Lily Allen

Lily Allen

Lily Allen is an English singer and songwriter from Hammersmith, United Kingdom. She is born in 1985 and works across alternative pop, alternative rock, contemporary R&B, dance-pop, electropop and indie pop.

Career

Allen leaves school at 15 and focuses on developing her performance and songwriting. She begins her music career in 2002 by signing to London Records. In 2005, she shares recordings on Myspace, which leads to airplay on BBC Radio 1 and a deal with Regal Recordings.

Her first mainstream single, “Smile”, reaches number one on the UK Singles Chart. Her debut album, Alright, Still, sells over 2.6 million copies worldwide and brings nominations at the Grammy Awards, the BRIT Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards.

Albums and television

Allen’s second studio album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, moves further towards electropop, with less emphasis on the ska and reggae influences of her first album. It debuts at number one on the UK Albums Chart and the Australian ARIA Charts and wins the BRIT Award for British Female Solo Artist. The album includes the singles “The Fear” and “Fuck You”.

She also presents the BBC Three talk show Lily Allen and Friends.

Recognition and context

Allen and Amy Winehouse are credited with helping to start a wider shift that leads to the media description of 2009 as a “year of the women”, with five female artists nominated for the Mercury Prize for music described as experimental and fearless.