Del.icio.usLily Allen
Fact Sheet
| Birth Name | Lily Rose Beatrice Allen |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Musical genre: | Pop |
| Birthday | 2 May 1985 (26) |
| Sign | Taurus |
| Birthplace | Hammersmith, London, England, UK |
Early life
Lily Allen was born in Hammersmith, London, to comedian, actor and television presenter Keith Allen, and the film producer Alison Owen. She and her family eventually settled in the North London borough of Islington. Her father, a lifelong Fulham FC supporter, named her Lily after The Lilywhites, a nickname for Fulham. At the age of three, she was seen briefly in the UB40 video featured in The Comic Strip Presents: The Yob, co-written by her father. She has an older sister, Sarah; a younger brother, Alfie Owen-Allen (who was the subject of her song "Alfie") and another little sister Rebecca; also a number of half-siblings, including her half-sister, Teddy. Lily has also lived with her mother in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland where she went to Scoil Bhride, a local primary school.Allen was accused by some of cultivating a chav image despite a highly privileged upbringing, attending the private schools Hill House, Millfield and Bedales, famous as one of the five most expensive schools in the UK. Allen changed schools 13 times during her childhood and was expelled from several of them. When asked about it on the Jo Whiley show on BBC Radio 1, she explained "Education is great for some people, but for me it just wasn't."
Career
While holidaying in Ibiza, Allen was introduced to A&R man George Lamb, former manager of Audio Bullys. He introduced Allen to music producers Future Cut, who wrote tracks for lyrics she had written.It has been said that she grew up alongside T4 Presenter Miquita Oliver and that the pair are best friends.
Allen was still in the process of finding her songwriting voice, stating that, "I think the writing is quite literal and observational because I haven’t developed any process, so to speak, of writing. It feels too much like work to me.”
In February 2007 British fashion chain New Look announced that Lily Allen will design a range of clothes for them. The range, titled "Lily Loves", featured six dresses, two pairs of shoes and some brightly coloured accessories. Clothes designed by her were available in stores in May, however, weren't able to generate the same level of interest as other celebrity-designed fashion capsules.
Regal Records and MySpace
In late 2005, after a short-lived deal with Warner Music signed in 2002 and before releasing any music (a decision influenced by her father), 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 developments in her life.More and more people discovered her profile, with links to her tracks being e-mailed and eventually reaching UK music publication NME, reviews site musicOMH.com, and online music blog Popjustice. These publications reviewed her and her demo tracks positively. After this exposure, which came well before the proposed album release date, The Observer published a short report on Allen; soon after, the demo of her track "LDN" was played on BBC Radio One by DJ Jo Whiley. Because of the consequent buzz, her release dates were changed, and "LDN", produced by her, 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, London, in early May, performing every Thursday night for four weeks.
Alright, Still 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. 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 the 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.
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.
On November 30, 2006 she appeared as a guest on the BBC2 comedy quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
On February 3, Allen enjoyed her first stateside television performance on Saturday Night Live (hosted by Drew Barrymore). She performed the songs "Smile" and "LDN."
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.
She also provides backing vocals on the Basement Jaxx track "Lights Go Down" which appears on their fourth studio album, Crazy Itch Radio and appears on tracks on Robbie Williams's latest album, Rudebox as example on the Manu Chao-cover "Bongo Bong And Je ne t'aime plus" and on "Keep On". She also provides vocals on "Rawhide" by Jamie T and "Wanna Be" by Dizzee Rascal. Confirmed for release, the 4th single from the album "Alright, Still" will be a Double A-side of "Shame For You"/"Alfie".
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.
A Simlish version of Lily Allen's hit single "Smile" is featured in the The Sims 2: Seasons expansion pack. EA Games have also launched a singing competition on the website SingShot where Sims players have to record themselves singing along to the song in Simlish.
On April 20, 2007 Lily appeared on the VH1 show Best Week Ever, Lily Allen performed to positive reviews when Irving Plaza was rechristened as The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza on April 11, 2007.
Controversies
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 "Naive" 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. She had previously said on Radio 1 that she loved Chris Moyles, but then remarked, after being invited on his show, that he was too self-obsessed in the presence of his guests. She also had a biff in Australia at Big Day Out in February 2007 with the band Jet claiming in her Myspace blog that she threw a beer bottle at drummer Chris Cester's head when he flicked a cigarette at her after she "wound" him the wrong way. She also claims to have attempted to physically attack The Streets at the same concert. Allen says both incidents are indications of why she shouldn't get drunk.Allen is also known for feuding with fellow British musician Lady Sovereign. When Lady Sovereign made remarks that Allen's success came easily due to her famous father, Allen quipped back on her Myspace blog that "I've spoken to my dad and he says he'd be happy to adopt you if you think it will give you a leg up." She also spat at Lady Sovereign at the NME awards and once again caused a big outrage among the tabloids.
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". Rapper Sway DaSafo has recorded an answer song to "LDN".
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 "gak" remark was widely quoted in the tabloid press. Allen has since apologised for the remark. She has also stated that she was a drug dealer when she was 15 years old and living in Ibiza.
She also said that everyone that bought Paris Hilton's debut album should be killed off.
In a concert at New York's Roseland Ballroom she was smoking, chugging shots on stage, rambling and forgetting the lyrics to her own songs and stumbling over her gown.