A hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as Hansel and Gretel.^[1] Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Morrígan or Badb, who are seen as neither wholly beneficent nor malevolent.^[2][3] The term appears in Middle English, and was a shortening of hægtesse, an Old English term for witch, similarly the Dutch heks and German hexe are also shortenings, of the Middle Dutch haghetisse and Old High German hagzusa respectively^[4]. All these words derive from the Proto-Germanic *hagatusjon-^[4] which is of unknown origin, however the first element may be related to the word "hedge".^[4][5] As a stock character in fairy or folk tale, the hag shares characteristics with the crone, and the two words are sometimes used as if interchangeable.^[6]

Using the word "hag" to translate terms found in non-English (or non-modern English) is contentious, since use of the word is often associated with a misogynistic attitude.^[7][8]

Hag in folklore[link]

A hag, or "the Old Hag", was a nightmare spirit in English and anglophone North American folklore. This variety of hag is essentially identical to the Old English mæra — a being with roots in ancient Germanic superstition, and closely related to the Scandinavian mara. According to folklore, the Old Hag sat on a sleeper's chest and sent nightmares to him or her. When the subject awoke, he or she would be unable to breathe or even move for a short period of time. In the Swedish film Marianne, the main character suffers from these nightmares. This state is now called sleep paralysis, but in the old belief the subject had been "hagridden".^[9] It is still frequently discussed as if it were a paranormal state.^[10]

Many stories about hags seem to have been used to frighten children into being good. The Northern English Peg Powler, for example, was a river hag who lived in the River Tees and had skin the colour of green pond scum.^[11][12][13] Parents who wanted to keep their children away from the river's edge told them that if they got too close to the water she would pull them in with her long arms, drown them, and sometimes eat them. This type of nixie or neck has other regional names, such as Grindylow^[14] (a name connected to Grendel),^[14][15] Jenny Greenteeth from Yorkshire, and Nellie Longarms from several English counties.^[16]

Many tales about hags do not describe them well enough to distinguish between an old woman who knows magic or a supernatural being.^[17]

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga was a hag who lived in the woods in a house on chickens legs. She would often ride through the forest on a mortar, sweeping away her tracks with a broom.^[18] Though she is usually a single being, in some folktales three Baba Yagas are depicted as helping the hero in his quest, either by giving advice or by giving gifts.^[19]

In Irish and Scottish mythology, the cailleach is a hag goddess concerned with creation, harvest, the weather and sovereignty.^[3][20] In partnership with the goddess Bríd, she is a seasonal goddess, seen as ruling the winter months while Bríd rules the summer.^[20] In Scotland, a group of hags, known as The Cailleachan (The Storm Hags) are seen as personifications of the elemental powers of nature, especially in a destructive aspect. They are said to be particularly active in raising the windstorms of spring, during the period known as A Chailleach.^[20][21]

Hags as sovereignty figures abound in Irish mythology. The most common pattern is that the hag represents the barren land, who the hero of the tale must approach without fear, and come to love on her own terms. When the hero displays this courage, love, and acceptance of her hideous side, the sovereignty hag then reveals that she is also a young and beautiful goddess.^[3]

The Three Fates (particularly Atropos) are often depicted as hags.

In Persian folklore, the Bakhtak has the same role as that of "the Old Hag" in English folklore. The Bakhtak sits on a sleeper's chest, awakening them and causing them to feel they are unable to breathe or even to move. Bakhtak also is used metaphorically to refer to "nightmare" in the modern Persian language.^{[citation needed]}

She is similar to Lilith.

In Western literature[link]

This section requires expansion.

In mediaeval and later literature, the term "hag," and its relatives in European languages, came to stand for an unattractive, older woman. Building on the mediaeval tradition of such women as portrayed in comic and burlesque literature, specifically in the Italian Renaissance the hag represented the opposite of the lovely lady familiar from the poetry of Petrarch.^[22]

In neurobiology[link]

The expression Old Hag Attack refers to a hypnagogic state in which paralysis is present and, quite often, it is accompanied by terrifying hallucinations.^{[citation needed]} When excessively recurrent, some consider this to be a disorder; however, many populations treat them as simply part of their culture and mythological world-view, rather than any form of disease or pathology.

