Fire burn, and cauldron bubble — mess with Lana Del Rey, and you’re in trouble.
That’s what religious influencer Traci Coston found out recently after accusing Del Rey, 38, of using witchcraft. In a post titled “Demonic Energy Knocks Over Lana Del Rey Crowd,” Coston used footage of the August 17 concert at Foro Sol in Mexico City, where the audience members fell like dominos. The event was described as a “progressive crowd collapse,” but Coston claimed the event was due to Del Rey’s involvement in the dark arts.
“Whatever witchcraft Lana Del Rey is using, whatever spell she’s using to make it attractive, those demons are being into the crowd and into you when you attend [these shows],” she said.
That was enough for Del Rey, who wasn’t thrilled with this faux Halloween trick. Using her @honeymoon Instagram account, Del Rey dropped into the comment section. “B!tch I know the Bible verse for verse better than you do,” she wrote, according to Stereogum. “PS You’re giving off super gremlin energy. Not in a good way.”
Coston has since disabled comments on that post. Del Rey has been linked to the Los Angeles chapter of Judah Smith’s Churchome. She also included a five-minute recording of one of Smith’s sermons on her 2023 album, Do You Know That There’s A Tunnel under Ocean Blvd.
Del Rey can be heard laughing during the recording, so much so that The Daily Beast described the track as “an ironic and inflammatory sendup of commodified spirituality and a reminder that Del Rey’s artistic ethos is firmly about pleasing no one but herself.”
While Del Rey has never publicly confirmed her spirituality, She spoke with The Quietus in 2011 about her beliefs. “My understanding of God has come from my own personal experiences. Because I was in trouble so many times in New York that if you were me, you would believe in God too,” she said. “I don’t know about congregating once a week in a church and all that, but when I heard there is a divine power you can call on, I did. I suppose my approach to religion is like my approach to music – I take what I want and leave the rest.”
While the influencer claimed the crowd collapse was due to demonic forces, G. Keith Still, a visiting professor at the University of Suffolk and expert in crowd safety/risk analysis, told The Messenger that the effect happens when you don’t manage crowds properly at concerts. “In general, any penned area, if you don’t regulate the crowd flow in, it can become too packed, and you’ve got this risk of shockwaves, progressive crowd collapse,” said Still.
