Lily Allen

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Lily Allen
Background information
Birth name	Lily Allen
Born	May 02, 1985 (age 21)
Origin	Hammersmith, London, England
Genre(s)	Pop
Label(s)	Regal Records/Parlophone/EMI
Website	LilyAllenMusic.com

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 single "Smile" reached #1 on the UK singles charts in July 2006.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Regal Records & MySpace 3 Alright, Still 4 Controversies 5 Discography 5.1 Albums 5.2 Singles 5.3 Demos 5.4 Samples used 6 Filmography 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early life

Allen was born in Hammersmith, London, eventually settling 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 number of half-siblings including her new baby half-sister, Teddie. Lily also lived with her mother in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland where she went to a local primary school, Scoil Bhride. Allen has cultivated a "street" image, but she actually enjoyed a highly 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.^[3]. She changed schools 13 times during her childhood and was expelled from several of them ^[4].

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 tracks for lyrics she had written.

[edit] 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" produced by her records 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.

[edit] 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 performed a parody of 50 Cent's "Window Shopper" called "Nan, You're A Window Shopper," which is commercially released as a B-side to "LDN," as clearance did not come through in time for the Alright, Still release date.

[edit] Controversies

Allen has been the subject of many controversies, many due to her opinions about other artists. She has been cited as a practitioner of the Mockney accent^{[citation needed]}. She went to private school with Luke Pritchard of The Kooks, 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] and 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]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Year	Title	Chart positions
		UK	IRL	NZ	AUS	JP
2006	Alright, Still	2	6	26	7	37

[edit] Singles

Year	Song	United Kingdom	Ireland	New Zealand	Germany	Australia	Spain	Album
2006	"Smile"	1	6	6	67	14	15	Alright, Still
	"LDN"	6	21	—	—	—	—	Alright, Still
	"Littlest Things"	—	—	—	—	—	—	Alright, Still

[edit] 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)

[edit] Samples used

Lily's album Alright, Still is based on the use of many samples :

• Littlest things : Pierre Bachelet, Emmanuelle in the mirror and Theme from Emmanuelle (Emmanuelle soundtrack)
• Smile : The Soul Brothers, Free Soul
• Knock em out : Professor Longhair, Big Chief
• LDN : Tommy McCook & The Supersonics Reggae Merengue
• Friend of mine : John Holt For The Love Of You
• Cherryl Tweedy (Smile B-Side) : Origin Unknown Valley of the Shadows
• Friday night : The Specials Blank Expression

[edit] 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

[edit] Trivia

• Lived with Harry Enfield when he dated her mother.^{[citation needed]}
• 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.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official French website
• Lily Allen at MySpace
• Lily Allen Photo Gallery
• Lily Allen at the Internet Movie Database
• Lily Allen Forum

Interviews

• Interview with musicOMH.com
• Interview with SquirrelFood
• Interview with Slam X Hype
• Interview in Sydney at YouTube