Lily Allen Bio

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Lily Allen Biography

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This Lily Allen biography contains information believed to be accurate as extracted from sources around the internet including Wikipedia. If you believe there are errors or omissions in this Lily Allen bio, please let us know so that we can correct any inaccuracies.

Lily Rose Beatrice Allen (born 2 May 1985) is an English singer-songwriter best known for songs such as "Smile" and "LDN". She is the daughter of actor/musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Allen also hosts her own BBC Three talk show Lily Allen and Friends.

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. 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".

Lily Allen: Early years

Allen was born in Hammersmith, west London, daughter of Welsh-born comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. 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. When Allen was four years old, her father left the family. 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. 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, and was expelled from several of them for drinking, smoking and performing fellatio.

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.

Allen made an appearance as a lady-in-waiting in the 1998 film Elizabeth, co-produced by her mother, Alison Owen. 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." 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.

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.

Lily Allen: Personal life

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".

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.

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. 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".

It has been reported that the couple have broken off their relationship after her miscarriage put a huge strain on it. Allen's spokesman is refusing comment on the issue.

Allen confirmed she has been the victim of identity theft. A stripper obtained her taxi cab account and ran up a £3,500 bill.

Lily is a 20-a-day smoker who smokes Marlboro Lights. She gave up smoking whislt she was pregnant .

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 aged 14.

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 her car and that she was angered and upset by what she called a scary situation.

Lily Allen: Record label interest

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

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. 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.

Lily Allen: Popularity on MySpace

Allen created an account on MySpace and began posting demos in November 2005. The demos attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7" vinyl singles of "LDN" were rush-released, reselling for as much as £40. 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. 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.

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.

The social networking site was the primary hub for messages of support and condolence following her January 2008 miscarriage.

Allen received a 2008 NME Award nomination for the category of "Best Band Blog"

Lily Allen: Debut album

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, 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. The album was released on January 30, 2007 in the United States, selling 34,000 copies to land #20 on the Billboard Album Charts.

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.

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.

Lily Allen: Recent activity

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 when Irving Plaza was rechristened as The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza on April 11, 2007. 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. 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.

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."

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

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 though her manager denies this.

She canceled 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.

On 28 December 2007 Allen opened the annual Harrods winter sale arriving in a green horse-drawn carriage. Allen turned down an offer to launch her own range of maternity wear because she felt her early pregnancy is a bad example that would send the wrong message to young girls.

Allen appeared on Channel 4 The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, hosted by Jimmy Carr which was broadcast on December 30, 2007, she was on the same team as Jonathan Ross. Their team were second, beaten by Rob Brydon and David Mitchell by one point.

Allen canceled a scheduled appearance at this years Isle of Wight Festival telling festival promoter John Giddings the reason for the cancellation is because her album is behind schedule. Giddings said that the reason given is not acceptable and possibly a lie. Giddings has decided not to sue her.

Lily Allen: 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."

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.

In 2007 the singer signed a one series contract to present her own BBC Three TV show entitled Lily Allen and Friends based on the social networking phenomenon that helped to launch her music career. According to Allen the show will feature "good celebrity guests, not rubbish ones, and brilliant bands playing brilliant music". The singer asked her My Space friends to suggest the name for the show. Her My Space friends will also have the chance to suggest questions for her guests, be part of the audience, and perform live music.. There have been numerous tabloid and website reports that during the tapeing of the first episode that aired on 12 February more than a third of the studio audience walked out saying they were bored and complaining it was "horrible" and "limp". Allen said the members of the audience left because the taping ran late and people had to leave to catch trains. The guests on the first show were Cuba Gooding Junior and David Mitchell .. The show received a 2% share of the total mutli-channel audience share despite a high-profile nationwide marketing campaign . Her third show received a 2.7% share

The BBC was criticized by several teacher unions for a video shown on "Lily Allen and Friends" that apparently showed a student running up from behind and pulling down his teachers trousers. The unions said airing this clip was irresponsible and greatly added to the teachers embarrassment. While introducing the clip Allen called it kegging and said "It's very childish, but very funny".

Allen is collaborating with The Levellers on an animated film project that is part of a campaign to encourage British Workers to upgrade their skills

Lily Allen: 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" and a "sanctimonious prat", 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. Her 2007 performance on the pyramid stage included negative lyrics directed towards Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole.

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

When asked by the NME how she would celebrate if her début 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. 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.

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.

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."

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 they 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." She opined that she was "really irritated" at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's decision to clamp down on celebrities public drunkenness and said a better solution would be to restrict the paparazzi.

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."

On her television show she accused models who were appearing on her show of smelling of vomit and said she saw that the skin on the models backs was discolored and was pushing up against their spines. She said "It's really sick. It's horrible.". Several veterans of fashion shows including F!D luxe editor Tracy Achor Hayes in reaction to her remarks claimed they had never smelled vomit while sitting at fashion shows.

Lily Allen: 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. She ranked "Number One Reason to Love '07" and "Hottest Woman of Pop/R&B." in Blender magazine. On the other hand, she was also rated number 10 on BBC Three's list of Most Annoying People 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). 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.

Lily Allen - Award history

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

• NME Awards
  • 2007, Worst Dressed (Nominated)
  • 2007, Best Solo Artist (Nominated)
  • 2007, Sexiest Woman (Nominated)
  • 2007, Worst Album: Alright, Still (Nominated)
  • 2008, Best Band Blog (Nominated)

• MTV Awards
  • 2007 Best New Artist (Nominated)

• Q Awards
  • 2007 Best Video "Alfie" (Nominated)

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