Lily Allen feels “validated” by the response to her explosive break-up album West End Girl.
The Smile singer hit headlines when she released her fifth album in October, as the record appears to tell the story of the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour after four years in December last year.
Told in chronological order, the shockingly candid album features lyrics about an open relationship, alleged infidelity, and starting over.
Reflecting on the success of West End Girl, Allen told CBS Mornings that she feels “overwhelmed” and “massively grateful” by the response, as well as “validated” by the public’s reaction to her story.
“It’s amazing, I write music for myself to make myself feel more normal and when something connects with people, it’s affirming, right? It’s validating,” she said in a preview clip from Thursday’s interview. “The things that I was experiencing in my life at the time, I wasn’t really getting that validation for whatever reason, so to now have people listen to this record and to go, ‘Yeah, that’s really messed up, that’s really painful. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through something like that,’ it’s like OK.”
With a laugh, the British singer added, “Now I know why I had to check myself into a treatment centre!”
The 40-year-old, who checked into a treatment centre for several weeks in January and February due to her mental health, also told the U.S. TV show that the success of West End Girl feels similar to the popularity of her 2006 debut album Alright, Still.
“It felt like a moment in time that you couldn’t recreate and I certainly haven’t felt anything like what that felt like until now. It sort of feels quite similar in a way…,” she shared. “It’s highly entertaining, very overstimulating.”
Due to the phenomenal success of the album, Allen has now added arena shows to her 2026 Lily Allen Performs West End Girl U.K. tour, in which she will perform the album in full and in order, after her theatre dates swiftly sold out.
Announced on Thursday, the tour will now stop at arenas in nine cities, including London, Newcastle and Birmingham, in June.
