Lana Del Rey

"Without You" (originally labelled as "China Doll") is a song composed by Lana Del Rey from her first major-label release, Born to Die. Without You was first preformed on the first official show of the Born to Die Tour at the Ruby Lounge located in Manchester on November 4, 2011. The track was composed alongside with Sacha Skarbek and produced by Emile Haynie. A demo version of the song first leaked on June 7th, 2012 which featured Del Rey singing over a keyboard and different lyrics in the chorus of the song. Later that year a second version of the demo surfaced with the same vocal take as the album version over a piano instrumental, as a live studio recording. Composition regarding the song is a dramatic pop ballad, Without You serves for 3 minutes and 49 seconds at approximately 112 beats per minute in the key of E♭ minor. The song features electric guitars, distorted vocal samples, keyboards, synthesised bass, artificial drum sounds with heavy delay, with Del Rey's voice layered multiple times throughout the chorus with reverb to give a fuller sound. It is believed that the original background story for this song is linked to the fact that Del Rey has all the materialistic things such as the money, clothes, cars and fame and also has all the accomplishments that she has desired for a long time but all of it seems pointless without "him". Referencing to china doll she is saying that she is willing to let him break her, because she knows inevitably he will but she just wants him therefore she doesn’t care. Within the song she quotes "my life is sweet like vanilla is" which seems to indicate a metaphor regarding to boredom or lack of excitement due to a lack of flavour. Initially she is saying that she is willing to give up her fame and everything that she worked for just to have her past lover back again.