FEATURE:
From the West End to the World
PHOTO CREDIT: Jon Gorrigan for The Observer
What Next for Lily Allen?
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WHEN looking to last year…
and the biggest and most important moments, there are plenty of choices. I think that the most impactful was when Lily Allen released her album, West End Girl. It was available for streaming in October. It will be released physically on 30th January. Before looking to see what this year might hold in store for Lily Allen, I wanted to highlight a recent interview with The Observer. She was asked about West End Girl and its aftermath. An album that appeared in most of the best of 2025 lists (even topping a few), it is a frank brutal, funny and hugely inventive album from one of our best artists:
“The response to Allen’s record appears to have been almost entirely and rabidly positive, which in itself feels somehow remarkable. Though she is cautious about naming Harbour or pointing to which aspects of her lyrics relate directly to him (for reasons, I presume, of dignity, legalities and money), typically when women in the public eye speak out about famous men, crisis lawyers and their various automated bots kick in to silence her. When I brought this up, Allen sighed. “I can see when comments are being left and it’s clearly bots and you know someone or something is behind that,” she told me. “But again, it’s not really something I have any control over. People will believe what they want to believe, there’s no amount of protest that you can do that will change their minds. And it’s not really my business, you know?”
When Allen started to become successful, people would reassure her that however bad that day’s story was, it would be forgotten by tomorrow. A few years into her career, though, that ceased to be true. “It stays there and it lives on forever,” she told me. “And it’s difficult to reconcile with that, but also, it’s something new that we’re dealing with as human beings.” She added loftily, “I think that it leads to self-censorship, and ultimately allows fascism to happen.” She stubbed out a cigarette and began to pull delicately on a matcha vape. “We’re all massive walking contradictions, right? That’s what makes us human beings. You can think one thing one day, and then you grow, and you think something else – that’s life. I’m a different person than I was 20 years ago because I’ve lived 20 years of my life and I’ve had two children and two marriages and I’ve learned a lot.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Jon Gorrigan
This is what she has learned: that child-rearing is hard; harder, it seems, than when she was growing up. She’s learned to look after herself, by returning in therapy to childhood events during which she felt unsafe. She’s learned to save money, she’s learned to ask for help. She’s learned, she told me, there are no “baddies and goodies in a marriage but, having done things that were not very nice in my first marriage, I have a better idea now of the pain I may have inflicted. I’ve learned how horrible it is to be on the receiving end of that.” She’s learned a lot about marriage. “I’d like to say I’d never do it again, but I do like it. Everything but the institution of it, you know? I like being chosen. I like jewellery. I like getting dressed up. I like celebrating. I don’t like talking about money. I like my independence. But I don’t like divorce.”
What has she learned about divorce? “It’s just sort of devastating, really. It keeps you up at night and costs a huge amount of money and just goes on and on and on. And I hate feeling like I can’t trust anyone. But there’s something about dealing with an ex-partner and lawyers that creates an environment of feeling like you can’t trust anybody or anything.”
What has she learned about men?
“I think that they’re having a tricky time at the moment. But – that’s not really my problem. Good luck to them. They can sort themselves out from now on.”
Allen’s career has been littered with apologies: for accusations of racism (after a 2013 music video featured Black women dancing in their underwear while she remained clothed) and more recently for “being mean” to Katy Perry after her Blue Origin flight to space. In 2016, she apologised, in tears, on behalf of her country, to an unaccompanied child migrant living in a makeshift camp in Calais, an apology that brought new waves of abuse. In the past, Allen has been a vocal Labour supporter, though recently she decided she didn’t want to talk about politics any more. “I’m just very disappointed in everything,” she told me. “But I’m also not as active, vocally. Not because I don’t care. I really do. But because of the voice or the character that has been assigned to me.”
How would she describe that character?
“Like an idiot that speaks out of turn and doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
As her career unfolded, Allen began to feel as though when she spoke up, her words were twisted. “And I think it does more damage to the causes that I believe in than help them.” Her focus has turned to her local community, rather than the wider world. Last year she became an ambassador for the addiction charity Forward Trust. Elsewhere, women in their 40s are enjoying her activism around being an extremely hot single mother in see-through dresses, embracing an elegantly curated slagginess. Alongside the album promo, she’s been on a successful tour of her own perimenopausal sexuality.
