Lily Allen was born in Hammersmith, London. Lily Allen 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. Lily Allen has also lived with her mother in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland where she went to Scoil Bhride, a local primary school.
Lily 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. Lily Allen changed schools 13 times during her childhood and was expelled from several of them. 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."
While holidaying in Ibiza, Lily Allen was introduced to A&R man George Lamb, former manager of Audio Bullys. He introduced Lily 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.
Lily 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.”
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.
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.
Lily 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. The US version of the album has been remixed and sounds substantially different than the original UK release.
In September 2006, "Smile" was made available onto 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. Lily Allen 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 two additional tracks: "Nan, You're A Window Shopper" and a new remix of "Smile."
On November 30, 2006 she appeared as a guest on the BBC2 comedy quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
On February 3, Lily Allen enjoyed her first stateside television performance on Saturday Night Live hosted by Drew Barrymore. She performed the songs "Smile" and "LDN."
In concert, Lily 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.
Lily Allen 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.
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.
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.
Lily Rose Beatrice Allen was born on May 2, 1985. Lily Allen was a Brit Award nominated English pop artist, currently signed to Regal/Parlophone (EMI). Lily Allen was known for songs such as "Smile" and "LDN". Lily Allen is the daughter of actor, comedian, and musician, Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Lily Allen single "Smile" reached #1 on the UK singles charts in July 2006.