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sagan, Carl (1997) The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.
• Kettlewell, N; Lipscomb, S; Evans, E. (1993) Differences in neuropsychological correlates between normals and those experiencing "Old Hag Attacks". Percept Mot Skills 1993 Jun;76 (3 Pt 1):839-45; discussion 846. PMID 8321596
• Old Hag Myth
• Nocturnal Assaults: Aliens in the Dark: Alien abductions and Old Hags - things that go bump in the night. Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena November 21, 2006

External links[link]

• Henry Fuseli's painting of a hag, from the Met collection

Vojislav Šešelj Војислав Шешељ
Born	(1954-10-11) 11 October 1954 (age 57) Sarajevo, FPR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Serb
Other names	Voja Šeki
Education	PhD in law
Alma mater	University of Sarajevo
Occupation	President of SRS
Home town	Belgrade
Political party	Serbian Radical Party
Religion	Serbian Orthodox
Spouse	Jadranka Šešelj
Children	Nikola, Aleksandar, Mihailo, Vladimir
Website
www.vseselj.com

Vojislav Šešelj, JD (Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ, pronounced [ʋǒjislaʋ ʃěʃeʎ]) (born 11 October 1954, Sarajevo, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian politician, writer and lawyer. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party. He was a member of the Serbian parliament.

Šešelj is on trial for alleged war crimes and is suspected of being involved in crimes against humanity^[1] by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He surrendered voluntarily in February 2003 but his trial did not begin until November 2007.^[2]

In February 2009, the prosecution had presented 71 witnesses against Šešelj. With seven hours left in the prosecution, his trial was suspended because of alleged witness intimidation. The trial was resumed on 12 January 2009, and Šešelj does not plan to call any witnesses in his defense, stating that there is no need since the prosecution has not presented a single worthy witness. On 24 July 2009, he was sentenced to a further 15 months in custody for disrespecting the court. As of April 2012 the trial was still under way as Šešelj has spent a total of more than nine years in custody. Of all ICTY indictees, Šešelj spent the longest time without a verdict being delivered. This is partly due to a hunger strike, his decision to not appear for his opening statement (he was self represented), and the aforementioned witness intimidation.^[3] In September 2011, the ICTY rejected Šešelj’s bid to have his long-running trial discontinued.^[4] In his submission to the court, Šešelj stated that his right to be tried in a reasonable amount of time has been violated, and called the current situation “incomprehensible, scandalous and inappropriate”. However, the bench found that “there is no predetermined threshold with regard to the time period beyond which a trial may be considered unfair on account of undue delay” and also argued that Šešelj “failed to provide concrete proof of abuse of process”.

Early life[link]

Vojislav Šešelj was born in Sarajevo, PR Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia, to an ethnic Serb family from Popovo Valley in the eastern Herzegovina (father Nikola Šešelj and mother Danica Misita). The family lived near the old Sarajevo train station before they moved to Hrasno neighbourhood. Šešelj's father worked on the railways and died during Šešelj's early youth; he and his sister Dragica were raised by their mother.

Šešelj attended First Sarajevo Gymnasium with excellent grades. While there, at the age of 17, he took an offer to join the Communist League (SKJ), which was extended to him as a result of the exceptional effort shown at one of the workers' actions in Banja Luka that were organized in the years following the devastating 1969 earthquake that hit the city. He was also involved with various student organizations in school as the president of the gymnasium's student union and later as the president of its youth committee. Even during his gymnasium days, Šešelj demonstrated his argumentative side and had frequent altercations with school principal Blanka Popović and municipal youth committee president Boban Jakovljević over what he saw to be discrepancies between proclaimed theory and the practical implementation of various initiatives. During these disagreements, Šešelj still stayed within the parameters of communist ideology.^[5]

After gymnasium, Šešelj enrolled at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Law, where he completed his undergraduate studies in two years and eight months.^[5] Though short, his time at Sarajevo University was eventful as he openly criticized dean candidate Fuad Muhić, publicly proclaiming him unfit to perform the duties of that position.^[5]

Immediately after graduation in mid 1976, Šešelj continued with graduate studies by enrolling at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Law, where he earned a masters degree in June 1978 with a masters thesis titled The Marxist Concept of an Armed People. On 26 November 1979 he obtained a doctorate at the same university after successfully defending his dissertation (doctoral thesis) titled The Political Essence of Militarism and Fascism, which made him the youngest PhD holder in Yugoslavia at only 25 years of age.^[6]

While still pursuing his Ph.D., Šešelj applied for a position as assistant lecturer at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Law, but instead was hired by the Faculty of Political Sciences at the same university. In December 1979 he joined the Yugoslav People's Army to serve the mandatory military service and was stationed in Belgrade. He left the army in November 1980, but in the meantime he had lost his position at the university.^{[citation needed]}

Academic career[link]

During early 1980s, Šešelj began to associate more with individuals from dissident intellectual circles in Belgrade, some of whom had Serbian nationalist political leanings. After arriving home in Sarajevo after completing his army service, Šešelj's career stagnated due to difficulties in finding a job. He held Muslim professors at the Faculty of Political Sciences Atif Purivatra, Hasan Sušić and Omer Ibrahimagić responsible for his situation, openly criticizing and describing them as Pan-Islamists and nationalists.^[7]

