Lily Allen
Lily Allen is a British artist known for light pop songs, usually with some form of satirical message behind them. She was born in London, 1985, to actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Her brother, Alfie Allen (a target of at least one of her songs), plays Theon Greyjoy on Game of Thrones.
As a child, Lily attended some of the most expensive British Public Schools around, but got expelled from most of them for drinking and smoking, and dropped out of school at 16. At first, she was seen as immature and bratty, and was rejected by many labels which she attributes to her lifestyle. However, she still achieved mainstream success, and developed a much more mature image in music videos like "The Fear" compared to earlier ones like "Smile".
Despite her school life and having a pretty similar past to even a criminal, she is talented in what she does and has achieved Grade 5 piano as well as Grade 8 singing. She also writes all of her own songs, which is actually pretty impressive considering the large amounts of subtext she puts into her songs ("The Fear" is a perfect example - "I'll look at the sun, and I'll look in the mirror" can mean this in a literal sense, but "The Sun" and "The Mirror" are also popular UK newspapers that regularly report on celebrities' lives).
Wiki Magic needed.
- Alright, Still (2006)
- It's Not Me, It's You (2009)
- Artist Disillusionment: Has made a reality tv series about her "Riches to Rags" story. She now has her own clothing store with her sister called "Lucy In Disguise". She also didn't renew her recording contract, may go back to being a musician in the future, but has noted many many times how she hates the Hollywood Hype Machine and wants nothing to do with it.
- Unfortunately, "Lucy In Disguise" was forced to close after only being open for ten months.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: How Lily finds her brother in "Alfie"
- Crap Saccharine World: "LDN" about London and how everything looks exciting and wonderful at first, but when you take a second look... Indeed, most of Lily Allen's songs come across this way due to the musical style they use and the sound of her voice. "Smile" and "The Fear" come to mind.
- Defenestrate and Berate: 'Smile' shows her getting revenge upon her cheating boyfriend by hiring thugs to beat him up and trash his apartment.
- Dull Surprise: And how.
- I Have to Wash My Hair: "Knock 'Em Out" is essentially a string of these, ranging from the girl saying she's getting married next week to claiming she has to go because her house is on fire.
- Informed Attractiveness
- Lyrical Dissonance: "LDN" by Lily Allen borders on a Lampshade Hanging. It's an upbeat song about how the back alleys in London are nowhere near as nice as the rest of the city...
- The music video lampshades the lampshade. In it, everything is all bright and perky and cheery as Lily goes skipping along-- at least until she's out of range, when everything reverts to its normal twisted self.
- Quite a few of Lily Allen's songs are like that. "Smile" is about a girl
getting revenge on her boyfriendsystematically ruining her cheating ex's life, "Alfie" is about her brother doing drugs...- Perhaps most disturbingly, "The Fear" seems to contain references to her miscarriage.
- Basically every single song on the first album "Alright Still" consisted of sugar-sweet pop with bitter and cynical lyrics (Exception: "Littlest Things"). She broadened her style in later albums but it remained a theme...
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I don't know what I'm meant to feel anymore... |
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- "Not Fair" is a rather upbeat, country-style song about how she is in a relationship with a man who is quite nice but unable to satisfy her sexually.
- "He Wasn't There" is a very bouncy pop song about her absentee father...
- Also "Fuck You" is a very upbeat, cheery song where Lily chews up intolerant people while dropping total of about 30 F-bombs
- "Everything's Just Wonderful" is a very sarcastic song with a happy beat
- Music Video Overshadowing: "Who'd Have Known" is a lovely song about a maturing relationship. Its video is a creepy video in which Lily Allen stalks and then kidnaps Elton John.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Fuck You."
- Record Producer: It's Not Me, It's You was produced exclusively by Greg Kurstin, known for his work as part of The Bird and The Bee.
- Refuge in Audacity: The song, "Fuck You" sounds like this at first.
- Triple Nipple: Proud owner of one.