Taylor Swift’s 2022 album Midnights featured quite a few guest musicians, including artist Lana Del Rey on Swift’s track “Snow on the Beach.” But her vocals are largely just in the background of the song, though she is credited as a featured artist.
Del Rey co-wrote the song with Swift and producer Jack Antonoff, and in a recent interview with Billboard she said she was asked to sing a verse, but had “no idea” she was “the only feature.”
“Had I known, I would have sung the entire second verse like she wanted,” Del Rey explained. “My job as a feature on a big artist’s album is to make sure I help add to the production of the song, so I was more focused on the production.”
But the singer “really liked” how the song sounded in the end, and insisted that Swift was “very adamant that she wanted me to be on the album.”
She added, “I thought it was nice to be able to bridge that world since Jack and I work together and so do Jack and Taylor.”
In an Instagram video from October while promoting Midnights, Swift talked about being a “massive fan of Lana Del Ray” without mentioning if she intended for the other vocalist to ever join her on the track solo.
“The fact that I get to exist at the same time as her is an honor and a privilege and the fact that she would be so generous as to collaborate with us on this song is something I’m gonna be grateful for life,” Swift said of Del Rey. “Absolutely love her.”
Swift then said the song “Snow on the Beach” is “about falling in love with someone at the same time they are falling in love with you.”
She added, “It’s in this sort of cataclysmic, fated moment where you realize someone feels exactly the same way that you feel at the same moment…Kind of like it would be if you were to see snow falling on a beach.”
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.