Lily Allen is an English singer, songwriter, and author. She is the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Allen left school when she was 15 and concentrated on improving her performing and compositional skills. In 2005, she made some of her recordings public on Myspace and the publicity resulted in airplay on BBC1 Radio 1 and a contract with Regal Recordings.
Allen decided to work with producers Greg Kurstin and Mark Ronson, finishing the album in two weeks. Allen’s debut album, Alright, Still, was released in July 2006. It was well received, selling over 2.6 million copies worldwide and bringing Allen nominations at the Grammy Awards, the Brit Awards, and the MTV Video Music Awards. Most of the tracks had been previewed on her MySpace page. Her first mainstream single, “Smile”, reached number one on the UK Singles Chart in July 2006.
In 2009, her second studio album, It’s Not Me It’s You, saw a genre shift, having more of an electropop feel, rather than the ska and reggae influences of the first one. The album debuted at number one on the Uk Albums Chart and the Australian chart and was well received by critics, noting the singer’s musical evolution and maturity. It spawned the hit singles “The Fear”, and “Not Fair”. This success saw her receive the Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist in 2010. Allen and Amy Winehouse were credited with starting a process that led to the “year of the women” media label in 2009 that saw five female artists making music of “experimentalism and fearlessness” nominated for the Mercury Prize.
In September 2009, Allen announced that she was considering a career in acting, that she would not renew her record contract, and that she had “no plans” to make another record. In September 2010, she gave her last performance for two and a half years, supporting Muse at Wembley Stadium in London. In November 2013, Allen recorded a cover of Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” for the John Lewis Christmas Advert with a portion of the song’s sales earnings donated to Save the Children’s Philippine Typhoon Appeal campaign. Released as a download single, it reached number one in the UK singles chart on 24 November.
On 12 November 2013, Allen premiered the video for her new song “Hard Out Here” on her official website. The song was released as a download the following week and entered the UK singles chart at number 9, giving Allen two simultaneous top 10 hit singles. On 13 January 2014, the song “Air Balloon” was premiered on BBC Radio 1 and was released on 2 March 2014, as the second single from Allen’s third studio album Sheezus.
An electropop album, No Shame takes influence from dancehall and reggae, and features confessional lyrics that discuss the breakdown of Allen’s marriage and friendships, maternal guilt, substance abuse, along with social and political issues. Upon release No Shame was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised the album’s mature lyrical content and themes, Allen’s artistic evolution, the composition and production. The album peaked at number eight on the UK Album Chart.
