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Lily Allen · S5 E7
The Pull
Music wouldn't let her go — no matter how hard she tried
ITV, 8:10pm, Saturday November 9, 2013. The X Factor cuts to an ad break, a cartoon bear wakes up on Christmas morning to the sound of a voice that hasn't released a record in four years, and within seconds Twitter is losing its mind because Lily Allen is back.
"Somewhere Only We Know" by Lily Allen, live on Le Grand Journal (2014). Allen performs the Keane cover that soundtracked the 2013 John Lewis Christmas ad and gave her a third UK number one. Stripped to a piano and her voice, the song that brought her back sounds even more fragile live. The ad it accompanied was later named the most effective John Lewis Christmas commercial of all time.
Somewhere Only We Know -- Lily Allen (2013)
Producer Paul Beard builds the arrangement around intimacy: soft piano, gentle strings that never compete with the vocal, and Allen's voice carrying a tenderness she'd never shown on her own records. The result made a cartoon about a bear and a hare into the most talked-about British ad of the year, with 212,000 mentions on Twitter in its first week. Allen recorded the song without taking a fee. CD profits went to Save the Children's Philippine Typhoon Appeal.
“I'm not the sort of person who can sit at home and look after children all day... there was a void. I'm a creative person, I like to speak my mind. Making music is the perfect vehicle for that.”
— Lily Allen, interview with Elle UK, March 2014
The #Mumback
On February 26, 2013, Allen performs live for the first time in four years at the Etam Lingerie show during Paris Fashion Week. Mark Ronson is her music director. Her two-month-old daughter Marnie is in the audience with Sam Cooper. The night before, Allen tweets a word she's just invented: #mumback.
TAP TO REVEAL: How did Keane end up giving their biggest hit to Lily Allen?
The Return
On August 30, 2013, Allen changes her Twitter handle from @lilyrosecooper back to @lilyallen and posts two messages. The first: "Hello, im Lily Allen..." The second: "and, I'm coming back, bitches." Three months later she has a number one single and the country is watching a cartoon bear unwrap a Christmas present to the sound of her voice.
The Pull: In Numbers
Sheezus -- Lily Allen
From Sheezus (2014). The title track is Allen's ultimate comeback statement. She name-drops every major female artist of the era, from Beyonce to Rihanna to Katy Perry to Lady Gaga, and declares herself their equal. It's bold, polarizing, and exactly the kind of thing only someone who's been away long enough to stop caring about consequences would write.
Sheezus -- Lily Allen (2014)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Allen frames herself as the female Kanye, which is either the most confident or the most reckless opening move for a comeback album. Depending on who you ask, it's both.
Who recommended Lily Allen to John Lewis for the 2013 Christmas ad?
Allen is back with a number one single and an album on the way. But Sheezus is going to be the most divisive record of her career, and she already knows it. Next season: the comeback nobody could agree on.
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To be continued
Season 6: Sheezus
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