Lily Rose Beatrice Allen [ 4 ] born 2 May is an English singer, songwriter, actress, and author. Her musical career began in when she was signed to Regal Recordings and began publishing her vocal recordings on the social networking site Myspace. Their popularity resulted in airplay on BBC Radio 1. Allen and Amy Winehouse were credited with starting a process that led to the "year of the women" media label in that saw five female artists making music of "experimentalism and fearlessness" nominated for the Mercury Prize.
Allen also ventured into other careers; in , she hosted her own television talk show, Lily Allen and Friends , on BBC Three before launching her own record label, In the Name Of , in She is a daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.
When she was four, her father left the family. For that time, the family lived with comedian Harry Enfield whilst her mother dated him. The Clash singer and guitarist Joe Strummer was close to Allen. Allen told Loveline that the audience was "brought to tears at the sight of a troubled young girl doing something good". At that point Allen said she knew that music was something she needed to do either as a lifelong vocation or to get it out of her system.
She played the piano to grade 5 standard and achieved grade 8 in singing. Allen also played violin, guitar and trumpet, and was a member of a chamber choir. Her first solo was " In the Bleak Midwinter ". She dropped out of school aged fifteen, not wanting to "spend a third of her life preparing to work for the next third of her life, to set herself up with a pension for the next third of her life.
When her family went to Ibiza on holiday, Allen told her mother that she was staying with friends but remained in Sant Antoni de Portmany instead. She earned money by working at a Plastic Fantastic record store and dealing ecstasy at the age of She eventually used her father's connections to get signed to London Records in Allen began writing songs, while her manager introduced her to production duo Future Cut in They worked in a small studio in the basement of an office building.
