Chicks Who Rock

Lily Allen was born in Hammersmith, West London, the daughter of Welsh-born comedian and actor Keith Allen and English film producer Alison Owen. She and her family 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 younger sister Rebecca. When Allen was four years old, her father left the family and she was brought up by her mother. Allen started singing while still at school appearing in a number of school productions. However she frequently changed schools and did not intend to peruse singing or acting as a career.

At the age fifteen she dropped out of school and earned money by working at a Plastic Fantastic record store. Allen met her first manager, George Lamb, while on holiday in Ibiza and was soon signed to Warner Music. She left Warner without releasing any records in 2005 and began putting her music on the social networking website Myspace. Allen became a almost instant success which led to her first release, 500 limited edition 7" vinyl singles of the song "LDN".

Musical Career

In March 2006, The Observer Music Monthly, a magazine published in The Observer newspaper included an article about Allen's success through MySpace, and she received her first major mainstream coverage appearing in the magazine's cover story two months later. With her popularity on Myspace boosted even further Allen began work on her first album. Allen decided to work with producers Greg Kurstin and Mark Ronson and released her debut album, Alright, Still, in July 2006 on the EMI label.

Alright, Still was a huge commercial success in the United Kingdom debuting at number two on the UK Albums Charts and being certified Platinum six times by the end of the year. The album was released on 30th January 2007 in the United States, selling 34,000 copies to land the number twenty spot on the Billboard Album Charts. The albums first single "Smile" made number one in the U.K and later number forty nine on U.S. Billboard Hot 100. All three of the albums other singles, "LDN", "Littlest Things" and "Alfie"/"Shame for You", made the top twenty in the U.K. At the 2008 Grammy Awards, the album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album but lost to The White Stripes' Icky Thump. Mark Ronson's production on "Littlest Things" helped him win a Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

In early 2008 Allen announced via her Myspace page she was starting work on a new album. The album entitled, It's Not Me, It's You, is scheduled for release on 9 February 2009 in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States.

• Lily Allen lived for a while with English comedian Harry Enfield while her mother dated him.

• In 1988, at the age of 3, Allen appeared on The Comic Strip Presents... episode "The Yob", which her father had co-written.

• Allen was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease as an infant.

• She is the god-daughter of Wild Colonials vocalist Angela McCluskey and is also the god-daughter of late Clash singer and guitarist, Joe Strummer.

• Allen told the U.S. radio show Loveline that at age 11 she was singing an Oasis song in the schoolyard when a teacher overheard her and told her she had talent and suggested she do something with it.

• At age 15, Allen spent four weeks at The Priory clinic under 24 hour watch after the singer, distraught over a break-up with a boyfriend, took an overdose and tried to cut her wrists.

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