Did Lana Del Rey predict the Los Angeles fires in this song released in 2019?

Would Lana Del Rey have predicted the future? This is what the impressive images of the devastating fires that have ravaged California for four days now suggest. An unprecedented disaster which brings all of Los Angeles to its knees, and strongly reacts to the fans of the American singer. On social networks, several accounts share the lyrics of “The Greatest»a title taken from the album Norman Fucking Rockwell by Lana Del Rey, released in 2019. Especially this part which concludes the song: “LA is in flames, it’s getting hot / Kanye West is blond and gone / “Life on Mars” ain’t just a song” (“Los Angeles burns, it gets hot / Kanye West is blond and he’s gone / Life on Mars is not just a song.” Duke Nicholson (son of Jack). With the city of Los Angeles ravaged by flames in the background.

Borrowed from a deep feeling of extinction, The Greatest by Lana Del Rey paints the portrait of an America that the singer believes is in decline. Indeed, the title is released a year after major fires which destroyed nearly 135,000 hectares (the equivalent of the city of Los Angeles) in California. Moreover, in its title California from the same album, Lana Del Rey refers to the “Santa Ana winds”, frequent winds in the south of this state. Already in 2018, the fires had been fanned by these air masses, to the point of amplifying the flames and increasing the toll.

“Culture is on fire”

But that’s not all. The release of Norman Fucking Rockwell occurred in a very specific context. At that time, Kanye West decided to publicly show his support for Donald Trump, then President of the United States. “Kanye West is blond and gone” is none other than a criticism directly addressed to the rapper by the singer who, that year, did not hide her political convictions which leaned more towards the Democratic side. She who confirmed in 2017 that she had asked her fans to join a mass occult ritual against President Donald Trump.

Concerning the phrase “Life on Mars is not just a song”, it is certainly an allusion to David Bowie’s song, “Life on Mars”, released in 1971, but also a nod addressed to Elon Musk. In 2018, the founder of SpaceX assured that his spacecraft, intended to go to Mars, would test flights towards the red planet from the first quarter of 2019.

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Six years after the release of this song, the lyrics still resonate with current events. As proof: Donald Trump was once again elected head of the American government, forming a duo with his most faithful ally, Elon Musk. A few months after the elections, California was once again ravaged by flames. As for Kanye West, he was accused of sexual assault by model Jenn An last November, who has continued to make racist and anti-Semitic remarks since 2022.

In 2025, the birthplace of Hollywood, movie stars and music is, according to the singer’s words, nothing more than a distant memory. Like an American dream gone forever, tainted by many scandals, including the most recent: that of the P. Diddy affair. “I truly believe that words are one of the last forms of magic and I’m a bit of a mystic at heart,” she once told NME . Fate took it literally.