Lily Allen

Lily Rose Beatrice Allen (born 2 May 1985) is an English singer-songwriter best known for songs such as "Smile" and "LDN," and for her collaboration with Common entitled "Drivin' Me Wild." She is the daughter of actor/musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.

Her single "Smile" reached number one on the UK singles charts in July 2006. In December 2006, her debut album Alright, Still was voted the third best album of the year by Mixmag.[2] In 2007, it was nominated for the award of Best British Album at the Brit Awards and for Best New Artist at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. The album was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of "Best Alternative Music Album" [3].
Contents
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* 1 Early years
* 2 Record label interest
* 3 Popularity on MySpace
* 4 Debut album
* 5 The Next Album
* 6 Recent activity
* 7 Current and Possible Future Film / TV Roles
* 8 Public persona
* 9 Reception
o 9.1 Award history
* 10 Personal life
* 11 Discography
o 11.1 Albums
o 11.2 Singles
o 11.3 Non-album songs
o 11.4 Features/Collaborations
* 12 References
* 13 External links

Early years

Allen was born in Hammersmith, west London, daughter of Welsh-born comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.[4] She and her family eventually settled in the North London borough of Islington. She has an older sister, Sarah; a younger brother, Alfie Owen-Allen (who was the subject of her song "Alfie"); and a younger sister Rebecca. She also has a number of half-siblings. Lily Allen lived for a while with comedian Harry Enfield while her mother dated him. She is the goddaughter of Wild Colonials vocalist Angela McCluskey and is also the goddaughter of late Clash singer and guitarist, Joe Strummer.

In 1988, Allen appeared on The Comic Strip Presents... episode "The Yob", which her father had co-written.[5] When Allen was four years old, her father left the family.[6] Allen claims to have grown up with her mother in a working class environment, living in a council house environment for most of her childhood.[7] This certainly seems at odds with the fact that she attended some of England's costliest public schools; Allen attended 13 schools in all, including Prince Charles's junior alma mater, Hill House School and Bedales School,[6] and was expelled from several of them for drinking, smoking and performing fellatio.[8]

Allen told Loveline that at age 11 she was singing an Oasis tune in the schoolyard when a teacher overheard her and told her she had talent and suggested she do something with it. She took singing lessons with the teacher. She sang at a school play and claimed that the audience was brought to tears at the sight of a troubled young girl doing something good. At that point Allen said she knew that music was something she needed to do either as a lifelong vocation or to get it out of her system. She became a member of the Groucho Club at the age of 17 and in her free time, she listened to artists such as The Specials, T.Rex, and Happy Mondays and read.[9].[10]

Allen made an appearance as a lady-in-waiting in the 1998 film Elizabeth, produced by her mother.[11] She dropped out of school at age fifteen, not wanting to "spend a third of her life preparing to work for the next third of her life, to set herself up with a pension for the next third of her life."[12] After her family went to Ibiza on vacation, Allen told her mother that she was staying with friends but remained in Sant Antoni de Portmany instead. She earned money by working at a Plastic Fantastic record store and dealing in ecstasy.[12]

Allen's vocals appeared on the single "Who Invented Fish & Chips?" by Fat Les, in which her father was the lead singer of the band.

Record label interest

Allen met her first manager, George Lamb, when he saved her from several assailants and sent her home.[12][13] Allen was rejected by several labels, which she attributed to her drinking and being the daughter of Keith Allen.[13] Lily eventually used her father's connections to get signed to Warner Music in 2002.[14] When the executive who had signed her left, the label lost interest and she left without releasing the folk songs they had presented her.[14][15]

Allen studied horticulture with the intent of becoming a florist but changed her mind and returned to music. She began writing songs, and her manager introduced her to production duo Future Cut in 2004. They worked in a small studio in the basement of an office building.[15] In 2005 Allen was signed to Regal Records; they gave her GB£25,000 to produce an album, though they were unable to provide much support for it due to their preoccupation with other releases such as Coldplay's X&Y and Gorillaz' Demon Days.[16]

Popularity on MySpace

Allen created an account on MySpace and began posting demos in November 2005.[16] The demos attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7" vinyl singles of "LDN" were rush-released, reselling for as much as £40.[12][16] Allen also produced two mixtapes — My First Mixtape and My Second Mixtape — to promote her work: they included tracks by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dizzee Rascal, and Ludacris. As she accumulated tens of thousands of MySpace friends, The Observer Music Monthly, a magazine published in The Observer, took interest.[12] Few people outside of her label's A&R department knew who she was, so the label was slow in responding to publications wanting to report about her.[16]

In March 2006, OMM included an article about Allen's success through MySpace, and she received her first major mainstream coverage appearing in the magazine's cover story two months later. The success of her songs convinced her label to allow her more creative control over the album and to use some of the songs that she had written instead of attempts to work with mainstream producers. Allen decided to work with producers Greg Kurstin and Mark Ronson, finishing the rest of the album in two weeks.[16]

Debut album

*
"LDN"
Play sound
The first song released as a single, featuring ska influence and a sample of "Reggae Merengue".
* Problems playing the files? See media help.

