Early years
Allen was born in Hammersmith, west London, daughter of Welsh-born comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.[5] 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 god-daughter of Wild Colonials vocalist Angela McCluskey and is also the god-daughter 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.[6] When Allen was four years old, her father left the family.[7] 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.[8] 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, Millfield and Bedales School,[7] and was expelled from several of them for drinking, smoking and performing fellatio.[9]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.[10][11]Allen made an appearance as a lady-in-waiting in the 1998 film Elizabeth, co-produced by her mother, Alison Owen.[12] 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."[13] 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.[13]Personal life
Lily Allen performing in June 2007
Lily Allen performing in June 2007
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 The Sunday Times 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".[14]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.[15]Allen suffered a miscarriage on 16 January 2008 after returning from holiday with Ed Simons of The Chemical Brothers. The child would have been the first for both parties. The couple met in September, 2007. The pregnancy was said to have changed Allen’s entire outlook on life.[16][17][18] Allen returned to work on 23 January. The singer was said to be "incredibly low at the moment, but doesn't want to let her fans down".[19][20] According to the Allen's father her relationship with Ed Simons has ended.[21]Allen was a smoker before she gave up the habit during her pregnancy.[22] .
In an interview for Glamour magazine Allen said she stopped drinking during her failed pregnancy and has been staying at home during the evenings to avoid temptation making her "sad and lonely". Allen revealed she took ecstasy at age 14[23].
In her blog Allen blamed the Paparazzi for smashing the windows of her car. She wrote that her friend was cut when she sat in the car and that she was angered and upset by what she called a scary situation.
Allen's bedroom is decorated with paintings by Damien Hirst and Paul Simonon who was a member of the iconic punk rock group The Clash.[24]Allen said she her dress size has increased from size 8 to a size 12. Allen blamed the stress of her television show for the increase in her weight and said she intends to be back at a size 8 by this summer. [25]Record label interest
Allen met her first manager, George Lamb, in Ibiza when he saved her from several assailants and sent her home.[13][26] Allen was rejected by several labels, which she attributed to her drinking and being the daughter of Keith Allen.[26] Lily eventually used her father's connections to get signed to Warner Music in 2002.[27] When the executive who had signed her left, the label lost interest and she left without releasing the folk songs they had presented her.[27][28]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.[28] 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.[29]
Popularity on MySpace
Allen created an account on MySpace and began posting demos in November 2005.[29] The demos attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7" vinyl singles of "LDN" were rush-released, reselling for as much as £40.[13][29] 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.[13] 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.[29]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.[29]The social networking site was the primary hub for messages of support and condolence following her January 2008 miscarriage.[30][31]Allen received a 2008 NME Award nomination for the category of "Best Band Blog"[32]As of 25 April 2008 Allen's songs have been downloaded from her MySpace page 19 million times.[33]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,[34] 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 "Producer of the Year - Non Classical" 2008 Grammy Award[35]. The album was released on January 30, 2007 in the United States, selling 34,000 copies to land #20 on the Billboard Album Charts.[36]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.[37]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.
New Direction
In April 2008 Allen was hard at work in the studio and said she was heading in a "new direction". She posted two new song demos on her My Space page and plans to release a mixtape shortly to gi |
