How Lily Allen brought the house down with a Disney song aged 11
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Who is Lily Allen, and what do her school reports reveal about her childhood?
Welcome to Desert Island Discs Postcards. I'm Lauren Laverne. We've cast away thousands of people to our imaginary Desert Island, among them, many singers. Our castaway today is the singer-songwriter Lily Allen. Back in 2014, Lily told Kirsty Young how her old school reports painted a mixed picture of her academic achievements.
Why did Lily Allen's school reports say she could excel if she applied herself?
Nursery started really well, it sort of said, you know. Lily is the life and soul of the class and she always joins in and helps all the ch other children if they're sad and she's a fantastic little helper and blah blah blah. Um and then as I got a little bit older it became you know, Lily could really excel at this subject if sh only she applied herself to then being like, Well, I would love to tell you what Lily was like in this class but we haven't seen her.
What was Lily doing when she wasn't at school?
Um hanging out with older kids, smoking and drinking and um snogging probably.
Was Lily Allen shy or bullied, and how did her home life shape her school years?
Where you I get ki a contradictory impression from much of what I read about your childhood, saying that you Some interviews say you were a bullied child and that you were very shy. Is it are either of those things true?
Um I think It really depends what was going on in my home life at the time. I think um, you know, when I was uh I was at a Catholic school in Camden for a few years and that was like one of the most positive school experiences that I had.
How did a singing teacher discover Lily Allen's vocal talent?
And actually that's where I've sang for the first time as well. I had a uh te singing teacher called Rachel Santesso who was a supply teacher and she just happened to hear me singing along to an Oasis song on my Walkman and um and said, Hey, you should you should work on that and so we worked on a song together and I sang it at a parents' evening and brought down the house, all the mums were crying.
How did 11-year-old Lily Allen bring the house down with 'Baby Mine' from Dumbo?
What was the song, do you remember? Yeah, it was called Baby Mine from Dumbo. It was the song the mummy elephant sang to the baby elephant.
And what did the cool girl who wanted to smoke and drink and and be grown up think of that?
She was only eleven, so I think she liked the reaction that she got and suddenly felt like uh this was something that she could do.
Lily Allen speaking to Kirsty Young. You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds. Just search for Lily Allen Desert Island discs.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who is Lily Allen, and what do her school reports reveal about her childhood?
0:14–0:35
2
Why did Lily Allen's school reports say she could excel if she applied herself?
0:35–1:16
3
Was Lily Allen shy or bullied, and how did her home life shape her school years?
1:16–1:44
4
How did a singing teacher discover Lily Allen's vocal talent?
1:44–2:04
5
How did 11-year-old Lily Allen bring the house down with 'Baby Mine' from Dumbo?
2:04–2:33
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Desert Island Discs
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