University of Sarajevo[link]

In September 1981, Šešelj finally rejoined the Faculty of Political Sciences where he was asked to teach courses on international relations. The Faculty of Political Sciences, as a starting point for future politicians, was closely controlled and overseen by the Communist Party, and outspoken Šešelj quickly drew the attention of party officials. He openly supported another prominent young intellectual, Nenad Kecmanović, who was himself embroiled in a controversy that drew criticism from some sections of the communist nomenklatura in Bosnia due to his writings in NIN magazine. Furthermore, in the literary journal Književna reč, Šešelj continued to criticize Muslim university professors (Atif Purivatra, Hasan Sušić and Muhamed Filipović) for having harmed his professional career. He further reproached them for taking part in an international conference in Madrid that focused on Muammar al-Gaddafi's Green Book. Šešelj considered the views that these intellectuals expressed in their contributions to the said conference as "pan-Islamist".

Expulsion from the Communist League[link]

Still, the biggest controversy was raised when Šešelj came up against faculty colleague Brano Miljuš. Protege of Hamdija Pozderac and Branko Mikulić (SR Bosnia-Herzegovina's highest and most powerful political figures at the time), Miljuš was well positioned within the communist apparatus as the secretary of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Communist League's Sarajevo branch. Šešelj dissected Miljuš's masters degree thesis and accused him of plagiarizing more than 40 pages in it from the published works of Karl Marx and Edvard Kardelj.^[8][9] Šešelj's criticism didn't end there, as he went after even the highest political echelons in the republic, particularly Pozderac who was the reviewer of Miljuš's masters degree thesis. As a result, a bitter and protracted power struggle spilled outside the faculty and into the political institutions and corridors of power. Other faculty members and intellectuals to offer their support to Šešelj were Boro Gojković, Džemal Sokolović, Hidajet Repovac, Momir Zeković, Ina Ovadija-Musafija, etc.^[5] Still, the Pozderac side was much stronger and the whole thing ended with Šešelj being expelled from the Communist League on 4 December 1981.^[10]

Demotion to the Social Research Institute[link]

By spring 1982, barely 6 months after getting re-hired, his position at the Faculty of Political Sciences was also in question. He ended up getting moved (essentially demoted) to the Institute for Social Research (Institut za društvena istraživanja), an institution affiliated with the Faculty. A number of Belgrade intellectuals, mostly writers and researchers in the social sciences, came to his defense by writing letters of protest to the government of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo. Around this time Šešelj became very critical of the way that the national question was dealt with in Yugoslavia: he spoke out in favour of the use of force against Kosovo Albanians and denounced the passivity of the Serbian political leadership in handling the Kosovo crisis. Furthermore, in his view the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina were not a nation but a religious group. He expressed his fear of seeing Bosnia and Herzegovina turn into a republic dominated by Muslims.^{[citation needed]}

Šešelj began to be followed and spied on by UDBA (Yugoslav state security) agents. His first arrest took place on 8 February 1984, the second day of the Sarajevo Olympics. He was on a train from Sarajevo heading to Belgrade when the secret police burst on board around Podlugovi station and seized some of his writings that he had in the suitcase. Among the agents handling his arrest that day was Dragan Kijac (later Republika Srpska state security chief). In Doboj, Šešelj was taken off the train, transferred into a police Mercedes, and transported to Belgrade where he was questioned for 27 hours straight before being let go and informed that he would be contacted again. After getting back to Sarajevo, UDBA took him in twice more for questionings, which were handled by Rašid Musić and Milan Krnjajić. According to Šešelj, they had the transcripts of the various conversations he had with some of his closest friends in which they openly criticized everything from specific political figures to communist regime in general:

On 20 April 1984, he was arrested at a private apartment in Belgrade among the group of 28 individuals during the lecture given by Milovan Đilas as part of Free University, a semi-clandestine organization that gathered intellectuals critical of the communist regime. Šešelj spent 4 days behind bars before being released.^[11]

Prison[link]

However, Šešelj was a free man for barely three weeks. In mid May 1984, Stane Dolanc, Slovene representative in Yugoslav Presidency and the all-powerful longtime state security chief, gave an interview to TV Belgrade, explicitly going after Šešelj for his unpublished manuscript Odgovori na anketu-intervju: Šta da se radi? in which he calls for "reorganization of the Yugoslav federalism, SFR Yugoslavia with only four constituent republics (Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia), abolishing of the single-party system, and the abolishing of artificial nationalities". Two days later, on 15 May 1984, Šešelj was arrested again in Sarajevo. This time, as soon as he got to prison, he began a hunger strike that lasted 48 days, which got the foreign press interested in his case:

