Lana Del Rey surprised fans by officially dropping one of her most popular unreleased songs, “Say Yes to Heaven,” on May 19th. When I heard the news, my jaw dropped. Gone are the days of me listening to the song on YouTube or a fan-uploaded version of it on Spotify.
Co-written with Rick Nowels in 2012 and originally recorded in 2013, the song was meant for Del Rey’s Ultraviolence album. Very little was known about the song until snippets of it were released in 2016. Now nearly ten years later, the song is out and fans couldn’t be happier.
The song had already been circulating around TikTok. Users would post haul videos and makeup tutorials, as the lyrics: “I’ve got my eye on you/Say yes to heaven” played in the background. Different speeds of the song, both sped up and the regular version has garnered over 1 million posts on the platform. Additionally, an hour loop of the song released by a fan on YouTube gained over 700k views.
The official release of the song came days after Del Rey released the ten minute music video to the track “Candy Necklace,” featuring Jon Batiste, that came from her latest EP, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
Del Rey has a plethora of unreleased songs and demos — my personal favorites being “TV in Black and White” and “Ridin’” with A$AP Rocky — that have been popular among the fanbase for quite some time, which Del Rey is aware of.
Why Del Rey chose to release “Say Yes to Heaven” when her other unreleased songs, “Prom Song (Gone Wrong),” “Queen of Disaster,” “You Can Be the Boss,” have also been popular on social media platforms is unclear.
Each of her unreleased songs come from a different point in her life, with her latest album releases showing her maturity and growth as an artist. Nonetheless, I fully support her releasing her old songs, because if they are getting so popular, then she should at least get paid for it!