Lana Del Rey poses topless on cover of next album

Lana Del Rey has stunned fans by unveiling new artwork for her upcoming ninth studio album – featuring the singer herself posing topless with one breast exposed.

The super-prolific Video Games singer’s next album, titled Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, is set for release on March 24.

Del Rey revealed one of several alternative artworks for the album on social media over the weekend, showing her gazing into the camera with one arm up, her top unbuttoned. Here’s a censored version of the cover:

It’s a surprising move for a singer who has courted controversy in the past for calling out other female singers for “being sexy” and “wearing no clothes”.

She copped a backlash in 2020 when she called out artists including Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, Cardi B, and Camila Cabello for making music “about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f***ing, cheating, etc” without criticism while she claimed she was “crucified” for penning love songs that some claimed “glamorize abuse”.

Three years on, and many fans were certainly surprised to see so much of the singer on her new album cover:

She has however received the tick of approval from rock icon and longtime friend Courtney Love, who shared the artwork on her Instagram stories with the caption: “Hell yeah you crazy diamond!”

“#sometimesitsfuntoplaytopless Boys did it. I f***ing love it!” Love continued, sharing a photo of herself baring her breasts onstage in the ’90s.

Del Rey, 37, has also revealed the back cover and tracklist for her new album – which features a song with the verbose-even-by-her-standards title Grandfather Please Stand on the Shoulders of My Father While He’s Deep-Sea Fishing.

Del Rey made headlines last month after she unveiled the standard, non-topless artwork for the new album – and revealed that she’d be publicising it with exactly one billboard, located in the hometown of her recent ex-boyfriend, Sean Larkin.

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“There’s only one and it’s in Tulsa,” Del Rey wrote of the billboard. “It’s. Personal,” she added.

The new album comes after Del Rey released two albums in one year in 2021.

Del Rey isn’t the only artist to pose topless for their album cover recently: In 2021, Halsey appeared topless on the cover of her album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.

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