On 9 July 1984, he was given an eight-year sentence in prison. The verdict delivered by presiding judge Milorad Potparić concluded that Šešelj "acted from the anarcho-liberal and nationalist platform thereby committing the criminal act of counterrevolutionary endangerment of the social order". The single most incriminating piece of evidence cited by the court was the unpublished manuscript that the secret police found in Šešelj's home. On appeal, the Supreme Court of SFR Yugoslavia reduced the sentence to six years, then to four, and finally two. Up until his sentencing, Šešelj taught political science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and later in Sarajevo.^[12]

Šešelj served the first eight months of his sentence in Sarajevo and the last fourteen in Zenica prison before getting released in 1986 – two months early due to continuous pressure, protests and petitions by intellectuals throughout Yugoslavia (many of whom were later his bitter political opponents). In total, Šešelj spent 22 months in prison, six of which were spent in solitary confinement.

Move to Belgrade[link]

Upon release from prison, Šešelj permanently moved to Belgrade. Talking about the reasons behind the move, he said:

Political career[link]

In 1989 Šešelj returned to the United States where Momčilo Đujić, a Chetnik leader from World War II living there in exile, bestowed on Šešelj the title Vojvoda (duke) of the Chetniks, to make a "unitary Serbian state where all Serbs would live, occupying all the Serb lands".^[14] Together with Vuk Drašković and Mirko Jović, Šešelj founded the anti-communist Serbian National Renewal (SNO) party in 1989. Šešelj later split off the SNO party to form the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), thus forming the Chetniks under his command.^[14]

Great Serbia as propagated by Šešelj's Serbian Radical Party.

In late 1991, during the Battle of Vukovar, Šešelj went to Borovo Selo to meet with a Serb Orthodox Church bishop and publicly described Croats as a genocidal and perverted people.^[15]

In the elections of December 1992, the SRS won 27 percent of the vote versus the 40 percent won by the Socialist Party of President Slobodan Milošević. His relationship with Milošević was amicable during the first years of the Yugoslav Wars.^[6] Šešelj and his party were in effect Milošević's close allies who helped them orchestrate the mass layoffs of journalists in 1992, and Šešelj publicly proclaimed their backing of Milošević as late as August 1993.^[16] In September 1993, however, Šešelj and Milošević came into conflict over Milošević's withdrawal of support for Republika Srpska in the Bosnian War, and Milošević described Šešelj as "the personification of violence and primitivism".^[6] Šešelj landed in jail again in 1994 and 1995 for his opposition to Milošević. In 1998 as violence in the Serbian province of Kosovo increased, Šešelj joined Milošević's national unity government, siding briefly with the pro-Milošević government.^{[citation needed]}

In July 1997, Šešelj made a guest appearance on BKTV's Tête-à-tête talk duel programme with lawyer Nikola Barović as the other duelist. The duel quickly denegerated into an emotional exchange of verbal antagonism and ad hominem attacks that culminated in Barović pouring water on Šešelj. Sometime later Barović was physically assaulted by Šešelj's security detail. Šešelj stated that Barović slipped on a banana peel and tumbled down the flight of stairs.^[17]

Šešelj objected to foreign media and human rights organizations acting in Yugoslavia, saying:

He became vice-president of the Serbian government between 1998 and 2000. During the Kosovo War and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, he and his political party were willing to support Milošević, but after three months of bombardment they were the only party to vote against the withdrawal of Serbian security forces from Kosovo.^[19]

ICTY custody[link]

Vojislav Šešelj on Serbian Radical Party billboard in 2012 Serbian elections

In late February 2003, Šešelj surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on the indictment of "eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of violations of the laws or customs of war for his alleged participation in a joint criminal enterprise".^[1] In 2005, Šešelj made headlines when he was asked to read a letter which he earlier sent to the ICTY that stated his contempt for the court. The letter was read in front of cameras by Šešelj and contained copious amounts of insults and expletives aimed at the top Tribunal officials and judges. In his letter, Šešelj said that the presiding judge has only "the right" (mocking the Hague's judges) to perform oral sex on him, and he referred to Carla Del Ponte as "the prostitute". Recordings of this statement have been aired many times in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

While in custody, he wrote „Kriminalac i ratni zločinac Havijer Solana” (“Felon and War Criminal Javier Solana”), a criticism of the NATO Secretary General (and the current High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union and the Western European Union) who led the 1999 war in Kosovo.^[20]