Allen's debut album, Alright, Still, was released as a limited-edition 12" vinyl in the UK on July 3, 2006; the full CD release followed in the UK and the rest of Europe on July 17, 2006. The album features between 11 and 14 tracks (depending on the copy of the CD), most of which were previewed on her MySpace page,[17] including the single "Smile" (the first song she ever wrote with Future Cut), "LDN", "Knock 'Em Out", and "Alfie". "Friday Night", co-written with Jonny Bull, is also included, alongside "Littlest Things", produced by Mark Ronson which among other works earned Ronson a 2008 Grammy Award nomination for "Producer of the Year"[18]. The album was released on January 30, 2007 in the United States, selling 34,000 copies to land #20 on the Billboard Album Charts.[19]

In September 2006, "Smile" was made available on the United States version of Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store. As of December 2006, her music video for "Smile" has been played on various music channels as well as the song getting a little airplay. She has also done several promotional ads for MTV as their Discover and Download artist of the month for January.

On the week ending on January 28, 2007, British artists made chart history taking all Top 10 places in the Official UK Albums chart for the first time since the chart was established in 1956, according to British record labels trade association the BPI, the album "Alright, Still" was number nine that week.[20]

Entertainment Weekly named "Alright, Still" as one of the top 10 albums of 2006 despite the fact that it had not yet been released in the U.S. The album was released in the United States on 30 January 2007, with "Smile" serviced to radio in January as the first single. The U.S. version contains three additional tracks: "Nan, You're A Window Shopper," "Blank Expression" (on the iTunes version) and a new remix of "Smile" by Mark Ronson.

In concert, Allen performed a parody of 50 Cent's "Window Shopper", called "Nan, You're a Window Shopper", which was commercially released as a B-side to "LDN", because approval was not given in time for the Alright, Still release. Nonetheless, the song appears on the U.S. version of Alright, Still.

The Next Album

The singer is said to be hard at work on her next album but as of late December, 2007 the tracks are all in the very early stages. The original plan was to spend early 2008 in the studio and then promote her album. But her record company is said to feel that this is an schedule is overly optimistic in light of her pregnancy despite her spokespersons announcement that the pregnancy will have no effect on planned release of the album and the singers determination to release the album before she gives birth.[21]

Recent activity
Allen performing in June 2007.
Allen performing in June 2007.

Allen provided backing vocals on the Basement Jaxx song "Lights Go Down" (from Crazy Itch Radio) and appears on tracks on Robbie Williams's latest album, Rudebox on the Manu Chao-cover "Bongo Bong and Je Ne T'Aime Plus" (produced by Mark Ronson ) and also on "Keep On". She also provides vocals on "Rawhide" by Jamie T and "Wanna Be" by Dizzee Rascal.

On 5 March 2007 "Alfie" was released. It reached #15 in the UK Singles-Chart. Upon hearing this song, her brother Alfie threw her laptop out of a window in revenge. Her newest single "Oh My God", produced by Mark Ronson reached #12 in the UK (downloads only), in the second week it jumped up to #8.

Allen performed to positive reviews[22][23] when Irving Plaza was rechristened as The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza on April 11, 2007.[24] Her style of cocktail dresses and athletic shoes gained popularity, resulting in the May 2007 premiere of Lily Loves, a line of dresses, shoes, and accessories sold through New Look.[25] Fashion gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine were quick to praise her New Look range for being designed more for the "curvy" women, rather than the clothing lines of Kate Moss and Madonna which they argue are only limited to the women with the slimmest figures.[26]

Allen is currently working with Future Cut on a second album but has avoided mentioning details about it, stating that "that's a mistake a lot of people make these days, when they have a successful first album, and then the record company pushes them into rushing a second one."[27]

In June 2007, she hosted The Friday Night Project, in which she showed her co-hosts and the audience her third nipple.[28]

On August 5, 2007 Allen was detained at Los Angeles international airport for five hours and questioned over an alleged assault on a photographer in London in March. The U.S. authorities revoked her working visa [29] though her manager denies this.[30]

She cancelled her appearance in MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas and later sacked her music management company blaming them for her ban on entering America.

In 2008, Allen's music will be featured in the film movie adaptation of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance.

The singer has been appointed to be a judge on the panel of the Orange Broadband Prize for fiction a prestigious literary award for female authors [31],[32].

Allen has been selected to open Harrods annual winter sale on 28 December 2007. Allen will arrive in a horse-drawn carriage at 9 a.m. and be treated to a tour of the store's bargains by Harrods' chairman Mohamed Al Fayed[33].

Current and Possible Future Film / TV Roles

The singer has been cast as Lydia Bennett in a spoof film version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The singer said "I really want to explore the acting route more, but nothing which involves me taking my clothes off. I don't want to go down that route like a lot of aspiring young actresses do. I just want to do proper cool stuff. I definitely feel the time is right to explore acting."[34]

On 13 November 2007, it was reported by The Sun in the UK that Allen may star as the new assistant in a future series of Doctor Who.

