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Lily Allen · S9 E1
David Harbour
Love in Las Vegas — with an Elvis impersonator as witness
September 7, 2020. Lily Allen marries David Harbour at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, officiated by an Elvis impersonator, and the couple goes to In-N-Out Burger afterwards.
"Higher" by Lily Allen, live on Sounds Like Friday Night, BBC One. The most euphoric song on No Shame, and the one that makes the most sense in the context of falling in love again. After the divorce, the stalker, the memoir, and the tabloid wars, Lily Allen sounds like someone who can't believe her luck. That feeling has a name now: David Harbour.
The Meeting
Lily Allen and David Harbour meet through a dating app in 2019. He's the star of Stranger Things, the biggest show on Netflix. She's a British pop star who just published a memoir accusing the music industry of systemic abuse. On paper, they shouldn't work. In practice, they make complete sense.
TAP TO REVEAL: How did Lily Allen and David Harbour actually meet?
Higher, Lily Allen (2018)
'Higher' is the most purely joyful track on No Shame, an album that has almost no joy in it. Listen for how the production lifts after the first chorus, adding layers of warmth that the rest of the album deliberately withholds. The vocal is lighter and more playful than anything else on the record, as if Lily recorded it on a day when she actually felt OK. After nine tracks of heartbreak and trauma, 'Higher' lands like the first warm day after a long winter.
“He's the first person I've been with who genuinely doesn't care about any of the noise. He doesn't read the tabloids, he doesn't follow the drama. He just sees me.”
— Lily Allen, on David Harbour, Miss Me? podcast (2024)
The Other Side of Fame
David Harbour's fame is American, which means it operates by completely different rules. He's recognised in supermarkets in Brooklyn, not stalked by paparazzi outside London nightclubs. For Lily, who has spent her entire adult life navigating British tabloid culture, the relationship offers something she hasn't experienced before: privacy by default.
Lily and David
Graceland Wedding Chapel, Las Vegas
The chapel where Lily Allen and David Harbour get married on September 7, 2020. An Elvis impersonator does the honours. After a decade of tabloid scrutiny, corporate record deals, and carefully managed public image, Lily Allen gets married in a place that treats fame as a joke.
At Last, Etta James
After eight seasons of chaos, heartbreak, stalking, divorce, industry abuse, and tabloid warfare, Lily Allen finds love that actually works. There is no Lily Allen song left unused that captures this moment, so here is the only song that does: Etta James singing 'At Last,' the definitive sound of someone who stopped believing it would happen and then it did.
At Last, Etta James (1960)
These are among the most famous lyrics ever written about finding love when you'd given up looking. After everything this deep dive has put you through, let Etta James remind you what the good part sounds like.
How many times has Lily Allen been married?
Lily Allen packs up her London life and moves across the Atlantic to Brooklyn. Next episode: what happens when the most London pop star of her generation becomes a New Yorker.
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