These Lana Del Rey songs make me miss New York City. I adore New York City, which is where Lana Del Rey was born.

My husband and I celebrated one of our anniversaries there, and we fell in love with it thanks to Broadway, gigantic slices of pizza, and Central Park.

We loved the pedicab tour we did of Gossip Girl filming locations, the ice cream museum with unlimited samples, the Mets baseball game, the botanical garden, and so much more.

Based on some of the songs Lana has released over the years, she has a lot of love for New York City too. As well as other parts of New York State.

Beyond NYC, Lana spent time living and working in California, writing love letters as song lyrics to California. I posted another feature here about all the songs from Lana that make me miss living in California, because that’s where I was born and raised before personally relocating to Las Vegas.

And Lana’s songs that reference California are undeniable — but so are her songs that reference New York City and other locations in New York State.

“Ultraviolence” and “How to Disappear” are two songs from Lana that reference New York City, but not in a way that totally romanticizes it.

In “Ultraviolence,” she suggests moving back to NYC with her abusive lover to see if relocation will save their relationship. In “How to Disappear,” she sings about how she left New York many years ago.

So I just want to focus on the Lana songs that make me want to book another trip there ASAP because her lyrics romanticize the city in an incredible way.

Diet Mountain Dew

Lana romanticizes New York City in “Diet Mountain Dew” with her first chorus of the song saying, “Diet Mountain Dew, baby, New York City / Never was there ever a girl so pretty / Do you think we’ll be in love forever? / Do you think we’ll be in love?” This song is fun and dancy, with high energy and playfulness as she acknowledges that the guy she wants is bad for her, but she wants him anyway, so she’ll have him anyway. It’s a song about playing with fire in her love life, but it’s not meant to be dark and depressing. It’s meant to be light, fun, and exciting, like she’s opening herself up to the possibilities of the unknown. She speaks highly of herself, telling him, “Never was there ever a girl so pretty,” showcasing how high her level of confidence is. She asks him, “Do you think we’ll be in love forever?” almost sarcastically because she already knows he’s bad news for her. The song is about enjoying a passionate fling and living in the moment with New York City as the backdrop.

Brooklyn Baby

“Brooklyn Baby” by Lana is probably one of the most obvious songs from her discography that romanticizes New York City. She literally calls herself a “Brooklyn baby” over and over throughout the song. Brooklyn is known for its art and music scene, which Lana was part of once upon a time. Lana sings about beat poetry, jazz music, wearing feathers in her hair, and performing music with her boyfriend at the time. He plays guitar while she sings Lou Reed. She was dating a musician named Barrie O’Neill at the time, and it seems like they deeply connected over their shared love and passion for music. Brooklyn used to have a reputation for being a little more rough around the edges, but it’s been going through gentrification for a while now. When Lana calls herself “Brooklyn Baby,” she’s claiming the title in a way that shows pride in her hometown, and in a way that absolutely romanticizes New York City.

National Anthem

In my opinion, I think Lana romanticizes New York in her song “National Anthem,” not New York City specifically, but the state of New York, thanks to her reference to the Hamptons. According to Gossip Girl, the Hamptons are where New Yorker City folk typically love to go on vacation when they have time off. Lana sings, “I’m your national anthem / God, you’re so handsome / Take me to the Hamptons, Bugatti Veyron / He loves to romance ’em / Reckless abandon / Holdin’ me for ransom, upper echelon…” She’s singing about her experience vacationing in the Hamptons with a wealthy, good-looking man who’s exposing her to the finer things in life. He sounds like the type to spoil her, spend a lot of money on her, and open her horizons to new experiences. Lana’s singing about a dream vacation, being in a beautiful place like the Hamptons with a rich man she’s actually very attracted to. He’s exposing her to the upper echelons of ritzy lifestyles. She romanticizes New York by shining a light on wealth, opulence, and passionate romance in this song.

Old Money

Lana truly romanticizes the beauty and glamour of New York City in her song “Old Money.” This song is so underrated, even though it’s beyond gorgeous. I feel like too many people skip past this one, but it deserves so much love. Lana sings, “Those summer nights seem long ago / And so is the girl you used to call / The Queen of New York City…” The man she’s singing about called her the queen of NYC, which shows how much of an attachment she had to the city and how perfectly she meshed with the city at one point in her life. Overall, though, Old Money is a love song with some of Lana’s dreamiest, super-romantic lyrics, the kind of song you’d dedicate to the person you’re married to. She sings, “But if you send for me, you know I’ll come / And if you call for me, you know I’ll run / I’ll run to you, I’ll run to you / I’ll run, run, run / I’ll come to you, I’ll come to you / I’ll come, come, come…” It’s meant to romanticize love between two people, but New York City is also romanticized here to me as well.

God Bless America – and All the Beautiful Women in It

One Lana song that shines a light on the beauty of New York City is “God Bless America – and All the Beautiful Women in It.” It’s one of Lana’s most political tracks, written with women’s rights in mind. It came out in 2017, after the 2016 election results that broke everyone’s heart. This song is about feminism, female solidarity, female friendship, the beauty of womanhood, and building the willingness to stay strong in difficult political situations. Lana sings, “God bless America / And all the beautiful women in it, may you / Stand proud and strong like Lady Liberty, shining all night long…” Lana referenced the Statue of Liberty, which is the most iconic landmark in New York City. Her nod to feminism and the strength of women in reference to Lady Liberty romanticizes New York City to me.

