Ailing Allen In Hospital With Septicemia
Nov, 8 2010
Lily Allen is being treated in hospital for septicemia -- a bacterial infection of the bloodstream -- her representative has confirmed. The hospitalization comes days after she suffered a second miscarriage.
"She is responding well to treatment and her condition continues to improve," her rep told The Daily Mail. In a separate statement she repeated her request that the press give the ailing pop singer and her partner space to recover. "Lily thanks everyone for their messages of support and again asks that she and partner Sam Cooper be left alone whilst she recovers," it said.
Last week Allen lost a child for the second time. Two years ago she was expecting with her then-boyfriend, the Chemical Brothers' Ed Simons.
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Lily Pens Bridget Jones Tunes
Jun, 3 2010
Lily Allen may have promised to retire from writing songs in favor of having babies, acting, starting a record label and/or opening a clothes shop, but the reality is that she just can’t stay away from making music.
Reports are emerging that the English singer has been asked to create the score for the upcoming Bridget Jones musical, which is due to open in London’s West End next year. With a script due to be written by original Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding, the accompanying music project seems well suited to Lily’s confessional and everyday lyrical skills, and offers the rich pickings of exploring themes of thwarted love, diets, special underpants, and great friends. Thus far, she reports that she has completed one song -- about standing in front of the fridge and not knowing what to eat -- and is planning to write another eleven.
It’s too early to say whether the songwriting efforts will result in a new soundtrack release, but for those who had resigned themselves to a Lily discography with only two albums in it, it does give something to look forward to.
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Lily plans a future as a record mogul
Oct, 31 2009
You never quite know where you are with Lily Allen and it’s hard to work out which direction her talents will take her in next. While still promoting her second album, It’s Not Me, It’s You she announced that she had ‘no plans’ to make another, and did not intend to renew her record contract. She also mentioned plans to act, released a line of jewelry and became embroiled in a messy debate about illegal file-sharing. However, in spite of her love/hate relationship with the music industry, her latest career gamble hits at the heart of the biz; she’s planning to launch her own record label. In an interview with British newspaper, The Telegraph, she announced "I'm setting up a record label at the moment, getting involved in lots of different things. I think things need to change in the music industry and we need to rethink a lot of stuff.'' Unfortunately the re-thinking will have to take a back seat for a little while as she is committed to a tour with Dizzee Rascal, but after that she confirms that she is “definitely taking a break. I've been on the road for nearly five years so I'm tired and I need a break." In light of the record label launch announcement, it seems that Lily’s forthcoming break will be a busy break indeed.
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Lily Allen
Sep, 26 2009
Lily Allen's campaign against filesharing has been a short but eventful one. It kicked off last week when she posted a long blog on her MySpace page explaining that new musicians would struggle to break through if music fans got too used to paying nothing for their music. She followed that by starting a blog, It's Not Alright, where she published more thoughts, as well as letters of support from other musicians such as Matt Bellamy of Muse, Natasha Khan a.k.a. Bat For Lashes, and James Blunt. But the comments sections soon filled with forthright opinions, including some which alleged hypocrisy on Allen's part for distributing mixtapes of copyrighted music before she became famous. On Thursday, because "the abuse was getting too much," she shut the blog down and deleted its entire contents, but not before some fans caught a throwaway comment from Allen and began to worry: "Just so you know, I have not renegotiated my record contract and have no plans to make another record (applause)." Rest assured, her publicist has explained she just meant she's not planning her next record yet, because her second LP It's Not Me, It's You only came out seven months ago. Phew!
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Lily Allen
Sep, 17 2009
Lily Allen is well known for voicing her views, and the current hot topic is file sharing. A recent MySpace blog post levels criticism at a handful of big name artists who are supporting the Featured Artists Coalition. Members of Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Blur are among those condemning proposed internet restrictions on users found to be illegally sharing files, suggesting that it’s “like a sampler, like taping your mate's music,” and that illegal downloads bring “a new generation of fans for us.” Lily disagrees. “It probably is fine for them” she said. “They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent, though, file-sharing is a disaster as it’s making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge… the more difficult it is for new artists to make it, the less new artists you'll see and the more British music will be nothing but puppets paid for by Simon Cowell.” She concludes with a plea to the music industry, saying “We need to find new ways to help consumers access and buy music legally... I want to get people working together to use new digital opportunities to encourage new artists.” As the music industry struggles to get to grips with the new digital age, Lily’s latest comments echo one side of a complex debate; something which is reflected in the fact that comments on her blog post suggest a 50:50 split on the issue. The discussion is far from over.
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Lily Allen
May, 28 2009
Lily Allen’s tendency to make public every thought that crosses her mind has frequently opened her to criticism and controversy. This week she twittered to say “Susan Boyle is so overrated” and all hell broke loose. The zeitgeist is to love the 47 year old Scottish singer, whose rise to international fame has been meteoric following her appearance on reality TV show, Britain’s Got Talent. Unsurprisingly, astounded SuBo-fans showered Lily with incredulous counter-twits, and journalists started to create headlines for evening editions, but Lily defended her right to have an opinion as ‘a member of the television viewing public”. Whether she is giving voice to a silent minority of Susan-detractors will be seen when the final of the competition airs on Saturday; at 5/4 favorite to win, it seems unlikely that anybody other than Susan will take the crown, but we won’t find out until the dowdy lady sings. In all, the whole episode is a good introduction to the world of fame for Susan, where lovers and haters jostle for equal attention and there’s no such thing as bad press - and these are lessons Lily learned a long time ago.
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Lily Allen
Mar, 3 2009
Lily Allen's gone a long way on her everygirl image, cultivated through the most democratic of music networking sites MySpace. It wasn't just the early songs like "Smile" and "LDN" which won her an ever-expanding army of Friends back in 2005, it was also her regular rants about her personal life, the media, and her life in the media that helped to foster a feeling of connection between the artist and her fans. But her blogging often landed her in hot water, and only last month she announced she'd given up that game because it was "boring;" that didn't last long. This week's she's level-headedly written a 1200 word complaint against The New York Times for selling photos of Lily in her home to the British version of OK! Magazine, without her permission. "Needless to say I was mortified, in fact I was in tears," Lily wrote. "6 photos of [me] inside my home for everyone to see, and a made up interview that was very misleading." OK! have since apologized to Lily, but considering the cheeky nature of the article, which was headlined "World Exclusive! At Home with Lily Allen," perhaps they've gotten off lightly to receive just a finger-wag from Lily.
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