Queen of Disaster

"Queen of Disaster" is an unreleased song by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey. Recorded in 2011 and leaked in summer 2013, the song was initially believed to have been recorded as an outtake of Born to Die (2012). The track features a Bollywood sample in its instrumental. The song was originally rumored to have been a leaked single. Upon its leak, the song was being illegally played in clothing stores, shopping malls, and other public spaces, due to its popularity.
Background and composition
Produced by Chris Braide, the song is noted for being more upbeat than traditional Del Rey releases. Thematically, it is about being in a troublesome romance with someone who makes Del Rey feel alive.
While Del Rey has referred to herself as the "Queen of New York City" and "Queen of Saigon" in previous songs, "Queen of Disaster" follows a more symbolic note, with Del Rey suggesting she herself is the ultimate havoc reeker. Michael Biggs of Gigwise called the song a "sixties-influenced track" that is "unlike the gloomy Americana sounds she has pioneered" and called it her "most up tempo track heard from the star to date". Further, the song was likened to the releases of pop girl groups in the early 1960s.
Critical reception
Dan Weiss of Billboard called the track one of her best leaked demos, commenting that "Since Del Rey uses chamber orchestras so much, why not make some chamber-pop out of them? On this glockenspiel-flecked, one-woman girl-group jam she fancies herself a ballerina over a Motown chord progression, with backing soulettes echoing the phrase “so far gone” and bragging how she celebrates “by twisting fate.” Her ability to turn a phrase, melodically or lexically, is often overshadowed by her auteur's mask, but as a bandleader she certainly sounds a lot more disciplined than, say, Kanye West these days."
Legacy
Viral status
In January 2020, the song regained popularity as thousands of videos were uploaded using the song on TikTok. With a spike in streams, the song gained a collective 300 million plays across all uploads on Soundcloud, YouTube, and TikTok, with the most popular YouTube upload with 20 million plays being removed shortly afterwards. Since, various unofficial uploads have achieved a combined 23 million views. Various cover versions of the song have been officially released, with the most popular being a rendition by Lo La, which has received 3 million plays on Spotify as of August 2020.

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