Lily Rose Beatrice Allen is an English singer-songwriter and actress. Her accolades include a Brit Award as well as nominations for a Grammy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.
real name: Lily Rose Beatrice Allen
labels: London Records, Capitol Records, Regal Recordings, Warner Bros. Records, Parlophone, EMI
genres: pop music, grime, synth-pop, indie pop, ska, contemporary R&B
awards: Ivor Novello Awards, Ivor Novello Awards
plays: voice
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Allen was born on 2 May 1985 in Hammersmith, west London, to Keith Allen, a Welsh-born actor, and English film producer Alison Owen. She has an elder sister, Sarah; a younger brother, actor Alfie (subject of her song "Alfie"); and a younger sister, Rebecca. Alison Owen was from a devoutly Catholic working-class Portsmouth family, and was 17 when she gave birth to Sarah. Allen is the goddaughter of director Daniel Kleinman and Wild Colonials vocalist Angela McCluskey and a third cousin of singer Sam Smith.
When her family went to Ibiza on holiday, 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 ecstasy at the age of 15. Allen met her first manager, George Lamb, in Ibiza. She first recorded the vocals for "On Me Head Not Off Me Head" written by her father for Mike Bassett: England Manager in 2001, and was featured in the 2002 song by her father's group Fat Les, "Who Invented Fish and Chips". She started to work with music producers, and recorded a demo. She was rejected by several labels, which she attributed to her drinking and being the daughter of Keith Allen. She eventually used her father's connections to...
Allen's early released songs saw her singing against retro productions. Her songs also featured other elements, such as the ska influence on second single, "LDN". She was also noted for her liberal use of crude words in her lyrics. Allen has said she cringes now when listening to tracks from Alright, Still, as it reminds her that she was a "sort of over-excitable teenager who desperately wanted attention" when she wrote it. Wanting to move on from the retro sound that many other artists had adapted since her debut, Allen ventured in a new direction sonically and lyrically in her second studio album, It's Not Me, It's You. "The Fear", the first single from the album, is an electro-pop track denouncing consumerism. Her new musical direction...
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Fuck You", originally titled "Guess Who Batman ", is a song by English singer Lily Allen from her second album, It's Not Me, It's You (2009), as her third international single. A maximalist dance-pop track, its lyrics dismiss and ridicule a bigoted antagonist, criticising their racism, homophobia, and war-mongering.
The song was a hit in mainland Europe, topping the chart in Flanders for three weeks and reaching number two in Wallonia and the Netherlands. It became a top-five hit in Finland, Norway, and Switzerland, reached the top 20 in several other European nations, and peaked at number 23 in Australia.
The song originally appeared on Allen's Myspace page in 2008 alongside the songs "I Could Say" and "I Don't Know" (later released as "The Fear") under the title "Guess Who Batman". The song samples the piano of the theme to the Australian television show Neighbours. The song was written by Allen and Greg Kurstin. Allen wrote: "We are the youth, we can make coolness for our future, it's up to us. Go green and hate hate."
A music video for the song was posted on the official Parlophone YouTube page on 15 June 2009. EMI hired the French production company Frenzy Paris, who in turn hired the art collective AB/CD/CD and the post-production company Firm. The video is shot from Allen's point of view (she can be seen using a Polaroid she takes of herself). She is seen to be making the journey from her hotel room to a television studio. Throughout the video, Allen warps the shape and size of her surroundings using her hands and her own perspective; for example, by moving her hands apart she stretches the Eiffel Tower and enlarges a man's afro hairstyle.
The song was chosen as the theme song for the TV programme Periodismo para todos (Spanish: Journalism for Everyone) in Argentina. Periodismo para todos is a controversial Argentine television program that has been labelled as investigative journalism. The song was chosen because it had been used in a telenovela of the state-owned TV Pública, in a satirical Spanish lyrics version. The opening of the show features photos of the audience making the "fuck you" sign.
"Smile" is the debut single by British recording singer-songwriter Lily Allen from her debut studio album, Alright, Still (2006). It was written by Allen, Iyiola Babalola and Darren Lewis, while sampling the Soul Brothers' "Free Soul".
The song was released as the lead mainstream single of the album in July 2006. After signing a contract deal with Regal Recordings and gaining popularity on the social network website Myspace with demo songs, Allen released a limited edition of "LDN" to promote her work and afterwards announced the release of "Smile".
After meeting George Lamb on a holiday in Ibiza, Allen made him her manager. Lamb later introduced the singer to production duo Future Cut, with whom she had written and produced demos, which were sent to various labels. In 2005, Allen was signed to Regal Records, who gave her £25,000 to produce an album. The singer considered it to be a "small development idea", as they were also unable to provide much support for it due to their preoccupation with other releases. Taking advice from Lady Sovereign, the singer created an account on MySpace and began posting demo songs in November 2005. By March 2006, they attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7-inch vinyl singles of one of the demos, a song titled "LDN", were...
