Lily Allen

Born in 1985, Lily is the daughter of Welsh comic Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. After Keith left the family, trouble began for Lily as they were forced to live on a council estate, struggling to get by. During this time Lily was experiencing difficulties at school as she bounced between establishments, often getting expelled for her drinking and smoking.

When she was 11, her musical talents were spotted by Rachel Santesso who began to teach Lily to sing and after she reduced an audience to tears singing in a school assembly, Lily knew music was something she was going to pursue.

When she was 15 she dropped out of school and began to chase up deals. She bounced around a few labels, using her dad’s connections as leverage until in 2005, Regal Recordings gave Lily £25000 to finance a record. Given how busy the label were with other, higher profile releases, Lily was forced to operate on her own. She set up a Myspace page and began to post demos which instantly caught the public’s attention, building up an online following until the press had to take notice.

The Observer, much to her label’s surprise, ran a feature on Lily in early 2006 and then, with a renewed sense of confidence in her, Regal Recordings released Lily’s debut album ‘Alright, Still’ in July 2006. The album went to number 2 in the charts and turned triple platinum which was just the start of a long stint of success.

Her follow up ‘It’s Not Me, Its you’ hit number one and, after a long hiatus during which she started a family, she hit number one again with ‘Sheezus’ in 2014. Years later it’s become clear that dropping out of school was a very good idea for Lily Allen.