Lily Allen's hair gets more exciting with every stage set, having been every colour from pink to blue to orange in the last few weeks. Her latest look? Purple.
Lily rocked her new 'do on stage at the Electric Picnic music festival in Ireland, wearing her hair in tightly rolled plaits with her striking lavender fringe on display.
She wore a selection of eye-popping outfits: pink pants and a latex bra, a fringed poncho top, and a sequinned hooded varsity top from Ashish, which she teamed with retro red and white platforms. And of course, she accessorized with the giant baby bottles surrounding her on stage.
Allen's been chronicling her hair exploits this month on Instagram, posting a pic of herself with a shaggy blue hairstyle captioned: "I died (sic) my hair blue by accident."
@lilyallen I'm playing @hobhouston and it's being streamed live on #YahooLive TONIGHT - 10pm ET, 7pm PT. yhoo.it/1ozjRjm /photo/1pic.twitter.com/birHDGnrX4
Five years ago the deliciously provocative British songstress Lily Allen dropped out of pop music for the uncharacteristic bliss of marriage (to builder Sam Cooper) and motherhood (to Ethel Mary, 2, and Marnie Rose, 1.) But last November Allen, 29, returned in signature style with Hard Out Here, a twerk-in-your-face satire of music industry sexism, then confused us by opening for Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz tour this summer.
Why’d you leave music and why’d you come back?
I stepped away because I fell in love and decided I wanted to have a family with the man who is now my husband. Then I felt like there was a creative void in my life. I didn’t know how much I needed to make music. It helps me get my mind in shape.
Did you really think you were done?
Yes I did. I was going to be the mum that pureed organic vegetables, but it didn’t fly with me. I do enjoy doing that, but I definitely need to create.
Your new album “ Sheezus” seems split between songs about your personal life and some pretty ambivalent songs about pop culture.
I always try to bring a bit of antagonism to my music — I’m an antagonistic person. On previous records I directed the negative elements to people who had pissed me off, ex-lovers or girlfriends. But I still feel pissed off on a social and political level. Now I’m nice about my husband — I feel very loved and supported in that area which I haven’t ever felt in my life before — and pissed off about everything else.
What inspired “Hard Out Here”?
Whenever I start writing songs I never really know what they’re gonna be about at the end. The message comes out about three quarters of the way through. I was fooling around with the instrumentation, and there was this kind of rapping bit, and I said “I gotta tell you what this bitch is thinking.” Once that was staring me in the face I got to thinking “wow, bitch is a powerful word.”
I’m surprised you’re a fan of Miley Cyrus.
Miley did a really brave thing. She had a very established brand and she’d been incredibly successful and wealthy. It takes guts to throw that away and try something new, and she did it amazingly and convincingly. And she’s not apologetic at all — she doesn’t give a [damn] and that’s the kind of person I like.
So how does it feel to be back in the media scrum?
When I was doing promotion and photo shoots I got excited for a bit about wearing fancy clothes and designers sending me handbags. But then I realized I want to be me again as an artist, and do it with conviction and passion. The other stuff is secondary.
Brave Lily Allen became understandably emotional as she spoke about the devastating stillbirth of her son during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show this week. The singer described losing her baby boy six months into her pregnancy as "the most unfortunate thing that can happen to a person" as she opened up about her ordeal.
"I think it's difficult for anybody regardless of what world they live in, and actually what I took home from that experience was… Even though it was the most unfortunate thing that can ever happen to a person, I was fortunate in the sense that I have a loving partner to go home to and share that experience with," she said.
The star added, "There are many women – 17 stillbirths in the UK everyday – that go home and they don't have that support, they have to go home and deal with that on their own. "So I am kind of in a bit of a – since that happened – in a 'count my blessings' scenario rather than feeling sorry for myself." Lily and builder Sam have been married since June 2011, and are parents to daughters Ethel, two, and Marnie, who will be two in January. The couple would love to expand their family further.
"I don't meet up with people, I just talk to people on it," she said. "You can have a chat situation… sometimes I am away, if I'm in Australia or Los Angeles and there's no one up that I know to talk to on the phone, sometimes I'm just like, 'Actually, yes, you look quite fun to have a little chat'… but nothing sinister. My biography on the app basically says 'I'm a recording artist, I travel around the world, I'm married, I have two beautiful girls'… at the end it says, 'Some of my photos are now and current, and some are of when I looked significantly hotter and younger'… It's not a hooking up thing!"