Lana Del Rey has defended herself against accusations of racism, after posting a statement regarding double standards in the music industry.
In an Instagram post published this week, the singer claimed she had been depicted as anti-feminist, despite singing about similar themes to other female artists. She then proceeded to use Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, Ariana Grande and Beyoncé as examples, stating that they had all sung about "being sexy, wearing no clothes... cheating, etc," without facing the same backlash.
People, however, took umbrage with the fact that Del Rey compared the content of her lyrics to that of mostly African-American female artists.
"Think Lana's post would have been fine if she hadn't compared herself to a group of mostly black women with the clear tone that she thinks she's been treated worse by the media when that's observably untrue," wrote one Twitter user in response to Del Rey's lengthy Instagram post.
Another corroborated: "Lana blatantly ignoring the criticism Beyoncé, Nicki, and other black women have received (and continue to) for being confident in their sexuality doesn't sit right with me."
Responding on Instagram to the criticism, Del Rey has since stated: "Don't ever ever ever call me racist."
"The singers I mentioned are my favourite singers so if you want to try and make a bone to pick out of that, like you always do be my guest. It doesn't change the fact that I haven't had the same opportunity to express what I wanted to express without being completely decimated. If you want to say that that has something to do with race that's your opinion but that's not what I was saying."
The 34-year-old originally took to the photo-sharing platform to address longstanding accusations that her music romanticises abusive relationships.
"I’m fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorise abuse when I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all seeing are now very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world," she wrote.
The post can be read in its entirety here.