The singer has landed a deal to present her own BBC Three TV show, based on the social networking phenomenon that helped to launch her music career.[35]

Public persona

Allen has been the subject of many controversies, mainly because of her expressed opinions of other musicians. She went to private school with Luke Pritchard of The Kooks, made some disparaging comments about them, and then covered their song "Naïve" on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge to show there were "no hard feelings". She has also called Bob Geldof a "cunt"[36] and a "sanctimonious prat",[37] and has claimed that Kylie Minogue performing at the Glastonbury Festival would be the ultimate insult to the event, although in context it was not an insult to Minogue.[38] Her 2007 performance on the pyramid stage included negative lyrics directed towards Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole.[39]

She also said that everyone who bought Paris Hilton's debut album should be killed off.[40]

When asked by the NME how she would celebrate if her debut single, "Smile", got to Number 1 in the UK charts, she responded "gak" (a slang term for cocaine). She immediately said that she was joking, but the remark was widely quoted in the tabloid press. Allen has since apologized for the remark.[41][42] She admitted in an NME interview that she worked as an ecstasy drug dealer at the age of 15 whilst living in Sant Antoni de Portmany, though she wasn't very good at it.[43]

During her August 2007 V Festival appearances she called President Bush "A fucking cunt" and made fun of the well publicized troubles of fellow British singer Amy Winehouse saying "It's the end of the weekend, you have got to have a drink. Here's to Amy Winehouse... ha!". She also took digs at Winehouse's heroin addiction and eating disorders.[44]

Allen criticized Radiohead's decision to market their new album In Rainbows for free claiming that it will make it more difficult for bands to break into the industry. "It's arrogant for them to give their music away for free—they've got millions of pounds. It sends a weird message to younger bands who haven't done as well”[45]

The singer accused the British Tabloids of being sexist and having a double standard in the way they treat male and female musicians. She was quoted as saying "I don't think like young women doing well, or having fun. I mean, James Blunt goes out and gets on it and no one cares. We do that and it's all over the papers. It's sad. Those people who write for those gossip magazines, they're not even writers. They can't even punctuate."[46]

Also in that month the singer has said that her earlier comments making fun of other pop stars were a result of lack of confidence saying "I felt like Oh God, I'm short, fat, ugly and I hate all these people who flaunt their beauty" She also proclaimed "I feel great at the moment. I actually don't have one bad thing to say about anything."[47]

Reception

Allen has been the subject of both strong positive and negative reactions. She was included on the NME Cool List for 2006, but she complained in her blog that the treatment was "fucking patronising". She was voted the third coolest person of the year in NME Magazine.[48] She ranked "Number One Reason to Love '07"[49] and "Hottest Woman of Pop/R&B."[50] in Blender magazine. On the other hand, she was also rated number 10 in BBC Three's Most Annoying Person of 2006.

Rapper Example has recorded a new version of "Smile" called "Vile", which is an answer song written from the perspective of the ex-boyfriend (although he was never actually Allen's boyfriend[51]). Both songs were then parodied by Chris Moyles on his Radio 1 breakfast show in a song called "Piles". "LDN" has spawned an answer song by rapper Sway DaSafo and a remix by UK grime artist JME.

Award history

* BRIT Awards
o 2007, Best British Single: "Smile" (Nominated)
o 2007, Best British Album: Alright, Still (Nominated)
o 2007, Best British Female (Nominated)
o 2007, Best British Breakthrough Act: "Smile" (Nominated)

* NME Awards
o 2007, Worst Dressed (Won)
o 2007, Best Solo Artist (Nominated)
o 2007, Sexiest Woman (Nominated)
o 2007, Worst Album: Alright, Still (Nominated)

* MTV Awards
o 2007 Best New Artist (Nominated)

* Q Awards
o 2007 Best Video "Alfie" (Nominated)

* Grammy Awards
o 2008, Best Alternative Music Album: Alright, Still (Nominated)

Personal life

At age 15, Allen spent four weeks at The Priory clinic under 24 hour watch after the singer, distraught over a breakup with a boyfriend, took an overdose and tried to cut her wrists. Allen recently told Sunday Times Magazine that "In my teens I did experiment with drugs” and “I don’t know anyone now who isn’t a drug-taker in recovery from drugs or on prescription drugs"[52].

In November 2007, the singer revealed that she has been diagnosed with a heart murmur. The singer sparked concern when she shed 19lbs (8.6kg) and dropped from a UK size 12 to a size eight in just six weeks. Allen explained the weight loss on cutting back on the "crap" she eats and going to the gym three times a week to do a "hardcore routine" as a reaction to the diagnosis.[53]

In December 2007, it was confirmed that Allen is pregnant. The father is her boyfriend Ed Simons of the Chemical Brothers, whom she has been dating since September. According to a friend "Lily is thrilled to be pregnant and can’t wait to become a mum. She’s a real family person."[54],[55]