With her urban prom-queen style and West London punk attitude, Lily Allen is recognised worldwide as much for her quirky image and party-girl reputation as her music. She's come a long way since posting her first demos up on MySpace in 2005, quickly capturing a legion of fans with her calypso and ska-inspired music – and of course her pithy, honest blogs.
Winning awards, losing love, longing for stability and affection, being pitted against Amy Winehouse by the press – Lily's meteoric rise to fame has been peppered with extreme highs and lows, no lower than when she tragically suffered a miscarriage in 2008. This, like every step of Lily's life, was pored over in the press.
Unlike many more demure pop princesses, Lily smokes, drinks, eats – yes, eats – and has a damn good time doing it – all the while keeping the tabloids on their toes. And some things run in the family: her dad, the hard-drinking actor Keith Allen, has attracted their attention himself over the years after enjoying debauched nights out with the likes of Damien Hirst and Blur's Alex James – something Lily, a Groucho Club member at just 17, knows all about.
From her debut album Alright, Still to sophomore release It's Not Me, It's You, Lily has been singing sweetly about everything from bad sex, naughty boys, beating depression, joint-smoking brothers, cocaine, her gran, her insecurities, her home-town...
