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16 mai What's Eating Lily Allen?I feel bad about my choice of headline already but it just goes to show how easy it is to make light of the self-image issues Lily Allen's been in the news for lately. As you may have read, she posted a blog entry on her MySpace the other day which spelled out the pressures facing young women in the public eye.
She wrote, "I used to pride myself on being strong minded and not being some stupid girl obsessed with the way I look. I felt like it didn't matter if I was a bit chubby' cause I'm not a model, I'm a singer." More worryingly, she continued, "I'm afraid I am not strong and have fallen victim to the evil machine. I write to you in a sea of tears from my hotel bed in Seattle, I have spent the past hour researching gastric bypass surgery, and laser liposuction."
Not good and not in the least bit funny. Thankfully, it seems over 1000 messages of support from fans and a good night's sleep have brought Lily out of her depression. Blaming media comparisons with Kate Moss and, more pointedly, Cheryl Cole's 'chick with a dick' comment for her mini-meltdown, Lily's most recent blog entry implies that all is rosy again. Certainly, calling Cole a 'stupid bitch' suggests things are back to normal.
You would hope so but I can't help recalling the line from Everything's Wonderful, written well before she became a tabloid fixture: "I wanna be able to eat spaghetti bolognese / And not feel bad about it for days and days and days". It's the sort of clever, funny, and brutally honest lyric which propelled her to stardom but it also shows there's nothing recent about all this.
You'd have to be pretty naive to think Lily's any sort of exception. The pressures on women from all walks of life to conform to a certain proscribed notion of beauty are well documented but precious few in the entertainment business are brave enough not to play the game.
Yes, Lily Allen needs to grow up in certain respects and shouldn't mouth off quite as much as she does but better that than have the charts filled with vacuous, identikit barbie dolls like Girls Aloud.
On a different note, something which wasn't much remarked on about Lily's crisis blog entry was her comment about being 'shitter than Winehouse'. While they don't have a great deal in common musically, being young, individualistic and fearlessly outspoken has led to them being packaged together, particularly in America where they're being touted as some sort of twin-pronged British Invasion.
Or rather they were. I'm guessing that Lily's recent feelings of insecurity stem at least partly from Amy pulling way out in front across the Atlantic. While Lily's been selling more than respectably, Amy's Back To Black album has gone ballistic by comparison.
You only need to look at the user comments on Amazon's US site to see just what a buzz she's managed to create. Review after breathless review describes her as single-handedly having saved music. And it's by no means the usual suspects either. Hip-hop star Xzibit was recently quoted as saying, "I hate rap right now... I like Amy Winehouse. When I heard her record, I was floored (in awe). It's music, real music."
Her grittiness and willingness to go against the grain (plus, it must be said, Mark Ronson's hip-hop flavoured production) appeal to rap fans who wouldn't normally listen to, you know, songs. Can you imagine an American female solo star singing about not going to rehab?
And then, of course, there is her voice, which probably sounds even more astonishing to American ears for coming from the body of a skinny white English girl. Not only is it rich and soulful, she is remarkable in this day and age for not over-singing in that million-notes-a-bar way that now seems almost compulsory. Whitney and Mariah, you have a lot to answer for.
If Xzibit was high praise, Prince's approval is in a different league. I know he's a fan because he covered Amy's Love Is A Losing Game (which he followed by exclaiming, "Respect to Amy Winehouse, respect! What a voice!") when I saw him at last week's secret gig at Koko.
Although the upper tiers of the venue were rammed with celebs, I wasn't there on some industry jolly. I paid for my ticket like all the other real fans down at ground level. Mind you, you've got to wonder when you overhear, as I did, a girl say to her male companion, "I was quite surprised when he did that Irish one."
She was referring to Nothing Compares 2 U.
Not exactly a diehard fan then. Commentaires (5)Pour ajouter un commentaire, connectez-vous avec votre identifiant Windows Live ID (si vous utilisez Messenger ou Xbox LIVE, vous avez un identifiant Windows Live ID). Connectez-vous Vous n'avez pas d'identifiant Windows Live ID ? Inscrivez-vous
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