On 2 December 2006, about 40,000 people marched in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, in support of Šešelj during his 28-day hunger strike in The Hague - after the ICTY denied him the right to choose his own defence counsel. Speaking at the rally, Radical Party secretary Aleksandar Vučić said "He's not fighting just for his life. But he's fighting for all of us who are gathered here. Vojislav Šešelj is fighting for Serbia!"^[21] Šešelj ended the hunger strike on 8 December after being allowed to present his own defence.^[22] Although in custody in The Hague, Šešelj led his party's list of contenders for the January 2007 general election.^[23]

Under the ICTY indictment, Šešelj is charged with 15 counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs or war. The first of these charges is for persecution of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs in Vukovar, Šamac, Zvornik and Vojvodina. The other charges include murder, forced deportation, illegal imprisonment, torture and property destruction during the Yugoslav wars.^[1]

On 11 February 2009, after 71 witnesses had already been heard and with the expected conclusion of the prosecution's case just seven hours away, the presiding judges suspended Šešelj’s trial indefinitely at the prosecutors’ request. The prosecutors alleged that witnesses were being intimidated. Šešelj claimed that the true motive of the prosecutors was that they were losing their case. He claimed the court had presented numerous false witnesses to avoid having to acquit him and said it should pay him damages for "all the suffering and six years spent in detention". One of the three judges voted against the suspension of the trial stating that it was “unfair to interrupt the trial of someone who has spent almost six years in detention”.

A contempt of court case against Šešelj was opened for having revealed, in a book he had written, the identities of three witnesses whose names had been ordered suppressed by the tribunal, and for this he was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment by the ICTY.^[24][25]

On 25 November 2009, it was announced that Šešelj's trial would continue on 12 January 2010. The trial resumed on schedule and continued until 17 March 2010.^[26] On 10 March 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that Šešelj was scheduled to appear in court on 20 April 2010 for contempt of court for allegedly disclosing court restricted information on 11 protected witnesses. This is his second time he has been charged with contempt. In July 2009 he was found guilty of contempt on similar charges involving two protected witnesses and was sentenced to 15 months in jail. On 17 March 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that "The trial of Vojislav Šešelj has been adjourned until further notice, pending checks on the health status of the remaining four Chamber witnesses". In the weekly ICTY briefing on 24 March stated "The trial of Vojislav Šešelj is expected to continue on Tuesday at 14:15 in Courtroom I with the testimony of one of the four remaining Trial Chamber witnesses". On 14 April 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that with only one witness still to be heard, on the 30 March 2010 Šešelj trial was adjourned until further notice but was likely to resume in May 2010, after Šešelj's second contempt proceeding initiated against him by the Tribunal have ended.^[26]

Prosecutors have demanded a 28-year sentence against Seselj for allegedly recruiting paramilitary groups and inciting them to commit atrocities during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s. In closing remarks at his war crimes trial on 14 March 2012, Seselj said the Yugoslav tribunal empowered by the U.N. Security Council is actually a creation of Western intelligence agencies and it doesn’t have jurisdiction in his case. He reportedly vowed "to make a mockery of his trial".^[27]

Views on the Roman Catholic Church[link]

Šešelj has written several books in which he explicitly accused Roman Catholic churches of engaging in genocide and other activities against Serbs. Among them are:

• Roman clergy always thirsty for Serb blood (Serbian)^[28] (2006)
• Anti-Christ's deputy Roman Pope Benedict XVI (Serbian)^[29] (2006)
• Pontifex Maximus of Satanist church John Paul II. (Serbian) ^[30] (2006)
• Devil's assistant criminal Roman Pope John Paul II. (Serbian)^[31] (2004)

See also[link]

• White Eagles (paramilitary)
• Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars
• International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

References[link]

Sources[link]

• BBC News. 2007-11-07. "Profile: Vojislav Šešelj"
• Centre for SouthEast European Studies. 2006-04-16. ICTY indictment against Vojislav Šešelj^{[dead link]}.^{[dead link]}
• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Vojislav Šešelj's indictment
• ICTY Tribunal Update. 2005-11-04. No. 428. revels in court theatrics. Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).
• ICTY Tribunal Update. 2009-02-20. No. 589. "Lawyer Warns Šešelj Trial May Collapse". (IWPR)
• Šešelj, Vojislav. Interview on Serbian television via YouTube (Serbian)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vojislav Šešelj

• Vojislav Šešelj official site (Serbian)
• "Vojislav Šešelj in his own words"
• "War crime suspects go for win in Serb poll"
• "Vojislav Šešelj: Milošević's hard-line ally"
• International Herald Tribune - Šešelj goes on trial at The Hague over Serbian crimes"
• "Serb Nationalist’s Trial Begins in The Hague"
• "Chetnik leader's war crimes trial"
• "Serbia's Šešelj incited ethnic cleansing"
• ANTI-GLOBAL POLICY

