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Lily Allen
Background information
Birth name	Lily Rose Beatrice Allen[1]
Born	May 2, 1985 (age 21)
Origin	Hammersmith, London
Genre(s)	Pop, Ska
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	2006-present
Label(s)	Regal Records/Parlophone/EMI
Website	LilyAllenMusic.com

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

Contents 1 Life 2 Regal Records and MySpace 3 Alright, Still debut album 4 Controversies 5 Lily Allen to rechristen legendary New York Club 5.1 Reaction 6 Award History 7 Discography 7.1 Albums 7.2 Singles 7.3 Demos 7.4 Samples used 8 Filmography 9 External links 10 References

Lily Allen was born in Hammersmith, London. 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 number of half-siblings, including her half-sister, Teddie. Allen 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, but she actually enjoyed a highly privileged upbringing, attending the private schools Hill House and Bedales, famous as one of the five most expensive schools in the UK.^[2] Allen changed schools 13 times during her childhood and was expelled from several of them.^[3] 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."^[4]

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.^[5]

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.”^[6]

She was romantically linked to A&R man Seb Chew who described her in The Independent newspaper as the one who got away.

In February 2007 British fashion chain New Look has announced that Lily Allen will design a range of clothes for them. The range, titled "Lily Loves," will feature six dresses, two pairs of shoes and some brightly colored accessories. Clothes designed by her will be available in stores in May.^[7]

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.

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.[1]

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 tracks "Bong Bong And Je Ne´Aitime Plus" and "Keep On".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.^[8]

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 themself singing along to the song in Simlish.

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"^[9] and a "sanctimonious prat",^[10] and has claimed that Kylie Minogue performing at the Glastonbury Festival would be the ultimate insult to the event.^[11] 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.

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^[12]). 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.^[13][14] She has also stated that she was a drug dealer when she was 15 years old and living in Ibiza.^[15]

She has also been called a Mockney.^[16]

Lily Allen will be the opening performer when Irving Plaza is rechristened as The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza on April 11. The club has been run as Irving Plaza since the 1980s. The Fillmore East was an iconic rock club from 1968 to 1971^[17]

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, ahead of the likes of Gerard Way (eighth) and Jarvis Cocker (fourth).^[18] She ranked "Number One Reason to Love '07"^[19] and "Hottest Woman of Pop/R&B."^[20] in Blender magazine. On the other hand, she was also rated number 10 in BBC Three's Most Annoying Person of 2006.

• 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 (Won)
  • 2007, Best Solo Artist (Nominated)
  • 2007, Sexiest Woman (Nominated)
  • 2007, Worst Album: Alright, Still (Nominated)

Album information
Alright, Still Released: 2006 Chart positions: #2 U.K., #6 IRE, #7 AUS, #20 U.S., #22 NZ, #47 FRA Certifications: 2x Platinum U.K., Gold AUS, Silver FRA Singles: 2006 "Smile" 2006 "LDN" 2006 "Littlest Things" 2007 "Shame for You"/"Alfie"

Year	Song	UK	IE	NZ	DE	AU	ES	FR	RU	PL	US	BR	Album
2006	"Smile"	1	6	6	67	14	15	16	13	1	49	72	Alright, Still
	"LDN"	6	21	23	—	39	—	—	43	41	—	—
	"Littlest Things"	21	—	—	—	—	—	—	98	23	—	—
2007	"Shame for You"/"Alfie"	15	31	16	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

• "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 - now on the B-Side to Littlest Things renamed 'U Killed It'
• "Friday Night (Remix)" (also known as "You're Gonna Get Burned")
• "Blank Expression" (exclusive iTunes track 12 of Alright, Still album, a Specials cover)
• "Naïve" (cover of The Kooks track, played in Live Lounge)

Allen's album Alright, Still makes use of many samples:

• "Everybody Feels The Same" -- Jamieson Tobey, Everybody Feels The Same
• "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
• "Cheryl Tweedy" ("Smile" B-side) -- Origin Unknown, Valley of the Shadows
• "Blank Expression" -- The Specials, Blank Expression
• "Alfie" -- Sandie Shaw, Puppet on a String

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998	Elizabeth	Lady in Waiting

• Official website
• Lily Allen at MySpace
• Lily Allen at the Internet Movie Database
• Lily Allen at All Music Guide
• Lily Allen at Virb
• Lily Allen on MTV.com
• Lily Allen Live
• Lily Alen Live Performance on Sessions@AOL

Interviews

• Interview with musicOMH.com
• Interview with SquirrelFood
• Interview with Slam X Hype
• Interview in Sydney at YouTube
• Interview in NPR's All Songs Considered

Persondata
NAME	Allen, Lily
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	British singer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 2, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH	London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH