors from mutual friends and started inserting herself into my personal life I was definitely disturbed.”
Internet sleuths set to work deducing what these “disturbing and graphic” images might be, and found only a 2023 tweet in which Cain posted a video of animated paterfamilias Peter Griffin dancing to Del Ray’s hit song “Peppers.” More likely, the beef stems from industry comparisons between the two musicians, who have been relentlessly cross-referenced since Cain’s breakout in 2022. That year, Cain told i-D, “I think it’s kind of a detriment to the expansive work of two female artists to just reduce them to being similar to each other.” Not exactly fighting words, but you don’t get a masterpiece like Norman Fucking Rockwell without a bit of artistic emotional volatility. Cain has yet to respond to Del Rey’s latest comment.