Musically, "Smile" is a bubbly, mid-tempo tune with "a barroom piano lick", subdued horns and a reggae beat, singing in a light falsetto, while the organ riff contains a sample of Jackie Mittoo playing keyboards on the 1960s rocksteady song "Free Soul" by the Soul Brothers, also written by Mittoo. He and Clement Dodd received credit on the song as co-writers. It was described to have a "cod-reggae groove that smoulders like a barbecue", as a guitar and piano were used for the background music, following the notes Gm—F as its basic chord progression. It is set in the time signature of common time, having a metronome of 96 beats per minute, and is played in the key of F major. Lyrically, the song describes Allen's satisfaction in her former...
"Smile" was met with mixed to positive reviews from music critics. According to Heather Phares of AllMusic, the song "has a silky verse melody that just barely conceals [the singer's] spite", while she keeps "her revenge sweet, the extra sting being given to it by the way she sounds like she's singing about how ice cream or puppies or being in love makes her smile". Blender reporter Jon Dolan claims that Allen "deploys a sugary melody as a Trojan horse for a smackdown on a douche-bag ex-boyfriend", as Rob Webb from Drowned in Sound called "Smile" an "infectious slice of bouncing, carnival reggae that punches hard with its opening line: 'When you first left me / I was wanting more / But you were fucking that girl next door / What you do...
The song's music video was released on 3 July 2006. Having been directed by Sophie Muller, it contained a vengeance theme, similar to that of the song. It starts off with Allen sitting on the bed in her apartment, eating chocolate and cheese balls. Interleaved, shots of her and her ex-boyfriend spending time together appear as a memory. He is played by Elliott Jordan. As the bridge comes up, the scene changes to the singer standing on the corner of a street, talking to a man and paying him money. The man leaves and goes to some gangsters, giving them instructions and each a share of money. As Allen's former lover walks down the street talking on his mobile phone, one of the gangsters pushes him into an abandoned playground, where they are...
"Not Fair" is a song by English singer Lily Allen from her second studio album, It's Not Me, It's You (2009). Written by Allen and Greg Kurstin, the song was released as the second single from the album on 20 March 2009 by Regal Recordings.
The song incorporates country music as the lyrics depict sexual frustration. Contemporary critics did not positively receive the song and its theme, with some calling it a "pseudo-country track" and considering it a strange musical composition.
In the song, Allen describes her relationship with a boyfriend to which she describes him as "the perfect guy" yet is frustrated at his sexual laziness. She furthermore describes the situation as "Not Fair" because while he plays the perfect boyfriend in every other way, he is selfish when it comes to their sex life ("all you do is take") – thus the song gives the impression that all his niceness and concern may have been just a face to get what he wants from his girlfriend without any genuine concern with her satisfaction and happiness.
The music video for "Not Fair" was directed by Melina Matsoukas and filmed in Los Angeles on 19 February 2009. Allen released pictures from the video on her official Twitter account. A 17-second teaser of the video was released on YouTube on 17 March, before T4 premiered the entire video on Saturday, 21 March. As of May 2026, it has gained over 135 million views on YouTube.
"The Fear" is a song by English singer Lily Allen, released in December 2008 as the lead single from her second studio album, It's Not Me, It's You (2009). It was written by Allen and Greg Kurstin, and produced by the latter.
Initially, "Everyone's at It" was announced to be the first single from the album. However, it was ultimately decided on "The Fear" to be released on 26 January 2009 by Regal Recordings, while Allen posted the demo onto her Myspace account in April 2008.
Allen wrote and recorded the song with Greg Kurstin in a cottage located in Moreton-in-Marsh in 2007. She released a demo version of the song, which was then called "I Don't Know", onto her Myspace account, along with another song, "I Could Say", in April 2008. Initially, the song "Everyone's at It" was announced to be released as the lead single from the album, but it was ultimately decided on "The Fear". While discussing It's Not Me, It's You, Allen stated that her intention was to make "bigger sounding, more ethereal songs, real songs. [...] I think I've grown up a bit as a person and I hope it reflects that." The singer declared about the inspiration for the song, which has to do with materialism and the pressures of being rich and...
"The Fear" received critical acclaim from music critics, who praised the song's themes of consumerism and the postmodern condition, as well as Allen's vocals. Michael Menachem from Billboard commented on the song, saying it "packs another lyrical punch", while complimenting Allen's vocals. Lucy Davies of the BBC described the song as "[e]minently danceable and slightly trancey". Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph suggested that the song confirms that the singer's "pithy observational skills and sweet musicality" remain intact, as she has been a bit bruised by her encounter with 21st-century fame. Clash reporter Natasha Arico concluded that "The Fear" is somewhat trite, though "sickeningly catchy and dance friendly", while Rolling...
On 14 October 2008, Allen announced on her MySpace account that she had started filming a music video for "Everyone's at It", however, filming for the video was shelved when it was decided that "The Fear" would be released instead. The music video was principally shot on 18 November 2008 at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire and directed by Nez. It premiered on Channel 4 on Thursday, 4 December 2008 at 11:40pm, however, the video was leaked on to YouTube a few hours before the official premiere, receiving over 200 views before it premiered.