Morning Read: Lake Placid pop star hits Saturday Night Live

Lana Del Rey is the pop sensation who grew up in Lake Placid as Elizabeth Grant before moving to New York City in 2008. She went viral with a series of Youtube torch song hits like “Videogames.”  (See below.)

Her work has attracted a ton of attention and last week Del Rey, the daughter of local real estate broker Rob Grant, performed her first live show at the Bowery in New York City.

The New York Times gave it a favorable, if cautious, review.

At her best moments, she gave glimmers of being a Fiona Apple manquée — the voice, yes, was almost there, but the orneriness, the potential for rupture, is very much there already. She was chafing against the amber she’s trapped in.

After one song she said, “I’m not gonna lie — I’m not feeling that song lately.” After another, one that has not yet been the subject of Talmudic dissection on the Internet, she snipped: “I know you don’t care. You’re gonna” — really, except choosing a more emphatic word — “like it when it’s on the record.”

Clearly, she wants to be something different, but for now she’ll take just being something.

“I’m not doing an encore,” she said, “so don’t think I’m coming back.” And she didn’t.

Now, according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Del Rey is set to play a musical guest stint on Saturday Night Live in January.

Rolling Stone and several other websites are reporting that Del Rey, whose real name is Elizabeth Grant, will be the television comedy show’s musical guest on Jan. 14 when the host will be Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor best known for bringing to life the role of Harry Potter.

In addition to the SNL announcement, Del Rey’s song “Video Games” made two ranking lists Monday in the United Kingdom. The Guardian newspaper called it the number-one song of 2011 in its top 40 list, and British publication Metro listed “Video Games” as one of its top five singles of the year, alongside songs by Rihanna and Maroon 5.

Tags: adirondacks, media