Lana Del Rey is stirring the pot — and setting it to music.
On Wednesday, the singer posted a snippet of a new song to Instagram that appears to take aim at fellow artist Ethel Cain. The brief clip features Del Rey in the backseat of a car, stone-faced as she mouths along to the lines, “Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post / Think it’s cute reenacting my Chicago pose.”
It’s a pointed lyric for those familiar with the subtext. In 2022, Del Rey posted a now-viral photo with then-boyfriend, Salem frontman Jack Donoghue, in front of Chicago’s Cook County Jail. Around the same time, Cain — who is now linked romantically to Donoghue — posted her own image with him outdoors. While it’s not an exact replica, the resemblance was enough to feed speculation of a quiet feud. Del Rey’s song also includes the jab, “The most famous girl at the Waffle House,” a reference to the headline of a 2022 New York Times profile of Cain.
In a comment left Thursday on PopBase’s Instagram coverage of the song (seriously), Del Rey pulled back the curtain on their strained relationship. She claimed she first learned of Cain after friends showed her “disturbing and graphic” side-by-side images Cain allegedly posted — pairing Del Rey’s picture with “unflattering creatures and cartoon characters” alongside remarks about her weight.
“I was confused at what she was getting at,” Del Rey wrote. “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.”
Cain has not publicly addressed the song or Del Rey’s comments. Instead, she’s been focused on promoting her new album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, released last Friday to critical acclaim.
Del Rey, meanwhile, is prepping her tenth studio album, which she teased with country-influenced performances at Stagecoach Festival earlier this year. The Instagram post in question ends with her switching off the track and saying simply, “OK. OK.” It’s a small but cutting punctuation mark to a lyric aimed squarely at a peer.
The two artists’ parallel images with Donoghue — whether intentional echoes or just coincidental timing — now seem to have taken on a new, public weight. And in an era where social media hints and oblique song lyrics can feel like open declarations, Del Rey’s choice to name Cain outright in a track leaves little room for interpretation.
