Singer Lana Del Rey has referenced Marilyn numerous times in her career, beginning with this February 2012 cover shoot for Lovecat magazine, in which photographer Ellen Von Unwerth paid homage to Marilyn’s 1962 Vogue layout, shot by Bert Stern. (First posted here on February 11, 2012.)
Marilyn Inspires Lana Del Rey
First posted here on June 15, 2012
“Marilyn has inspired another songstress – Lana Del Rey, whose new track, ‘Body Electric’ (performed at the El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, on June 3) begins with the line, “Elvis is my daddy, Marilyn is my mother – Jesus is my bestest friend…”
‘I Sing the Body Electric’ is also the title of a poem by Walt Whitman, whose collection, Leaves of Grass, was a favourite of Marilyn’s. You can watch the video here.”
‘Body Electric’ was featured on Born to Die: The Paradise Edition, released in September 2012; and in Tropico (2013), a short film in which a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Jodi Fleisher) also appears.
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Lana Del Rey’s ‘National Anthem’
First posted here on June 27, 2012
“Lana Del Rey recreates Marilyn’s ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ in the opening sequence of her new video, ‘National Anthem’. The president is played by rapper A$AP Rocky. Lana goes on to embody the Camelot myth, giving her own take on the role of First Lady Jackie Kennedy, as MTV News reports.”
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Lana’s Literary Love
First posted here on September 12, 2012
“Lana Del Rey is seen here reading a vintage copy of Arthur Miller’s The Misfits (ie the novella on which the screenplay is based), in a photo shoot for this month’s Australian Vogue.”
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Lana Del Rey posted this fanmade montage – combining a Sam Shaw photo of Marilyn with an image from her ‘Blue Jeans’ video – onto her Facebook page in November 2012. Her caption was a line from ‘Body Electric’: “We don’t need nobody – cause we got each other …”
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Marilyn, Lana and the American Dream
First posted here on June 18, 2014
“The latest issue of British music mag Clash takes the American Dream as its theme. Up-and-coming singer Allie X is pictured inside with a portrait of MM, while cover girl Lana Del Rey names Marilyn among her idols: ‘I loved how nice Marilyn was, I related to her. Finding girls who were as loving and warm as her is hard.'”
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Douglas Kirkland’s Marilyn Inspires Lana Del Rey
First posted here on November 27, 2014
“Douglas Kirkland’s 1961 photos of Marilyn ‘between the sheets’ have become a staple of glamour photography, so much that its influence is often taken for granted. In September 2014, one of Kirkland’s images was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair in Italy. Now singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey has imitated the Kirkland session with photographer Neil Krug for the December 2014 issue of US men’s magazine, Maxim.”
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Marilyn’s Style Lives On at the Golden Globes
First posted here on January 9, 2015
“Memories of Marilyn lingered on the catwalk at last night’s Golden Globes. Marilyn herself won awards for Some Like it Hot, and as ‘World Film Favourite’. However, it was her appearance at a different ceremony – the Photoplay Awards in 1953 – that inspired the stars last night.
Jessica Chastain wore a Versace gown reminiscent of MM’s iconic gold lamé dress, but in a darker shade. But singer Lana Del Rey – whose Big Eyes theme was nominated for Best Original Song – went the extra mile, wearing a 1980s variant by Travilla, who created the original gown in 1952.”
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Pop Divas Show Love for Marilyn
First posted here on February 13, 2016
“This week, Lana Del Rey appeared at a Los Angeles screening of her new video, ‘Freak’, in an outfit inspired by Marilyn’s Niagara style. (Although the original red/white ensemble – designed by Dorothy Jeakins – didn’t make the final cut, Marilyn wore it in public while filming on location in 1952.)”
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Lana Del Rey Finds Marilyn at Venice Beach
First posted here on February 23, 2018
“This gorgeous mural by Jonas Never in Venice Beach, Los Angeles – based on a George Barris photo of Marilyn from 1962 – was posted by singer Lana Del Rey on Twitter today.”
Another mural by the same artist depicting Lana herself appeared at the same location (the Ellison Suites hotel on Paloma Avenue) in March 2018 – see here.
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Lana Del Rey Mentions Marilyn in Poem
First posted here on May 28, 2020
Singer Lana Del Rey referenced Marilyn in ‘patent leather do-over‘, a spoken-word poem posted on Instagram this week, and to be featured in Lana’s forthcoming second book, behind the iron gates – insights from an institution.
“Sylvia, Marilyn, Violet, Diana
All of my kind women who came before me, blonde
I dyed my hair black for you
I turned my back on that black pond
I swear I won’t stop ’til I’m dead
And here I am at 34 – And what for?”
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And finally, Marilyn was also mentioned in several unreleased songs written and recorded prior to Lana Del Rey’s commercial breakthrough in 2011 – see here.
The Marilyn Archive 
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