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One of the hottest and most highly anticipated records is scheduled for release in January, Born To Die. This young artist has a lot of momentum headed into 2012. But just who exactly is Lana Del Rey, and why does she have so much buzz right now? More importantly, does she live up to the hype?

25 year old Lizzy Grant refers to herself as the ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ and defines her genre as ‘Hollywood pop/sadcore’. Her stage name is a combination of the late old Hollywood actress Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey.  It came from a series of managers and lawyers over the last 5 years who wanted a name that they thought better fit the sound of the music. The New York City resident declares her influences range from Kurt Cobain to film director David Lynch. Her music video for the song “Video Games” has already racked up over 12 million YouTube views. Another one for the song “Blue Jeans” came out in September and is nearing 4 million. And the brand new one we posted yesterday for our Video Of The Week, “Born To Die“, only has 2 million views, but has only been out less than a week.

Signed to Interscope Records, she has a Video Games EP out, and just made her TV debut on the UK show Later with Jools Holland. The single “Video Games” reached the No. 3 spot on the iTunes U.S. pop chart and was ranked No. 1 in nine countries.

The EP for both of the singles “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” reached the top five of the US iTunes Albums Chart only hours after its release. Tickets for Del Rey’s show in London sold out in half an hour, and her new record may feature guests Odd Future and Lil Wayne.

According to Wikipedia, she released another EP titled Kill Kill in 2010. It was her first professionally produced EP, released under the stage name Lana Del Ray on an independent label with producer David Kahne, which was available for purchase on iTunes for a brief period before being withdrawn.  In September 2010 she was featured beside Ray Davies, Juliette Lewis and Klaus Voormann for Mando Diao’s MTV Unplugged Session at Union Film-Studios in Berlin. The concert was broadcast on TV and released on CD and DVD as Above and Beyond in late 2010.  On November 7, 2011, “Video Games” was featured on Gossip Girl, and has also featured on British reality television series, The Only Way Is Essex. On November 14, 2011, “Blue Jeans” was featured on Made in Chelsea.

Update: The young, beautiful starlet just released another single today, and will make her American television debut on Saturday Night Live on January 14th. The new single, “Off To The Races“, is below.