"National Anthem" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriterLana Del Rey for her debut studio album, Born to Die. It was released as a single on July 6, 2012, through Interscope Records. The song serves as the album's fifth single. The music video for the song premiered on June 27, 2012. It is directed by Anthony Mandler. It depicts Del Rey as Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy and ASAP Rocky as John F. Kennedy. It portrays the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Critical commentary accompanied the song and video. Positive reviews noted the song's critical evaluation of lavish lifestyles, saying it fit together with the lyrical structure of the entire album.
Composition
In the chorus, Del Rey sings, "Tell me I’m your national anthem/ Red! White! Blue's in the sky! Summer's in the air, baby heaven's in your eyes" At the close of the recording is a multi-layered narrative treatment. The introduction features the classic rendition "Happy Birthday Mr. President" as performed by Marilyn Monroe. Unlike the other songs on Born to Die, Del Rey employs an alternative rapping technique, hip hopbeat and heavy basslines, similar to that of "Off to the Races" and "Diet Mountain Dew". Pitchfork Media said the rapping technique was almost "chatting".
Critical reception
Vocally, NME observed that Del Rey sings like a "perfect mannequin" on "National Anthem", criticizing the track for baldly revisiting the beat-driven chorus of "Born to Die". Further, NME praised certain elements of the track, saying: "As she sings of a relationship of a well-heeled man and a blank canvas woman, she invokes not only the dreamland of the monied classes and their could-be motto 'Money is the anthem of success' but also invokes the spectre of Vietnam with a reference to 'The Queen Of Saigon'." Digital Spy called the running theme of Born to Die, "demonic Stepford moll", which "National Anthem" fit into. The track was praised for having a: "laconic, anaesthetised vocal that conjures up images of her swigging from a bottle of Hendricks. There's a deep sadness underneath the sweeping string section and gangster hip-hop beats, but it's the chorus's fleeting glimpse of euphoria that'll keep you coming back." Every Fourth of July, the song gains more attention due to its name being reminiscent of the American National Anthem. In 2017, the song received 58x times the amount of normal daily views on July 4th.
Music video
Background and development
The music video for "National Anthem" was directed by Anthony Mandler in May 2012. It premiered on June 27, 2012. Mandler stated the concept was Del Rey's and that she was "really interested in exploring this loss of innocence, this idea that what you think you're experiencing is maybe not what it's always going to be. Because when you say 'Kennedy,' that immediately evokes something, just like when I say 'It's a Romeo and Juliet story.' So I think using that power, that pedigree of the story is a really fascinating place to show the loss of something, the breakdown of something." Mandler described the video as being seen "through eyes, seeing this kind of castle crumble in the moment, and that shot where she's coming up out of the car, and the pain in her eyes, that destruction, it's like the whole castle is crumbling around her." Del Rey cited the video as "definitely the most beautiful thing" she's ever done. Del Rey wrote the treatment for herself and ASAP Rocky saying "he'd be really perfect to star in it." The video was premiered on June 27, 2012 through Noisey magazine's YouTube channel.
Synopsis
The video begins with Del Rey performing as Marilyn Monroe in a re-enactment of Monroe's infamous 1962 performance of "Happy Birthday, Mr. President". The rest of the video depicts Del Rey as Jacqueline Kennedy and rapper ASAP Rocky as John F. Kennedy in re-enactments of home videos during which they party on yachts, lay out by the pool, and run on the beach with their two little kids. The video ends with a re-enactment of the infamous Zapruder film showing Kennedy's assassination and Del Rey reading her monologue "And I Loved Him", which is written from the perspective of Onassis concerning her and Kennedy's relationship, with Del Rey saying how everyone loved him and insisting how she wished for him to stay but he just couldn't.
Reception and impact
In January 2015, Billboard named the video as one of the 20 best music videos of the 2010s. In December 2019, the magazine listed the video as the 11th greatest music video of the decade. Pedestrian magazine called the video "the best music of the decade". Harper's Bazaar ranked the video the sixth "most fashionable video of all time". The video was Del Rey's first lengthy music video, standing at nearly eight minutes long. This along with the video's cinematic styling and homage to the 1960s would become staples in Del Rey's videography and future releases.
