After Spectre Snub, Lana Del Rey Lands Her Bond Song

Back in 2015, Lana Del Rey wrote a song called "24" for the Bond film Spectre, the franchise's 24th entry. Producers passed on it, choosing Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall" instead. Eleven years later, Del Rey has her Bond song after all. IO Interactive confirmed today that Del Rey performs and co-created the title track for 007 First Light, the studio's upcoming James Bond game.

The track, also titled "First Light," was composed alongside David Arnold, who scored five consecutive Bond films from Tomorrow Never Dies through Quantum of Solace. It had been an open secret for months; Del Rey registered the song with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers late last year under her real name, Elizabeth Grant, and fans connected the dots almost immediately. But hearing the finished product is a different experience. It opens with a slow, sultry build before the orchestra swells into full spy-score mode, and there are some cheeky lyrical nods to the fact that this is a game rather than a film: "Dying just to know whether you'll play your life like a game / Will you play?" I like it more than I expected to. It doesn't reinvent the Bond theme formula, and I can see the argument that it plays things safe, but Del Rey's voice suits the vibe better than most modern picks. After the Spectre rejection, there's something satisfying about her finally getting the gig, even if it's for a game rather than a film.

Opinions across the internet are predictably split. Some critics have called it flat and derivative; others think it slots neatly into the Bond canon. That's par for the course with these songs. Every Bond theme since Skyfall has been measured against Adele's, and nothing has cleared that bar yet. What matters more for IO Interactive is whether the game itself delivers. 007 First Light launches May 27 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with a Switch 2 version delayed to later this summer. The studio has been battling leaks for weeks, including what many believe to be the game's ending surfacing online, so a polished theme song drop feels like one of the few reveals IO has actually gotten to control.