| Send to a friend | Print

Known for her diverse musical tastes and cheeky attitude, pop singer/songwriter Lily Allen made her mark in the music industry when she released her demos via the Internet. As she was growing up, Allen was immersed in a variety of music including punk, ska and reggae, courtesy of her parents’ record collection. The young rebel, originally from Hammersmith, London spent most of her childhood bouncing from one school to another; she attended 13 different schools by the age of 15, when she finally decided to quit school and focus on her singing career.

 

Due to her difficultly in articulating her feelings, Allen became obsessed with reading books and listening to diverse music including artists such as The Specials, Rip Rig, Eminem and Prince. From this, she began to feel like she had a voice and focused on writing lyrics about her own world in an entertaining way. In 2005, she made a name for herself by posting demos of her songs on her MySpace page. The critical acclaim that she received from her work fuelled Allen’s publicity, leading to tens of thousands of hits, airplay on BBC Radio One, and a record deal with Regal/Parlophone before the end of 2005. Allen then began working on her debut album with well-known producers Futurecut, Greg Kurstin and Mark Ronson.

 

The singles, LDN and Smile, were released in the summer of 2006 and were chart successes, with the former reaching number seven on the U.K. chart and the latter hitting number one the week it debuted. To promote her upcoming album, Alright, Still, she performed in a number of shows. Her album was released in July 2006 in the United States and landed in the 20^th position on the Billboard Album Charts.

 

In 2007, Lily went on tour with gigs in North America, Japan and Australia. The year was very successful for the singer as she earned nominations for British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo for that year’s Brit Awards, while Smile and Alright, Still were nominated for British Single and British Album, respectively.

 
The same year, Allen, like other popular icons, released her own collection of clothes, entitled Lily Loves. In 2008, the singer’s personal life suffered tremendously making headlines in the tabloids. She suffered a miscarriage and a break up from long time boyfriend Ed Simons of The Chemical Brothers and ended her collaboration with Damon Albarn of Blur. Is this the reason why Lily Allen returned to drinking? The young celebrity used her MySpace blog to criticize the media and to defend her behaviour to her fans.