What does Dark Paradise mean?

Lana Del Rey: Dark Paradise Meaning

Album cover for Dark Paradise album cover

Song Released: 2012


Get "Dark Paradise" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

Dark Paradise Lyrics

All my friends tell me I should move on
I'm lying in the ocean singing your song
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhh
That's how you sang it
Loving you forever can't be wrong
Even though you're not here, won't move...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 16th 2013 !⃝

    This song really hits home with me as it reminds me of someone very close that I've lost. My personal interpretation is that Lana is suffering from a loss of her closest/best friend. However, what happened was either partly her fault, or she hadn't been able to say goodbye/her last words to that person were harsh or in a fight. The relationship with the person seemed insignificant to everyone else, but very meaningful to her, "ex: all my friends tell me I should move on; loving you forever can't be wrong". Lana doesn't want to forget and "move on" (ex: Even though you're not here, I won't move on), instead she wants to remember the person forever and be with them (ex: All my friends ask me why I stay strong; tell em' when you find true love it lives on. That's why I stay here.) She wants to die to be with them, (ex: But I wish I was dead) but because she'd been harsh with them/they'd be in a fight/other negative situation, she's afraid they won't want to see her/will hate her (ex: I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side). The main point of it, I think, is that everyone else wants her to get over this person, but she can't and she doesn't want to. (ex: And everybody's rushing me, but I can feel you touching me).

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jul 30th 2012 !⃝

    I think that her boyfriend may have died, not from suicide though. I think he may have died when they were very much and happily in love. She was devastated, and it may have been months or even years since his passing and she hasnt moved on, when her friends keep pushing her to do so.

    Sometimes she has the feeling that when she does leave earth to heaven that he wont be waiting on her. Every night she dreams of him and its a dark paradise because even though she loves him so much she knows it just a dream, and when she wakes up, she knows he wont be there.

    "There's no remedy for memories" Theres not a cure for remembering something there's no way to get him out of her head, and she doesnt want him out. She can feel him touching her in her dreams, she wants to be with him so much she doesn't want to wake up.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 24th 2015 !⃝

    This song is about Miss Lana Del Rey's former boyfriend, mysternously called K. K was put in prison for running an illegal business, making Del Rey devastgted.

    After that history lesson, let's get to it. "All my friends tell me I should move on." Lana still loves K, but her friend's want her to find a new guy. "Every time I close my eyes, it's like a dark paradise." Lana dreams about K, and it is hard to get through. "There's no relief, I see you in my dreams, telling me I'm fine." K is in here dreams, telling Lana she will be okay.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 2nd 2023 !⃝

    I think that she had loved a boyfriend and they had a bad break up. She was sad and she saw him in her dreams. She still loves and is trying to move on (ex: all my friends tell me I should move on…) She was depressed and she was a little suicidal. She has felt like she had lost him forever. She gets more and more frustrated because she wants to move on but she dreams about him. She can feel him touching her in her dreams. She never stopped loving him. Maybe it is K or someone else she is talking about.

  5. anonymous
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    Nov 29th 2020 !⃝

    Im the quoute "I'm lying in the ocean, singing your song" I can think the guy die drown on the sea... It's my theory :)

  6. anonymous
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    Apr 21st 2020 !⃝

    I think it is clear, that this song is about a lost person Lana had a very close connection to. But I still want to give my opinion here :)
    So, a close person died a while ago and everyone around her is wanting her to go on and finally suceed in living without the dead friend/lover/whatever. This is something which happens in a lot of cases like that. But Lana (and a lot of people who lost somebody) don´t want or just aren´t able to live like the dead person hasn´t been there, like they´re forgotten. I think the part "I´m lying in the ocean singing your song" maybe means she is diving in memories trying to get back to the time she spent with the lost one. She is just not able to forget him/her, she dreams about him/her. The part : "Your soul is hunting me and telling me
    That everything is fine
    But I wish I was dead" probably means, she knows that the person would want her to live on but she starts getting depressive and wanting to die too.But as she wants to die, maybe to be with the lost person, she is scared that there is no heaven (I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side).She starts to kinda live in her dreams, cause she is kinda meeting the person there and she doesn´t wants to leave. She is giving up her real life, getting deeper and deeper into depression, suicidal feelings, she is seeing the person everytime she closes her eyes...

    Probably the dead person is the mysterious K ;)
    Also i am rlly sorry for speaking a bad english, my motherlanguage is german :)

  7. anonymous
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    Aug 4th 2019 !⃝

    I think it’s just a song written to her friends about how they should mind their is damn business.

  8. anonymous
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    Jul 29th 2017 !⃝

    From the first time I heard this song I knew what the lyrics meant. It was like I wrote it for the person that I loved (and still love) and lost. And the fact that she rarely performs it live and it always makes her emotional ,I guess it means she lost the love of her life somehow. Her friends tell her she must move on with her life ,but she don't want to and she will keep loving him even though he is not here anymore. She feels like he is telling her it's alright ,but sometimes she wants to die ,just to be with him again ,but she is afraid he won't be "on the other side" waiting for her. When she is asleep is a dark paradise for her ,because she is with her love again.

  9. anonymous
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    Oct 6th 2013 !⃝

    Her loved one dies and this song is about how she still grieves for him. Her friends ask her why she still holds on and how she's stayed so strong. She's still in love with Him and wants to be with him so much that she's willing to kill herself. The ghost of him haunts her

  10. Dawnseve
    click a star to vote
    Jul 21st 2013 !⃝

    This song is very close to my heart. I'm not sure about him dying for any reason but, I swear she wrote this for my situation. It's pretty self explanatory for most part. Everyone's telling her to move on and how does she stay strong yet she doesn't listen bc it's a real, true love that never dies. She won't move on and at the same time, she's worried he may not feel the same " I'm scared that u won't be waiting on the other side" as if he will get over her but she can't. In my situation , I'm married but my hubby and I have been not living together for almost a yr due to personal issues but we see each other and talk everyday. People ask me the same, why don't I move on, how do I handle it? And as Lana says "when u find true love it lives on."

  11. anonymous
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    Mar 22nd 2013 !⃝

    I think she is talking about her old self...

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Nov 28th 2012 !⃝

    Actually, this song is about her boyfriend that had died in a car accident not in a suicide.

  13. anonymous
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    Mar 6th 2012 !⃝

    Apparently this is about how her boyfriend at the time committed suicide. She was miserable and really wanted to commit suicide as well to see him on the other side.

  14. anonymous
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    Feb 21st 2012 !⃝

    Her boyfriend has passed away and she can't get over him

  15. anonymous
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    Feb 10th 2012 !⃝

    someone has left her and she can't let go


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