Lily Allen
Background information
Birth name	Lily Rose Beatrice Allen
Born	(1985-05-02) 2 May 1985 (age 27) Hammersmith, London, England
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, presenter, actress
Instruments	Vocals, guitar[1]
Years active	2002–present
Labels	London, Regal, Capitol
Website	lilyallenmusic.com

Lily Rose Beatrice Cooper^[2] (born 2 May 1985), better known as Lily Allen, is an English recording artist, actress and fashion designer. She is the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. In her teenage years, her musical tastes evolved from glam rock to alternative. Allen abandoned school and concentrated on improving her performing and compositional skills. Afterwards, she created several demo songs and, near the end of 2005, she created a profile on MySpace where she made some of her recordings public.

A contract was signed with the label Regal Recordings, as the views on MySpace rose to tens of thousands. In 2006, she began to work on completing what would be her first studio album and its first mainstream single "Smile" reached the top position on the UK Singles Chart in July 2006.^[3] Her debut record, Alright, Still, was well received on the international market, selling over 2.6 million copies and brought Allen a nomination at the Grammy Awards, BRIT Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. She then began hosting her own talk-show, Lily Allen and Friends, on BBC Three.

Her second major album release, It's Not Me, It's You, saw a genre shift for her, having more of an electropop feel, rather than the ska and reggae influences of the first one. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and the Australian ARIA Charts and was appreciated by the critics, noting the singer's musical evolution and maturity. It spawned the hit singles "The Fear" and "Fuck You", popular mostly in Europe. Allen and Amy Winehouse have been credited with starting a process that led to the media-proclaimed "year of the women" in 2009 that has seen five female artists making music of "experimentalism and fearlessness" nominated for the Mercury Prize.^[4]

During the autumn of 2010, Allen opened a fashion rental shop "Lucy in Disguise" with her sister Sarah,^[5][6] followed by the 2011 launching of her own record label.^[7]

Life and career[link]

Childhood and youth[link]

Allen was born in Hammersmith, west London, daughter of Welsh-born comedian and actor Keith Allen and English, Portsmouth-born, film producer Alison Owen.^[8] She has an older sister, Sarah; a younger brother, Alfie Owen-Allen (who was the subject of her song "Alfie"); and a younger sister Rebecca.^{[citation needed]} She has a number of half-siblings. At the age of three, Allen appeared on The Comic Strip Presents... episode "The Yob",^[9] which her father had co-written.^[10] When Allen was four years old, her father left the family.^[11] Allen grew up with her mother living on a council estate during her early childhood.^[12][13] Her family settled in the North London borough of Islington. Allen lived for a while with comedian Harry Enfield while her mother dated him. She is the god-daughter of Wild Colonials vocalist Angela McCluskey.^[14] The late Clash singer and guitarist Joe Strummer was close to Allen. Allen has fond memories of the week and a half they would spend together at Glastonbury Festival as part of a regular collective centred on Strummer and her father. Strummer's musical past would not come into focus for Allen until after his death.^[15]

She attended some of the UK's most expensive fee-paying public schools; Allen attended 13 schools in all, including Prince Charles's junior alma mater, Hill House School, Millfield, Bedales School^[11] and was expelled from several of them for drinking and smoking.^[13][16] When Allen was 11, former University of Victoria music student Rachel Santesso overheard Allen singing Wonderwall by Oasis in the school's playground; impressed, Santesso, who later became an award-winning soprano and composer, called Allen into her office the next day and started giving her lunchtime singing lessons. This would lead to Allen singing Baby Mine from Disney's Dumbo at a school concert.^[17] Allen would tell Loveline that the audience was "brought to tears at the sight of a troubled young girl doing something good". At that point Allen said she knew that music was something she needed to do either as a lifelong vocation or to get it out of her system. Allen played piano to grade 5 standard and achieved Grade 8 in singing. She also played violin, guitar and trumpet as well as being a member of a chamber choir. Her first solo was "In the Bleak Midwinter."^[15] Allen made an appearance as a lady-in-waiting in the 1998 film Elizabeth, which was co-produced by her mother.^[18] She dropped out of school at age fifteen, not wanting to "spend a third of her life preparing to work for the next third of her life, to set herself up with a pension for the next third of her life."^[19]

2002–05: Career beginnings[link]

