9. Lana Del Rey – Elizabeth Woolridge Grant
This songstress has been making a name for herself in the past three years. She has released three albums, with her fourth, Honeymoon, releasing this month. But before her fame, she was born and known as Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, or Lizzie Grant.
Before the success of “Summertime Sadness”, “Video Games” or “Young and Beautiful”, she released an album in 2010, under Lizzie, titled Lana Del Ray, aka, Lizzie Grant. The album was pulled from retailers since the label could not fund it, and she purchased the rights off them.
Her response to the name change? Lana says it never felt like it belonged to her and when she decided to change it, she did not fight the creative urge.
8. CeeLo Green – Thomas DeCarlo Callaway
Before his days sitting on The Voice chair with his ever-changing co-mentors, CeeLo Green was mostly known for his involvement in the project known as Gnarls Barkley. Their debut album, St. Elsewhere, hit the top spot in the UK and sold over 1.6 million copies in the United States alone. The single “Crazy” has over five million downloads worldwide.
Fast-forward years later and his song “F*** You”, co-written by Bruno Mars, became a smash, topping over six million downloads in the US alone, and breaking taboos when using blatant profanities in a pop tune’s title.
The Atlanta performer was born Thomas DeCarlo Callaway. He told VH1 that CeeLo is an abbreviation of Carlo.
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