Church of England bishop a fan of Lily Allen's too

The Church of England bishop has hailed the anti-misogyny stance in Lily Allen's songs

Lily Allen.
Lily Allen.

The pop music world can be a fickle terrain - acts that score one hit single are not guaranteed a career and audience tastes can be fleeting.

None of that matters to British singer Lily Allen, who is playing her first Singapore gig at The Star Theatre on Feb 2.

"I don't think the words 'artist' and 'lasting power' are two things that go together very well. I think true artistry is about being yourself and making something that's true to yourself, and that's easy to do if you are an artist and it's got nothing to do with the times," she says in a telephone interview from her home in London.

She has made her name by eschewing cookie- cutter formulas and forging her own way with forward-looking pop tunes. The songs from her three albums - Alright, Still (2006), It's Not Me, It's You (2009) and Sheezus (2014) - have not only charted, but have found favour with critics too.

She found success early, having built up a big fanbase on social networking site MySpace before her debut album was released.

A pre-album single in 2006, Smile, one of her signature songs, topped the British charts. Soon afterwards, Alright, Still was released and peaked at No. 2 in the British album charts. The album, with its mix of pop, ska and hip-hop, sold three million copies worldwide. Critics praised its originality and it earned her a Best Alternative Music Album nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

Sophomore album It's Not Me, It's You did even better. It topped the charts in Britain and Australia and peaked at No. 5 in the United States.

After taking a hiatus from singing and recording for a few years to raise a family and to work on other projects, the mother of two released her most recent work, Sheezus, last year. It topped the British charts, producing three Top 10 singles, Somewhere Only We Know, Hard Out Here and Air Balloon.

Critics praised the album for the bold social commentary in its lyrics and Allen found a fan in Church of England bishop, Right Reverend Martyn Snow, who hailed the anti-misogyny stance in her songs.

She tells Life! that she is working on album No. 4 and while nothing is firmed up yet, she says she has been listening to "different types of music" ranging from R&B to pop for inspiration.

What she is focusing on now is her current tour, which includes Asian cities in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. She is looking forward to playing in Singapore for the first time.

"Yes, I'm very excited to go somewhere new," she says. She is not skimping on her touring stage show and fans here will get the full Lily Allen live experience.

She adds: "I think it's going to be like many of my shows. We're going to bring lots of great stage sets with us and I will sing songs from my three albums and a couple of cover versions."

dinohadi@sph.com.sg

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