British singer and songwriter Lily Allen has found herself to be the protagonist of a tiff on X this week, after fans complained about the length of her latest live shows.
Allen is currently touring the UK with her latest album, ‘West End Girl’, a painful and raging record that was inspired by her divorce from ‘Stranger Things’ actor David Harbour.
The live shows involve the artist singing the album in its entirety, with no back catalogue being performed.
Allen has little to no interaction with the crowd, and she sings her song almost as if she were playing a role.
“[It] feels more like a Broadway-esque one-woman show, with really interesting set design. There’ll be no band and no dancers,” she explained to Elle back in March.
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Fans complain about the length of shows and prices
It seems, however, that this premise was not enough for some concertgoers, as multiple people on social media criticised the singer.
Opinion editor and journalist Rupert Hawksley brought it to X, where he posted: “Lily Allen at the O2: No support act, arrived on stage at 09:10pm, all wrapped up by 10pm, not one word to the audience, £86 to sit in the gods.”
The artist replied directly to the post on the same day, stating that her delay was due to her tights being laddered, and that the show had always been advertised as “Lily Allen performs West End Girl”.
“The show is just over an hour as it’s just the album in its entirety,” she added.
“It’s my artistic choice not to talk to the audience, the fourth wall helps with the storytelling,” she explained.
“Most people find it to be effective.”
“I don’t want anyone to feel ripped off, everyone on this tour is really working very hard to give people the best show we possibly can, and I’m extremely proud of it,” she concluded.
Some fans, however, disagreed with Hawksley and came to the singer’s rescue.
“It’s a bold move doing just the new album as a one-woman theatrical piece,” a user posted on X.
“Respect for sticking to the vision, even if the runtime has some fans raising eyebrows.”
“The show is staged like a West End play, so it makes perfect sense that she didn’t speak to the audience. […] It was also clear from her reactions that she was appreciative of the audience,” another fan posted on Reddit, sharing her experience after attending one of the concerts.
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Allen’s ‘revenge’ dress
During the first show of her tour in Glasgow, Scotland, she wore a special dress on stage which landed her on the news.
The singer made her appearance in a dark-coloured gown on which a copious amount of receipts was printed.
Allegedly, the receipts (containing text conversations, bar bills and proof of purchase for luxury items) showed items her ex-husband bought for other women while he was still married to Allen.
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