Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey. I can’t go anywhere without seeing her name. I feel like Jan from ‘The Brady Bunch.’

Twitter. Facebook. Even my friend’s YouTube ads are filled with Del Rey. On Tuesday, LDR’s first official album, ‘Born to Die,’ was released to the feverishly awaiting masses.

If you’ve somehow missed out on Del Rey, she has one popular music video, the mouth of a Beverly Hills Real Housewife and the ability to find herself in a million controversies. Del Rey is publicized as ‘a gangster Nancy Sinatra’ because she apparently has a very creative public relations team.

The problem is I don’t understand why she is the most famous hipster-dream-girl on Earth. She didn’t even have a real CD available on iTunes before this week.

Instead, she has a self-made music video for her hit ‘Video Games.’ The song just screams indie princess with Brigitte Bardot eyeliner.

The 25-year-old indie artist has an entire page on hipsterrunnoff.com dedicated to her, which features ‘all Lana all the time 24/7 #LDR Coverage. What will Lana do next?!?!?’

She’s even popular enough for not one but many hashtags. Others include #Pray4LDR and #Born2Die. When a girl has three or more hashtags dedicated to her, you know she has arrived.

Despite all this publicity, Del Rey has only delivered a two-song EP. Two songs and somehow she booked a Saturday Night Live appearance. Her performance only added to the mythology of Lana Del Rey: going famously poorly. Viewers watched LDR stand like a broken doll center stage, caressing her face and occasionally hair-flipping.

Countless celebrities threw in their two cents about Del Rey’s lackluster performance.

Brian Williams, who I would’ve guessed would be sleeping during the late-night show, tweeted that Del Rey is the ‘least-experienced musical guest in the show’s history.’

Although Williams hasn’t jumped onto the Del Rey bandwagon, she does have the magic of Harry Potter behind her.

Daniel Radcliffe hosted the episode of SNL that featured Del Rey. He came out in support of LDR saying, ‘I don’t think (the performance) warranted anywhere near that reaction.’

While still being her usually abrasive self, everyone’s least favorite comedienne, Whitney Cummings, tried to be fair to LDR. Via her Tumblr — am I the only one surprised Cummings has time for a Tumblr — Cummings wrote, ‘She moves in a very drunk-at-a-wedding-and-gonna-regret-it-in-the-morning-type way which is all I really need to be entertained. … So whether or not Lana sucked, I think we should be encouraging and patient.’

The SNL backlash is only one of a number of controversies LDR has been involved in. From other disappointing live appearances to plastic surgery denials and video leaks, Del Rey has survived it all.

We can only wait to see where LDR goes from here. She started out as Lizzy Grant, a wide-eyed bleach blonde. She has grown into a vampy ingenue singing, ‘I heard you like the bad girls, honey, is this true?’

On Wednesday, ‘People With Lana Del Rey’s Lips’ — 2012’s answer to ‘Chicks with Steve Buscemi Eyes’ — was featured on Huffington Post Comedy. With her lips plastered on famous faces, including President Barack Obama and Marilyn Monroe, this only adds to the mystique behind her fame.

With an actual album for us to buy, bloggers to complain or rave about, or somewhere in between, the media magnet that is LDR can only get stronger.

Ariana Romero is a sophomore magazine journalism major. Her column appears every Thursday. She can be reached at akromero@syr.edu.    

Published on February 1, 2012 at 12:00 pm