Description
Lily Allen hand signed black and white photo. Lily Rose Beatrice Cooper (née Allen; born 2 May 1985), better known as Lily Allen, is an English recording artist and actress. She is the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.
Allen’s early released songs saw her take on a thick Cockney accent while singing against retro productions. Her music was used as part of an exhibition at the British Library tracing the history of Cockney English. Her songs also featured other elements, such as the ska influence on second single, “LDN”. She was also noted for her liberal use of crude words in her lyrics. Allen has said she cringes now when listening to tracks from Alright, Still, as it reminds her that she was a “sort of over-excitable teenager who desperately wanted attention” when she wrote it. Wanting to move on from the retro sound that many other artists had adapted since her debut, Allen ventured in a new direction sonically and lyrically in her second studio album, It’s Not Me, It’s You. “The Fear”, the first single from the album, is an electro-pop track denouncing consumerism. While Allen did not set out to make a revolutionary record, her new music direction and willingness to write lyrics that tackled less-common subjects were lauded by critics.
Allen’s song “Who’d Have Known” was sampled in T-Pain’s single “5 O’Clock” because of her accent