Lana Del Rey took a Christian influencer to church after being accused of using witchcraft at one of her shows.
The “Say Yes to Heaven” singer slammed Traci Coston, who posted a video on her Instagram, claiming that “demonic energy” knocked over a crowd at a Del Rey concert. The video has been viewed more than half a million times and has drawn 45,000 likes. Comments have since been disabled on the video.
“B— I know the Bible verse for verse better than you do,” Del Rey commented below the influencer’s video, which urged people not to attend her shows, according to Stereogum. Comments have since been disabled on the video. “PS you’re giving off super gremlin energy. Not in a good way,” Del Rey added.
In the video, Coston, who has more than 200,000 followers, said, “This is not normal … that is not a mosh pit,” and pointed to footage of the concert during which a group of people appear to be blown back from the stage, where Del Rey is singing while on her knees, and topple each other. The footage appears to be from a Mexico City show in August where concertgoers fell over because of an apparent domino effect.
Coston went on to warn viewers that “whatever witchcraft Lana Del Rey is doing, the spells she’s putting on her music to make it attractive” will invite demons and will “destroy your life.” She claimed she has exorcised demons out of people who go to “stuff like this.”
Coston and representatives for Del Rey did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comment.
The Grammy nominee, who defended her religious identity against possible misrepresentation, has long been open about her religious upbringing. In 2011, she told Clash that while growing up in Lake Placid, N.Y., she sang at various church choirs as a child. She also attended a Catholic elementary school and was a cantor at the church across the street, she said in a 2013 interview with Nylon.
“I loved church,” Del Rey told Nylon. “I loved the mysticism, the idea of something bigger, the idea of a divine plan. For me, the concept of religion transitioned into a really healthy idea of God — I don’t have the traditional views of a conservative Catholic, but my imagination was opened within the big blue-and-gold cathedral walls. I liked the idea of being looked after.”
In recent years, she has been regularly spotted attending services at the Los Angeles branch of Churchome, a Kirkland, Wash.-based megachurch. Its services, held at Beverly Hills’ Saban Theatre, have also drawn a host of other celebrities, such as Kourtney Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ciara and Russell Wilson.
Del Rey included recordings of sermons from the church’s pastor, Judah Smith, in her recent L.A.-inspired album, “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” Bieber did the same in his 2021 gospel EP, “Freedom.”
The inclusion of Smith proved controversial among Del Rey’s fans, given his history as a contributing preacher with Hillsong Church, which has been broiled in controversy, as well as reports of Smith making anti-LGBTQ+ comments in the past. Smith’s wife, Chelsea, defended the pastor in a Marie Claire article and said, “We are a church who love and welcome people regardless of their beliefs or background.”
Earlier this year, Del Rey also received a blessing from a Catholic priest while visiting Rio De Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue.
Coston’s accusations against Del Rey are not the first time social media has been awash with false claims of anti-Christian beliefs. In 2021, videos of individuals burning a Bible over a campfire and others with a lighter, went viral, and falsely claimed they were taken by Del Rey.
Such Christian gatekeepers have referenced Del Rey’s previous comments about witchcraft as ammunition against her.
In 2017, Del Rey admitted to promoting witchcraft as a means to remove Donald Trump from office, according to Pitchfork. She tweeted out dates that align with the waning crescent moon — which is significant to occult followers — when activists were planning to cast binding rituals on Trump.
“Yeah, I did it. Why not? Look, I do a lot of s—,” she told NME later that year.
“I’m in line with Yoko [Ono] and John [Lennon] and the belief that there’s a power to the vibration of a thought,” she told NME. “Your thoughts are very powerful things and they become words, and words become actions, and actions lead to physical charges.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