When her family went to Ibiza on holiday, Allen told her mother that she was staying with friends but remained in Sant Antoni de Portmany instead. She earned money by working at a Plastic Fantastic record store and dealing ecstasy.^[19] Allen met her first manager, George Lamb in Ibiza.^[19][20] She was rejected by several labels, which she attributed to her drinking and being the daughter of Keith Allen.^[20] However, she eventually used her father's connections to get signed to London Records in 2002.^[21] When the executive who had signed her left, the label lost interest and she left without releasing the folk songs^[which?] many of which were written by her father.^[15][21][22] She then studied horticulture to become a florist, but changed her mind and returned to music. Allen began writing songs, while her manager introduced her to production duo Future Cut in 2004. They worked in a small studio in the basement of an office building.^[22]

In 2005, Allen was signed to Regal Recordings; they gave her £25,000 to produce an album, though they were unable to provide much support for it due to their preoccupation with other releases such as X&Y (Coldplay) and Demon Days (Gorillaz).^[23] Allen then created an account on MySpace and began posting demos that she recorded in November 2005.^[23] The demos attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7" vinyl singles of "LDN" were rush-released, reselling for as much as £40.^[19][23] Allen also produced two mixtapes — My First Mixtape and My Second Mixtape — to promote her work. As she accumulated tens of thousands of MySpace friends, The Observer Music Monthly (OMM), a magazine published in The Observer, took interest in March 2006.^[19] Few people outside of her label's A&R department knew who she was, so the label was slow in responding to publications wanting to report about her.^[23] She received her first major mainstream coverage, appearing in the magazine's cover story two months later.

[edit] 2006–08: Alright, Still and television

The success convinced her label to allow her more creative control over the album and to use some of the songs that she had written instead of forcing her to work with mainstream producers. Allen decided to work with producers Greg Kurstin and Mark Ronson, finishing the rest of the album in two weeks.^[23] Allen's debut album, Alright, Still, was released in July 2006. Most of the tracks had been previewed on her MySpace page,^[24] including the singles "Smile", "LDN", "Knock 'Em Out", and "Alfie". In September 2006, "Smile" was made available on the United States version of iTunes Store. By December 2006, her music video for Smile had been played on various music channels as well as the song getting a little airplay. Entertainment Weekly named Alright, Still as one of the top 10 albums of 2006 despite the fact that it had not yet been released in the U.S. Allen also did several promotional ads for MTV as their Discover and Download artist of the month for January 2007. The album was released in the United States on 30 January 2007, landing at 20 on the Billboard Album Charts.^[25] By January 2009, the album had sold 960,000 copies in the United Kingdom and 520,000 copies in the United States.^[26]

Performing at "Solidays" on 7 July 2007

In 2007, she played the newly launched Park Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, replacing M.I.A. who had cancelled.^[27] During the festival she reunited two members of The Specials an act that guitarist Lynval Golding claimed played a "massive part" in the group's 2009 reunion.^[28] She also sang the vocals on the top ten single, "Oh My God", a cover of the Kaiser Chiefs song by Mark Ronson. The single, "Littlest Things" from Allen's album produced by Ronson, helped earn him a "Producer of the Year – Non Classical" 2008 Grammy Award.^[29] She also provided background vocals to a couple of songs on the Kaiser Chief's third album in 2008. Allen won a 2008 BMI songwriting award for "Smile".^[30] Allen began dating musician Ed Simons of the Chemical Brothers in September 2007, and in December, Allen announced that she and Simons were expecting a child.^[31] Allen suffered a miscarriage in January 2008.^[32]

Due to her outspokenness, Allen was the subject of many controversies early in her career. Disparaging remarks about musicians Luke Pritchard of The Kooks, Bob Geldof,^[33] Amy Winehouse,^[34] Kylie Minogue,^[35] and Katy Perry^[36] have all garnered minor press attention. She later said that making fun of other pop stars was a result of a lack of confidence, saying "I felt like 'Oh God, I'm short, fat, ugly and I hate all these people who flaunt their beauty.'"^[37] On 28 June 2007, Allen was arrested in London for allegedly assaulting photographer Kevin Rush while she was leaving a nightclub in London's West End. Prior to this, she had expressed discomfort with attention from the paparazzi on her MySpace blog.^[38] By February 2009 she had stopped addressing controversies about herself on her blog because she found it "boring when people just pick stuff up and write about it. People get hurt, people get upset."^[39] In September 2009, she shut down her MySpace account and stopped social networking completely in December due to the abuse she was taking.^[40]

