The Record Music Magazine

“The cool sound of the summer” is how this 21-year-old’s music is constantly described.

She made it big on MySpace.

21-year-old singer/songwriter Lily Allen signed to a small record label towards the end of last year and at the same time started putting tracks up on the internet. Since then she has had a staggering two million plus people listen to her music on her MySpace page.

She had a turbulent school life.

Lily is the daughter of famous British actor Keith Allen and though you’d think that would have made her growing years a breeze, this was not the case. She reveals that she was actually very lonely growing up. She went to 13 different schools and never had time to make enduring friendships. She says in an interview, “Music became a lifeline to me. I listened to punk, ska and reggae when I grew up, courtesy of my parents' record collections. We moved around London... Shepherds Bush, Bloomsbury, Islington... and I absorbed all the music around me.” The feisty Allen got expelled from various schools and was sent to boarding school as they thought it would be a restraining influence. Instead she ran away when she was 14. She says, “It was obvious I didn't like authority. I guess I knew from an early age that I could never do a job where I'd have to sit in an office all day long."

Lily finally left school at 15 when it became obvious her creative needs were not being met. She recalls, "I always read a lot. It was frustrating moving schools so much because I always felt I couldn't articulate my feelings as much as I wanted to. Books and music helped me do that. I became obsessed by quite arcane subjects, like the Second World War evacuation stories and books about 18th century aristocracy. I started to feel like I could have a voice. But I wanted to write about my own world in an entertaining way. So I did."

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