Lana Del Rey‘s newest release, the lullaby-like “Bluebird” just released on Friday (April 18), is a song that’s been years in the making. The ballad first came to her while she held a little bird in her hands, shaken up after the small creature had crashed into her window.
The singer shared the story behind the delicate “Bluebird” in an impromptu video filmed on her way to rehearsal on Friday.
“I started humming this chorus to myself, with the words and the melody, a long time ago when I had been seeing someone for a very long time — and we hadn’t seen each other for a while, and he called,” Lana said in the clip uploaded on Instagram. “And he asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I was kind of excited, but I didn’t think it was a very good idea.”
Still, she said yes and began to get ready to meet him. She was startled by what happened next.
“All of a sudden a bird smacked in the double-pane window doors of my bedroom,” Lana recalled.
“I was shocked, and I opened the little door and I saw this little, I think it was a little sparrow, little swallow, right there, and I just was so emotional — because you know when you just know that something is meant for you?” she said. “Like sometimes I feel like nature has its own way of communicating with you, especially in extremely severe situations — not in a sacrificial way, just in a way just for you to know.”
Lana continued, “I just wanted to hold it. I was so hoping that it would be OK. I remember before I could even think, I just sat, knelt there, and I just sang, ‘Little bird, little bird, fly away for both of us.’ I was just kind of tearing up for myself and for the bird.”
As the story goes, the little bird did “eventually kind of stumble away,” and did fly away, according to Lana, who didn’t follow suit; she went on that walk anyway.
“That is not the first time that I have had something happen where a bird has been a little bit of a message for me,” she shared.
On the introspective “Bluebird,” she sings: “For your thoughts are small, they can’t keep you from leavin’/ As the wake of my past crashes in/ I hear the door slam, but the window’s wide open/ We both shouldn’t be dealing with him/ Find a way to fly/ Find a way to fly/ Just shoot for the sun ’til I can finally run/ Find a way to fly.”
“Bluebird” is the second song to be released ahead of her upcoming 10th studio album, the first being “Henry, Come On.” The record, once said to have country roots and called Lasso, and then known as The Right One Will Stay, is presently untitled and without a firm release date. Though it was expected just weeks from now, last week Lana casually broke the news to fans that May is no longer looking likely for the follow-up to 2023’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd: “You know it’s not going to come on time, right?”
She’ll be performing at this year’s Stagecoach, the annual country music festival held in Indio, California, the weekend after Coachella. She’s billed as having “a very special country set” by the fest.
See her talk about the origin of “Bluebird” below.
