Lily Allen

Being labeled a pop "It Girl" with the power to unite demographic tribes like no one since The Streets or the Arctic Monkeys" by the U.K. newspaper The Observer, Lily Allen smoothly managed to gain wide recognition at such a very young age. Born Lily Rose Beatrice Allen on May 2, 1985 in Hammersmith, London she was the daughter of actor/comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.

Growing up in Shepherds Bush and Bloomsbury before finally settling in the North London borough of Islington, she had a rather unusual childhood as she changed school thirteen times which consequently gave her little chance to make lasting friendships for sure.

This circumstance inevitably prompted the girl to find a way in her attempt to entertain herself, and music delightfully appeared to be the primary answer as she then constantly spent time to listen to everything from T. Rex, The Specials, and The Slits to Happy Mondays and jungle music, commonly known as drum and bass.

Never an enthusiastic learner at school subjects, Lily finally decided to give up her formal education at age fifteen with a wish to actualize herself as a musician. An opportunity to reach the goal unexpectedly struck her when she found a job in a record store called Plastic Fantastic during a holiday in Ibiza.

It delighted her even more when she got introduced to George Lamb, an influential A&R man and the former manager of Audio Bullys. The meeting soon brought the teen to meet music producer duo Future Cut who willingly composed tracks for the lyrics she had penned.

She then signed a deal under Parlophone/EMI's division Regal Records in late 2005 after a short-lived one with Warner Music. Despite the label's insistence to send her off to pure hit making producers in recording the materials for her album, Lily boldly set up a blog on MySpace where she uploaded the tracks she had written.

Much to her joy, the decision was proven right as she gradually built such a large exposure on her that drew the attention of U.K. substantial mass media like NME Magazine. Thanks to their positive publication, it did not take long for the artist to hear the demo of her track "LDN" being played on BBC Radio One by DJ Jo Whiley, one of the determining factors which ultimately led the release of it as a strictly limited edition 7" vinyl in the country on April 24, 2006 followed by the worldwide launch of CD single "Smile" on July 3.

As many predicted, both tunes performed well in the pop music scene, but it was the latter one that really shot Lily to prominence when it amazingly soared right to the first rank of U.K. singles chart the week it debuted, later even secured the top 20 in France, Spain, Poland, Philippine, and New Zealand, among others.

Hot on the heels of this initial success came her first full-length work "Alright, Still" on July 17, 2006 which also pulled superb outcome as it fantastically became the runner-up on the U.Kk album charts a week after hitting the stores around European countries. The U.S. release also met the same fate as it arrived in the country on January 30, 2007.

Soon Lily was a high commodity in the States, being demanded for tours and gigs. Marking the end of 2006 with two performances in Kingston, Jamaica, the raven-haired beauty tirelessly continued her journey on the road, spending the whole month of January 2007 going around the cities in Japan with a stop in Auckland, New Zealand on date 19 before then headed for Australia to hold several gigs up to date 29.

After a brief break, a short European tour was commenced in late February and early March across Belgium and France, among others, followed by that in the U.K. which included venues in Cambridge, Glasgow, plus Manchester for the first half of March.

After that Lily spent most of her time doing a number of collaborations for her next project while also providing backing vocals on the Basement Jaxx's song "Lights Go Down" and appearing on tracks on Robbie Williams' album, "Rudebox" on the "Bongo Bong/Je Ne T'Aime Plus" and also on "Keep On".

She, additionally, also provided vocals on "Rawhide" by Jamie T and "Wanna Be" by Dizzee Rascal. By the time she released her two other chart-topper singles, "Alfie" and her cover of Kaiser Chiefs' "Oh My God", her style of cocktail dresses and athletic shoes gained popularity, which prompted the creation of Lily Loves fashion line.

On June 28, Lily made major media headlines when she was arrested over an alleged assault on a photographer. It stemmed from an incident taking place near the Wardour Club in London's Soho on March 13. She posed for mug shots and provided fingerprints and a DNA sample before then being released on bail.

Little to her recognizance would the brief arrest later on result on her U.S. working visa being revoked. It led to the cancellation of her scheduled appearance at MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas on September 9 and her tour which was supposed to be kicked off on September 6 in San Diego.

During this difficult period of time, Lily faced even bitter love relationship when she broke up with longtime boyfriend Seb Chew, who was a record label executive. Saddened by the break-up, she however quickly found a new love in Ed Simons of music duo The Chemical Brothers.

In December, it was confirmed that she was pregnant with Ed's child. Unfortunately, she suffered a miscarriage a few months into her pregnancy. Shortly after, her relationship with Simons ended and she checked into a psychiatric clinic due to depression.

A few months later, she started dating Sam Cooper, a builder and decorator. She was pregnant for a second time and once again faced heartbreaking news when she experienced complications and lost her unborn baby. The tragic incident made her relationship with Cooper stronger than ever.

They got engaged in Bali and the married at St. James church in England in the summer of 2011. After enduring heartaches due to the past miscarriages, she finally gave birth to a healthy baby girl Ethel Mary in September that year. Her second child Marnie Rose followed in January 2013.

She had been dedicating her time for her family and even repeatedly said that she would retire from music for good. But fans' prayers for her comeback were answered when she started appearing in other artists' songs including Pink's 2012 "True Love". Finally, her first song after many years was released in 2013. It's titled "Hard Out Here".

The song became talk of the town due to its music video which seemed to poke fun at other artists' oversexualized performances including Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Miley Cyrus' infamous wacky performance at the VMAs. It will usher her new album which was inspired by her Twitter feud with Azealia Banks.