Lana Del Rey’s James Bond Theme Was Rejected

As Lana Del Rey was busy winning the Special International Award at this week’s Ivor Novello Awards (23 May), backstage, she talked about a time when she didn’t win.

Back in 2015, Del Rey wrote a song for the James Bond movie Spectre, she revealed. The song, 24, ended up featuring on her album, Honeymoon.

When asked if she’d ever consider writing a Bond theme song, the A&W singer responded (via the BBC), “I mean, how has that not happened?” and shared that she wrote 24 for Spectre.

Expressing her hopes that one day, she’ll end up with a Bond song, Del Rey added, “Sam, you did a wonderful job”, referencing the winning track of Spectre, Sam Smith’s Writing’s On The Wall.

“One day, maybe... But I'm going to continue to do my little Nancy Sinatra thing every now and then and just pretend it's the title track.”

During the awards night, English singer RAYE – who won the Songwriter of the Year award – commented, “I can't believe she would have been rejected by them because she just has the perfect energy for it.

“I feel like she would eat that up – and I feel like that should happen in the future.”

RAYE added that she’d “roll over backwards” to score her own Bond song.

Lana Del Rey wasn’t the only artist rejected for the 2015 Bond film, with Radiohead recording a song filled with dramatic swelling strings called Spectre.

Earlier this year, Del Rey hinted that she’d join the ranks of pop/alternative artists exploring country music with a new album called Lasso set for a September 2024 release.

“If you can’t already tell by our award winners and our performers, the music business is going country,” she said at a pre-Grammy Awards event (per Rolling Stone). “We’re going country. It’s happening. That’s why [producer] Jack [Antonoff] has followed me to Muscle Shoals, Nashville, Mississippi, over the last four years.”

Del Rey released her ninth album, Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, last March. The album debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums and Vinyl Chart, giving the singer her fifth #1 album in Australia.