Off to the Races

Lana makes New York City sound like a place designed for hardcore party people who live the fast life in “Off to the Races.” She romanticizes New York City in this song by bringing attention to the excitement of its energy and the way she bounces around in it without feeling held back or stifled by anything. Lana sings about herself, parading through the Big Apple, living her best life, young, wild, and free. She sings, “I’m your little scarlet, starlet / Singin’ in the garden / Kiss me on my open mouth…” Then she sings, “I’m your little harlot, starlet / Queen of Coney Island / Raisin’ hell all over town…” Coney Island is a peninsula off Southern Brooklyn that’s known for its amusement parks, fun times, and high vibrational energy. Lana says she’s the queen of it, and I’m living for it. In Lana’s song Carmen, she sings about a girl named Carmen who goes by the nickname Coney Island queen, but it’s way too sad for me to see it as a song that romanticizes New York City. Carmen is a 17-year-old prostitute who numbs her pain with liquor, sleeps with older men, and says she’s dying inside. So even though Carmen is considered the Coney Island queen, I prefer Lana’s use of that nickname in Off to Races when I think of the beauty and magic of New York City.

The Greatest

Lana sings about Long Beach, LA, and Hawaii in “The Greatest,” but I want to bring attention to her mention of New York, specifically. Lana romanticizes New York in a lot of her music, obviously, but the way she sings about her longing for New York in The Greatest has its own special energy to it. Lana sings, “I miss New York, and I miss the music / Me and my friends‚ we miss rock ‘n’ roll / I want shhh to feel just like it used to / When‚ baby, I was doing nothin’ the most of all…” It sounds like she’s singing about the nostalgia of the life she once lived before she was famous. The time in her life when she could do nothing at all, and it was chill vibes. It was peaceful. She misses New York and the music scene there, probably in reference to the early days of her career before she fully blew up into the superstar we know her as today. She was part of New York’s music scene as Lizzy Grant before swapping to her stage name of Lana Del Rey. She romanticizes NYC with the warmth of nostalgia.

Looking For America

“Looking For America” is a super political song from Lana Del Rey that romanticizes New York City due to the memories she reflects on in the lyrics. Yes, it’s a song with a message that’s very anti-gun violence, but her love for NYC is still a major focal point. She sings, “I  flew back to New York City / Missed that Hudson River line / Took a train up to Lake Placid
/ That’s another place and time / where I used to go to drive-ins and listen to the blues / So many things that I think twice about before I do now…” Her nostalgia for New York City in this song reminds me of the nostalgia she expresses in The Greatest as well. Looking For America romanticizes the Big Apple with mention of the iconic Hudson River and Lake Placid. It romanticizes Lana’s dream vision of America, and what it could be if the people who ran this country truly cared about protecting the people of this country. No guns, no bombs, no wars. Just respecting the land and the people who live here. Lana also mentions San Fran in the intro of the song, but her nostalgia for the peaceful and beautiful side of NYC stands out to me the most.

Living Legend

Lana Del Rey wrote “Living Legend” in a way that romanticizes New York City and honors a woman named Jane Powers. Jane was her first mentor who saw potential in her way before she rose to fame. Lana calls Jane a living legend many times throughout the song for Jane’s willingness to give her guidance in the music industry before Lana actually made a name for herself. Lana reveals New York City as the backdrop to this song when she sings, “Hipsters will sing just like a dream / In Shin-é or the back Brooklyn bayou / But you never cared about my name / And, darling, I never meant to defy you…” She’s singing about the music scene of the Big Apple, full of hipsters with amazing voices performing at a music venue called Shin-é, located in Manhattan’s East Village. According to my research, Lana performed there herself back in the day. She says, “you nevr cared about my name,” likely referencing the fact that she went by a few different names, including Lizzy Grant, Sparkle Jump Rope Queen, May Jailer, Lizzy Grant, and Lana Del Ray spelled with an A in Ray before settling on Lana Del Rey with an E. Lana honors Jane as a living legend in this song, with New York City as the backdrop where their mentorship relationship and friendship formed.

Mermaid Motel

“Mermaid Motel” comes from Lana Del Rey’s Lizzy Grant era, and it romanticizes New York City big time. In verse 1, she sings, “Maybe we could go to Coney Island / Maybe I could sing the national anthem,” and in verse 3, she sings, “Maybe we could go to Coney Island / Maybe I could sing you to sleep…” This isn’t the first Lana song that mentions Coney Island, and in fact, she mentions Coney Island a lot. I think it has a special place in her heart; it’s definitely reminiscent of her younger years. To me, this lyricism romanticizes New York City. In “Mermaid Motel,” Lana sings that she can be called lavender and sunshine. The energy she embodies in New York City is meant to be high-vibrational and beautiful, like lavender and sunshine. She sings about walking to her motel room on Neptune Ave, in Brooklyn, New York, as well. New York City is the backdrop of some of her most free-spirited moments and memories. Songs from Lana tend to bring love and attention to California pretty frequently, but songs from her that call attention to the glamour and stimulation of NYC also stand out to me.