If you haven’t heard about the Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain beef, it’s time to stop the social media cleanse. The two singers have recently exposed some details about their rather long-standing feud on Instagram, and the internet is going wild.
Both Rey and Cain have reached huge popularity for their emotional lyrics and hard-hitting songs. Recently, Rey has been promoting the release of her upcoming album, originally titled The Right Person Will Stay, although she has since announced that the name has changed. Similarly, the album was originally set to be released on May 21, 2025, but has been delayed. In the meantime, Rey has busied herself with releasing singles such as “Bluebird” and “Henry Come On” as well as snippets of unreleased tracks. In fact, it was one of these snippets, posted to Rey’s Instagram on Aug. 13, that sparked attention to her feud with Cain.
The post featured Rey nodding along to an unreleased song. The song’s lyrics say: “Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post / Think it’s cute reenacting my Chicago pose.” Fans were quickly able to connect the dots. The lyrics seemingly refer to a photo taken of Rey and her ex, Jack Donoghue, in front of the Cook County Jail in Chicago. Later, Cain posted a similar photo of herself and Donoghue on Twitter with the caption: “ok wait my turn.” The post was later deleted.
The song also features the lyrics: “The most famous girl at Waffle House / I don’t regret it.” These lines seem to allude to a 2022 New York Times profile of Cain titled: “The Most Famous Girl at the Waffle House.” A year later, in 2023, Rey worked a shift at the Waffle House, as evidenced by *many* memes, in what could be understood as a subtle dig at Cain.
After Rey’s post with the new song, Cain took her Instagram story Aug. 14 to announce: “update: lana del rey has blocked ethel cain on instagram.”
Also on Aug. 14, Rey took to the comment section of a PopBase post about the beef to share her side of the story. She commented: “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.” Her Campus reached out to Cain’s team for a statement about Rey’s comment, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
I guess we’ll have to see if these two will ever be able to work it out on the remix.