Lana Del Rey’s new single isn’t actually a new song. ‘Say Yes To Heaven’ was originally recorded in 2013, but failed to make the cut for her ‘Ultraviolence’ album, with various mixes leaked in the years since then.
The track was finally released last Friday, with TikTok playing an instrumental role in the process. Why? The most 2023 of trends: a sped-up version going viral on the social app.
TikTok told Music Ally that different versions of the sound have been used in more than 1m video creations in recent weeks, which is what spurred the official release of the full track, as well as its sped-up version, on streaming services.
(Thus far, the original version is proving more popular on Spotify, with 16.4m streams compared to the sped-up edit’s 3.8m. Which does reinforce the sense that TikTok is the native platform for the latter.)
Lana Del Rey herself has a presence on TikTok, with 3.1 million followers, although at the time of writing there is only one video posted to her profile: a good-luck message for last year’s Eurovision Song Contest!