"She symbolizes a new blogging-age, middle-class girl: cockily ambitious, skeptical yet enthusiastic, technically savvy, musically open, obsessed with public expression and ready to fight back,"
-The New York Times in a feature on Lily Allen (6/5/06).

    Indeed, a cockney accent and upbeat melodies with smart, original lyrics have helped propel Lily Allen all the way to #1 on UK's Single charts with "Smile". While born to semi-famous parents (British actor/comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen) Lily utilized Myspace to help build her fanbase. To date, she's racked up 550,000 page views and a recording contract with Parlophone/EMI since creating an account in November 2005.

    Allen posted demos of individual songs as well as compiling two mixtapes — My First Mixtape and My Second Mixtape — to promote her work: they include tracks by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dizzee Rascal, and Ludacris. Her debut full length album, Alright, Still was released on January 30, 2007 in the United States, selling 34,000 copies to land #20 on the Billboard Album Charts.

    It was followed by an international tour, hitting stops in Japan, Australia, and the U.S., as well as her native Britain. She is currently working on a second album, but does find time to update her blog with amusing rants about the industry, some of which have generated controversy, i.e. trashing the appearance of the Kook's lead singer (a former classmate of Lily's).

    Speaking of appearances, one final note: her preference for cocktail dresses and athletic shoes while performing has inspired the clothing line Lily Loves which premiered just recently, in May of 2007.