Lily Allen talks rage and infidelity as she targets No1

Lily Allen is enjoying her second coming with West End Girl which is getting a chart boost this week after being released on CD and vinyl. The star talks channeling rage and the horrifying messages she gets from women facing infidelity all over the world.

Lily Allen is on high following an incredible musical comeback and her album, West End Girl is now on course to be No1 this week thanks to its release on physical formats like CD and vinyl.

The BRIT award nominated star loves the attention it’s bringing even if she feels like a poster girl for infidelity. Lily told Elle UK : “Oh, I love it. I love that it’s about my music. I like that people are talking about me again because I’ve done something they think is really good.

“I’m super grateful that I’ve been here before and that I’m sober this time around. I know nothing is permanent and that these things come and go….I don’t know if it’s great for the soul, but it’s good for the ego.”

West End Girl has been a hit across the world and got people gossiping about her life. The success is all the sweeter due to the personal nature of West End Girl: “I was processing things that were happening at quite a traumatic period of time. I don’t think that it’s a particularly self-aware record. It’s a really angry record. And it’s a lot more about rage directed towards other people. It’s not really about self-reflection.”

However, Lily was nervous that opening up in such a unique way may have caused more problems: “I wrote this album, I spent about eight months being absolutely terrified of what was gonna come back at me.”

Expressing herself intimately has been cathartic: “I think that if I’ve learnt anything about myself from it, it’s that rage is powerful and necessary, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing to express. In fact, repressed rage is arguably more damaging.”

Lily’s music has been adopted by the world and turned her into a bit of agony aunt for other women who are facing infidelity issues.

“It is f**king insane,” she said. “In my Instagram DMs, I get loads of women telling me really graphic stuff. Literally like, “My husband will be f**king me in the ass while he is texting other women.” It makes me feel so sh*t.”

She fears it’s becoming the norm in many relationships too: “It’s really f**king prevalent, and for some people it’s really enjoyable and exciting and for other people it’s not. I have a lot of queer friends, and when my relationship started to change my gay friends in New York said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know straight people were doing this!’ I was like, ‘Neither did I!’.”

The album documents Lily’s time living oin the US with husband and Stranger Things star David Harbour: “I wanted things to feel relatively normal. I was happy in the sense that I was doing what I wanted to be doing for my kids. Whether I felt creatively fulfilled or not is another thing completely. I didn’t manage to find the balance between the two”.

Now Lily is getting ready to tour but fans should not expect a greatest hits set: “[The live performances] will feel more like a Broadway-esque one-woman show, with really interesting set design. There’ll be no band and no dancers.”

Lily feels like she still has a way to go but her confidence is boosted and she feels like a totally different person compared to when she was in her 20s.

“I wish I’d had the life experience that I have now the first time around, as I would’ve been able to handle it better. But that wasn’t the universe’s plan for me. I was 20 years old and I had no idea who I was,” she admitted. “You’re trying to figure out who you are and then there are very loud voices going, ‘No, you are this. You are this person and we are going to tell everybody that this is who you are’. Those voices were much more powerful than mine was, and that felt quite suffocating.”

Now the future looks bright with a summer full of touring, festivals and who knows…another album?

“I feel liberated. It’s a really nice feeling. I’m genuinely psyched and excited for the next couple of years. And I try not to think about the details of it too much. But what a gift to be at the age I’m at and for people to be connecting with my creative output in this way, and for me to be able to take it on the road and for my kids to be able to watch me do it. And to be able to get paid for it. So yeah… It’s f**king great.”

The March issue of ELLE UK is on sale from February 5.

Have you joined Threads? Follow Daily Star to keep up to date on all things showbiz here

Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter