Lily Allen performing at Glastonbury in 2022

As soon as Lily Allen announced her return to the pop world with her fifth album West End Girl last week, it was clear the press was going to have a field day.

Lily has been a tabloid fixture since she first burst onto the pop scene more than 20 years ago, and at the height of her fame, was arguably as known for her headline-grabbing antics and personal drama as she was for her frank and confessional songwriting.

West End Girl is not just her first release in seven years, but the first since her much-publicised split from her second husband, Stranger Things actor David Harbour. The pair tied the knot in Las Vegas in 2020, after which they relocated to New York with Lily’s two daughters from her first marriage, and were first reported to have split at the beginning of this year, after David was spotted on the exclusive dating app Raya (which is where he and the Smile singer also first met).

In the lead-up to her new album’s release, Lily described the collection as a “mixture of fact and fiction”, telling British Vogue it was “inspired by what went on in the relationship”, with its creation seeing her go through a mix of “confusion, sorrow, grief, helplessness”.

Lily also shared that the album was both written and recorded over an “intense 10-day period” in December 2024, the same month she announced she was taking a break from the spotlight to spend........

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