It seems that the alt-pop girls are fighting after Lana Del Rey posted a song snippet taking aim at Ethel Cain.
In a post to her Instagram on Thursday (Aug. 14), Del Rey shared a video clip of herself with the caption “Track 13” and tagging producer Jack Antonoff, in which she calls out the “American Teenager” singer by name. “Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post/ Think it’s cute re-enacting my Chicago pose,” she sings in the clip. Later in the snippet, she refers to “the most famous girl at the Waffle House.”
Fans were quick to dissect the new lyrics, pointing to the headline of a 2022 New York Times profile on Cain as the source of Del Rey’s “most famous girl at the Waffle House” line. Other fans clocked a since-deleted photo Cain shared with Salem member Jack Donoghue, and its similarities to a 2022 photo Del Rey took with him outside the Cook County Department of Corrections as the inspiration behind the “Chicago pose” line.
Del Rey herself appeared to weigh in on the cryptic lyrics in a since-deleted comment on a Pop Base Instagram post about the snippet. “I didn’t know who Ethel was until a few years ago — when someone brought to my attention the disturbing and graphic side-by-side images she would often put up of me next to unflattering creatures and cartoon characters making constant comments about my weight, I was confused at what she was getting at,” she wrote in the comment. “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 appeared to comment on the whole ordeal in a Instagram Stories post on Thursday morning, when she wrote “update: lana del rey has blocked ethel cain on instagram.”
Billboard has reached out to reps for Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain for comment.
Cain recently shared her long-awaited sophomore album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, and is currently touring North America in support of the new release. Del Rey, meanwhile, has been teasing new music during a series of recent live shows, including her unreleased track “57.5.” The singer previously released her singles “Bluebird” and “Henry, Come On” in 2025, though she has yet to announce official plans for her 10th studio album.
See Lana Del Rey’s Instagram post below:
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