Lana Del Rey has her listeners playing detective after posting a cryptic music snippet that appears to call out fellow singer Ethel Cain.
The Post That Set Off Speculation
On Aug. 14, Del Rey shared an Instagram Reel captioned “Track 13” and tagged producer Jack Antonoff. In the clip, she drives in a white tank top, mostly expressionless, mouthing along to the lyrics:
“Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post / Think it’s cute re-enacting my Chicago pose.”
She later sings about “the most famous girl at the Waffle House,” a line many connected to the headline of a 2022 New York Times profile on Cain.
The “Chicago Pose” Connection
Fans linked the “Chicago pose” lyric to a 2022 moment when Del Rey posed outside Chicago’s Cook County Jail with Salem musician Jack Donoghue, fueling dating rumors. Around the same time, Cain reportedly posted, and later deleted, a photo with Donoghue that some thought mirrored Del Rey’s.
Del Rey’s Deleted Comment
The intrigue deepened when Del Rey left a now-deleted comment under a Pop Base post discussing 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. “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.”
The Waffle House mention wasn’t lost on fans either. Cain’s Times profile famously dubbed her “the most famous girl at the Waffle House,” while Del Rey herself was spotted working a shift at an Alabama location in 2023.
Cain’s Brief Response
Cain appeared to acknowledge the situation in an Instagram Story the same day, writing:
“update: lana del rey has blocked ethel cain on instagram.”
Her account has since been deactivated.
If this is a real feud or just clever songwriting, Del Rey’s “Track 13” has certainly given the internet a puzzle, one that fans love deciphering and reading between the lines for.
