No.1 for Interviews - Lily Allen
Lily Allen

‘I’m so loved up right now’ - The daughter of comedian Keith Allen has long since made a name for herself as a pop singer and the face of Chanel, never letting her colourful personal life overshadow her talent

In 2006, there was a new addition to the pop scene: Lily Allen, the daughter of comedian and actor Keith Allen. Unlike Keith’s often-vitriolic comedy, Lily’s brand of pop music was light and cheery but with truthful lyrics about life in her beloved London.

Her first single, ‘Smile’, reached number one in the UK and was quickly followed by ‘LDN’, which reached number six. Her subsequent chart success has been varied, but Lily has always remained in the public eye, thanks to her personal life.

Part of the London set that includes Alexa Chung, Jaime Winstone (daughter of Ray Winstone) and the Geldof girls, Lily is never out of the gossip columns.

However proving that she is not just a socialite who can sing, Lily had her own chat show, Lily Allen and Friends, and has become the face of Chanel bags.

You played recently at Children in Need but had hurt your foot. How is it now?
It’s ok. It wasn’t really that bad but more of a shock because I really tumbled down the stairs. I was wearing these massive heels and it was really scary. I knew I had to be on stage in 15 minutes at the Albert Hall with Take That, which is quite a big deal. So I was just trying to not put any pressure on it incase I hurt it more than it actually was.

That probably wouldn’t have happened if you were still wearing your trademark trainers but you’ve turned into a style icon, over the years…
The whole trainers thing wasn’t really a thing, I just used to wear trainers. When you’re doing music videos you have to stand around all day so you don’t really want to do that in heels so it just seemed logical.

You’ve got a totally different image these days. You’re a style icon now and clearly follow the trends…
I don’t look at magazines for inspiration actually – I just go shopping a lot. When you’re traveling around as much as I am, it’s nice to go places that you know from home. You get the same shops everywhere so it kind of feels like a home from home.

You’re now one of the faces of Chanel bags. That’s a pretty prestigious gig…
Yeah I think its one of the most amazing ones in that circle. It’s a pretty respected fashion house and it’s amazing to work with those people. There’s so much money there – not necessarily coming my way – but in the Chanel brand that they can just play around. It’s amazing to watch the creativity that goes on there.

Do they pay you in bags? Do you get any freebies?
Yeah they have given me a few bags and paid me some money, which is nice. I wouldn’t do it for anyone but Karl Lagerfeld [Head Designer and Creative Director of Chanel] is an amazing person to be around.

You are loved up now. Are you happy?
Yes [giggles].

Are there any celebrities, theoretically, that you might fancy? Maybe Robert Pattinson from Twilight?
I know him actually, from being around London but I’m not into classically good-looking guys. Not that my boyfriend [builder Sam Cooper] isn’t classically good-looking, because he is!

What would a guy have to do to impress you?
Make me laugh, laughing is important. Opening a door is a winner I think.

Is Sam like that?
Yeah he takes me out for dinner once a week. He’ll book a restaurant and not tell me where we’re going and he’ll wear a suit. He’ll treat me a like a lady!

You were quite into the whole Twitter thing but you’ve ditched it now.
I’ve not really ditched it but I’m not really doing it as much. I got involved in this whole debate about file sharing and piracy and lots of people got involved including politicians, musicians and people from the music industry.
My stance is that I think people should pay for music and some people got really up in arms about it. And then I thought I was being slightly hypercritical because I do consume some music off sites like YouTube and MySpace so I decided to cut myself off from it all and see how my life was as a result.

Steven Fry was talking about the whole downloading thing and he said that if you do a tiny bit then it’s okay and you’re not really a thief...
I haven’t got a problem with people streaming music and I haven’t got a problem with people bootlegging my album – my record company would hate to hear me say that!
If someone comes up to you with a burned CD of my album and offers it two for £4, I haven’t got a problem with that as long as they put some kind of a value on what I do.
The easier it is to access something the easier it is to throw it away and I think that people should start to value things a bit more. And not just music but films and TV and books and newspapers.
Everyone is being laid off in all industries at the moment and people might have thought that what I was saying was selfish or that it was about me making money but actually it was about people who work in record shops now being laid off or people who are not cool enough or attractive enough or clever enough to write amazing lyrics. That shouldn’t mean that they can’t work within the industry.

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