She has been asked to write another book and there are plans underway to adapt her record for film, or stage, or both – her mother, Owen, is advising on meetings, which adds to Allen’s excitement and relief. “I don’t know if I want anything other than to just enjoy the moment, and not feel scared of losing it. I spent a lot of time in my 20s being so fearful of having to hold on to this thing” – the money, the attention, these parcels of purses arriving at her door – “that it actually stopped me from enjoying what was happening.”
Allen wanted to go to the gym before her evening event, where Valentino would dress her in a custom golden silk gown (styled by Leith Clark, who previously persuaded Allen to dress like a kinky nun for videos promoting the album, and as children’s book character Madeline for Halloween), so as midday approached she offered to give me a lift into town. We hurried across the road to where her new Porsche hummed, very low against the inky tarmac. Inside, Jade Thirlwall’s album played cheerfully, and Allen sighed with pleasure as she sunk into the driver’s seat. “Now I’m able to understand that nothing is permanent and that these things happen in waves. They come and go, and that’s fine,” she said. “So I’m just very committed to enjoying what’s happening right now, not spreading myself too thin. And I’ll do that until I can’t.” This time round, fame has felt different, “even though I’m limited in what I can discuss.”
When I asked her what that felt like for someone so “outspoken”, she thought for a moment, her head resting briefly to the side.
“Actually?” she said. “It’s kind of a blessing”.
I do think that Lily Allen will be picking up awards this year. West End Girl should be shortlisted for the Mercury prize. Even through Lily Allen’s No Shame made the shortlist in 2018 – but lost out to Visions of a Life -, you feel West End Girl is going to be on this year’s list, and it will be a favourite. Allen has said she would be open to the album being adapted into a play. West End Girl playing in London’s West End, would Allen play the starring role? She is a fine actor, though maybe they would cast someone else to play Allen. The play might look inside the writing of the album and the traumatic events that inspired its songs; I do feel like this will be something that will come to life – and the stage – later in the year. Such is the power of this album, I do think that it would be a magnificent, funny and memorable play. Maybe with aspects of a musical, this could be a project that will occupy Allen. In interviews around West End Girl, Allen did sort of seem to suggest she might be looking for a quieter year or is not looking to follow this album. However, given the huge reaction to it and the demand, I feel like she will be thinking of songs. One of the most pleasing things of this year is that Allen will tour the album. As Glastonbury is in a fallow year, she will not get the chance to headline this year. However, she is on tour from March and starts out in the U.K. All the dates are sold out. She will be back in the U.K. from May and is busy until later in the summer. Having not toured for a while, it will be quite intimidating. I am curious what the set will consist of. In terms of the theatrics and setlist. There will be so much love for her. I do think that we might get a documentary around the tour. Capturing Lily Allen backstage and preparing for these dates. What life is like on the road and how the audience react.
Allen will be busy for most of the year. At least until August. However, I do think there will be acting demands. Film and T.V. roles. An amazing actor, you can see film producers coming her way with offers. It may be impossible to find the time to do this. However, when the tour wraps up in the summer, Allen might want to take on a project like this. I am writing this head of the BRITs announcing its nominees. I would expect West End Girl to be included in the British album category. I also think that there will be collaborations happening. Lily Allen lending her voice and appearing with another artist. However, she is going to be consumed by tour preparation. What I also predict is that the vinyl of West End Girl will be among the best-selling of this year. It is definitely going to sell huge amounts! In personal terms, you can see Allen looking ahead. Maybe a new relationship. However, after such a turbulent time in the past year or two, she may want some independence and space for a while. It is great that Lily Allen and West End Girl has received such love! Announcing an album and it being released days later took people by surprise. The reception was overwhelmingly positive, and West End Girl was rightly ranked alongside the best of 2025. Now, as we are in a new year, we will find Allen’s brilliant album played in the U.S. I would expect some chat show appearances (she was in the U.S. recently promoting the album) and maybe chance to do some other stuff whilst she is there. Awards will come and I do think the live shows will be extraordinary. Perhaps some festival headline slots if she can sot it in between tour dates. On 3rd July, her debut single, Smile, turns twenty. The album it is from, Alright, Still, is twenty on 13th July. I am sure Allen will look back fondly at that time, but it is clear she has come a long way. Enjoying some ups and downs, last year was a huge one for her. That being said, I do think that this one is going to be the…
BIGGEST year of her career.