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Lily Allen

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Lily Allen

Lily Rose[1] Allen (born 2 May, 1985[2]) is a pop artist from England signed to Regal/Parlophone (EMI), and known for songs such as "Smile" and "LDN". She is the daughter of actor/comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Her debut single "Smile" reached #1 on the UK singles charts in July 2006.

Early life

Lily Allen was born in Hammersmith, London, eventually settling in the North London borough of Islington. She has an older sister Sarah, a little brother Alfie Owen-Allen and a number of half-siblings including her new baby half-sister, Teddie. Lily also lived with her mother in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. She went to a local primary school, Scoil Bhride and still visits friends there. She changed schools 13 times during her life and got expelled from several of them [3].

Financially, Allen had a privileged upbringing, attending the fee-paying, private schools Hill House and, notably, the exclusive Bedales, famous for being in the top five most expensive schools in the UK.[4].

Contrary to the "street" image Allen has cultivated, she actually enjoyed a highly privileged upbringing, attending exclusive private schools and hob-nobbing from an early age with London's rich and famous.

While holidaying in Ibiza, she was introduced to A&R man and former Audio Bullys manager George Lamb who introduced her to music producers Future Cut, who wrote backing tracks for lyrics she had written.

Regal Records & MySpace

Following a short-lived deal with Warner Music signed in 2002 prior to releasing any music (which she admits was in no small part due to the influence of her father), in late 2005, Allen signed with Regal Records (part of Parlophone/EMI). Despite (alleged) resistance from the label who wanted to send her off to a "hit factory" to record her album, she uploaded the tracks she had written (songs that had her signed in the first place) to community website MySpace in November 2005, regularly updating the growing number of visitors with the latest developments in her life. More and more people discovered her profile with links to her tracks being e-mailed around universities and offices eventually reaching UK music publication NME, reviews site musicOMH.com and online music blog Popjustice. These publications gave her and her demo tracks positive reviews and publicity. Following this exposure way ahead of the proposed album release date, The Observer published a short report on Allen and soon after the demo of her track "LDN" was played on BBC Radio One by DJ Jo Whiley. Because of the buzz generated her release dates were changed and "LDN" was released - on limited edition 7" vinyl only - as Allen's first single on 24 April 2006. This was accompanied by album track Knock 'Em Out on the B-side. She also took a spot at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London in early May, performing every Thursday night for four weeks.

Alright, Still

Lily's debut album Alright, Still was released as a strictly limited edition 12" vinyl in the UK on July 3, 2006, and the full CD release followed in the UK and the rest of Europe on July 17, 2006. The album features 11 tracks, most of which were previewed on her MySpace page, including the single, "Smile" (the first song she ever wrote with Future Cut), "LDN," "Knock 'Em Out," and "Alfie," a song about, and dedicated to, her younger brother, Alfie Owen-Allen. A track called "Friday Night," co-written with Jonny Bull, is also included, alongside "Littlest Things," produced by Mark Ronson.

In concert, Allen performs a parody of 50 Cent's "Window Shopper" called "Nan, You're A Window Shopper," which will be commercially released as a B-side to "LDN," as clearance did not come through in time for the Alright, Still release date.

Discography

Albums

Year Title Chart positions
UK IRL NZ AUS
2006 Alright, Still 2 6 26 7

Singles

Year Song United Kingdom Ireland New Zealand Germany Australia Spain Album
2006 "Smile" 1 6 6 7 14 15 Alright, Still
"LDN" 6 21 — — — — Alright, Still

!Album |- |align="center" rowspan=2|2006 |"Smile" |align="center"|1 |align="center"|6 |align="center"|6 |align="center"|7 |align="center"|14 |align="center"|15

Demos

  • "Truth" (Played in "My Second Mixtape")
  • "Oh My God" (Cover of the Kaiser Chiefs track, played in "My Second Mixtape" - will be commercially released on Mark Ronson's forthcoming second album)
  • "Sunday Morning" (Produced prior to her record contract with Regal, and uploaded to her MySpace, as it was being considered for the album)
  • "Friday Night (Remix)" (also known as "You're Gonna Get Burned")
  • "Blank Expression" (exclusive iTunes track 12 of "Alright, Still" album)
  • "Naïve" (Cover of The Kooks track, played in Live Lounge)

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
2004 Thief: Deadly Shadows Townspeople #1 Video Game (Voice)
2004 Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich Law, Shadow, Silver Bacchite, Charmaine Video Game (Voice)
2002 Freedom Force Law, Pan's Slyphs, Shadow, Civilian Females, Generic Female Hero Video Game (Voice)
1998 Elizabeth Lady in Waiting

Trivia

  • Lived with Harry Enfield when he dated her mother.
  • Lily has been cited as a practitioner of the Mockney accent.
  • Went to private school with Luke Pritchard of The Kooks. She made some disparaging comments about them, and then covered their song "Naive" on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge to show there were "no hard feelings".
  • She has also called Bob Geldof a "cunt"[5] and a "sanctimonious prat"[6].
  • She has claimed Kylie Minogue performing at the Glastonbury Festival would be the ultimate insult to the event.[7]
  • She had previously said on Radio 1 that she loved Chris Moyles, then remarked after being invited on his show that he was too self-obsessed in the presence of his guests – and to make her interview more fun. She then upset Chris's sidekick 'Comedy Dave' by saying his voice didn't match his face, prompting him later to give her a low 4/10 interview score. She was seen leaving the Radio 1 building in tears. [8] [9]
  • 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 Lily's boyfriend[10]). Both songs were then parodied by Chris Moyles on his Radio 1 breakfast show in a song called "Piles".
  • Rapper Sway DaSafo has recorded an answer song of "LDN".
  • When asked by the NME how she would celebrate if her single got to number 1 in the UK charts she responded "gak" (slang term for cocaine). She immediately said that she was joking but the "gak" remark was widely quoted in the tabloid press. Lily has since apologised for the remark.[11][12]
  • Covered "Up The Junction" by Squeeze for a Yahoo! Music performance.
  • She provides backing vocals on the Basement Jaxx track "Lights Go Down" which appears on their fourth studio album Crazy Itch Radio, as well as appearing on tracks on Robbie Williams' latest album, Rudebox.

References

  1. ^ "'It's such a powerful thing, to send your stuff out there and get such a massive response'". The Observer Music Monthly. 2006-03-19. Retrieved 2006-07-24.
  2. ^ Allen, Lily (2006-05-07). "Lily Week and My First Gig". MySpace blog. Retrieved 2006-07-24.
  3. ^ Sawyer, Miranda (2006-05-21). "Pictures of lily". Observer. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Walker, Andrew (2006-07-21). "Faces of the week". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-07-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Allen, Lily. "Lily Allen MySpace Profile". Retrieved 2006-07-24.
  6. ^ Transmission with T-Mobile (TV-Show). 2006-06-17.
  7. ^ "Allen Slams Kylie Glastonbury Appearence". 2006-07-12.
  8. ^ (2006-07-03) Jo Whiley [Radio Show].
  9. ^ (2006-09-27) Chris Moyles [Radio Show].
  10. ^ Allen, Lily. "Untitled Forum Post". Retrieved 2006-07-28.
  11. ^ "Lily Allen: 'Cocaine Celebration Comment Was A Joke'". FemaleFirst.co.uk. 2006-07-19. Retrieved 2006-08-03.
  12. ^ Allen, Lily. "Hey Everyone". Retrieved 2006-08-03.
Interviews
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