Allen signed a one series contract to present her own BBC Three TV show entitled Lily Allen and Friends based on the social networking phenomenon that helped to launch her music career.^[41][42][43] Guests included Mark Ronson, Joanna Page, James Corden, Lauren Laverne, Roisin Murphy, Louis Walsh, and Danny Dyer.^[44][45] The show received a 2% share of the total multi-channel audience share despite a high-profile nationwide marketing campaign.^[46] Allen was quoted in a British tabloid as rating the show "probably five out of 10" and said "I made a lot of money out of it".^[47] Citing Allen's rapid development as a TV host and her popularity among its target audience BBC Three announced it was renewing Lily Allen and Friends for a second season.^[48] BBC Three controller Danny Cohen later said that the show will not air in the Spring of 2009 as originally scheduled because of music commitments.^[49]

Allen performed at a benefit concert for War Child, an international child protection agency that works with children affected by war. Backed by Keane, Allen sang "Smile" and "Everybody’s Changing".^[50] Although the singer is a staunch supporter of the Labour Party,^[51] she has been credited with helping inspire a parliamentary rebellion against Prime Minister Gordon Brown when she wrote to all Members of Parliament asking them to back an amendment to an energy bill.^[52] She has since confirmed her support for the UK Labour Party and for Prime Minister Gordon Brown in particular.^[53]

[edit] 2008–09: It's Not Me, It's You

After the release of her first album, her parent record company, EMI, was taken over by Terra Firma.^[54] She also changed her management company from Empire Artist Management to Twenty-First Artists, although her core team remained in place. At the urging of her record company, Allen tried unsuccessfully to create the album with several writers and producers. Allen eventually returned to Greg Kurstin who had written three songs for Alright, Still.^[15] The album was produced by Kurstin at Eagle Rock Studios in Los Angeles.^[55] Before returning to Kus, Allen co-wrote the songs for the album with Kurstin who played piano on it. This is a change from her earlier work in which she wrote lyrics for finished tracks.^[56] Allen released a statement saying "We decided to try and make bigger sounding, more ethereal songs, real songs ... I wanted to work with one person from start to finish to make it one body of work. I wanted it to feel like it had some sort of integrity. I think I've grown up a bit as a person and I hope it reflects that."^[55] She posted two new song demos on her MySpace page and planned to release a mixtape to give her fans an idea of what the new direction was.^{[57][58][59][60][61][62]}

Allen cancelled a scheduled appearance at the 2008 Isle of Wight Festival telling festival promoter John Giddings the reason for the cancellation was that her album was behind schedule. Giddings said that the reason given was not acceptable and possibly a lie. Giddings decided not to sue her.^[63] Photos of her drunk and topless in the Cannes Film Festival were also widely covered in the press.^[64][65] Her appearance at the 2008 Glamour Awards also generated criticism, as she showed up intoxicated wearing a dress covered in decapitated Bambi figures, and had an on-stage, expletive-laced exchange with Elton John.^[66][67][68] On 29 June 2008, Allen performed at the Glastonbury Festival alongside producer Mark Ronson. An emotional Allen dedicated her performance of "Littlest Things" to her grandmother who died the night before.^[69] It's Not Me, It's You was first scheduled for an early 2008 release, but her miscarriage and creative issues delayed the release date to the autumn. During autumn 2008, EMI was undergoing restructuring. Due to this environment, a decision was made to move the album's eventual release date.^[26][70] An online game, Escape the Fear, was created by Matmi as part of the viral marketing campaign targeted at people unaware of Allen or the album.^[71] Since its release, "The Game" has topped the worldwide viral charts three times, including the week of Christmas—a highly contested time of the year. By 18 February 2009, "The Game" had been played over two million times.^[72] The singer and The Clash guitarist Mick Jones performed The Clash’s song "Straight to Hell" on an album for the charity Heroes.^[73]

Performing at the INmusic festival in Zagreb, Croatia, 24 June 2009

It's Not Me, It's You was released in February 2009. It debuted at the number 1 position in the UK, Canada, and Australia and the number 5 position in the United States.^{[74][75][55][76][77]} The album has been certified platinum in the United Kingdom.^[78] The release of the album was a factor in EMI’s more than trebling its earnings.^[79] The first single from the album, "The Fear", was number 1 for the first four weeks in the UK after its release.^[80][81] The second single released from the album, "Not Fair", reached the number 9 position.^[82] She began her It's Not Me, It's You World Tour in March, touring throughout the next two years until September 2010. Her work on this album with Greg Kurstin earned her the Songwriters of the Year at the 2010 Ivor Novello Awards. In addition, she won with Kurstin Best Song Musically and Lyrically and Most Performed Work for "The Fear". Allen appeared overwhelmed by this recognition from what she considered "real awards".^[83] In October 2010, Allen won her second BMI Pop Song Award by the United States music licensing organization Broadcast Music Incorporated for extensive United States radio airplay of her song, "The Fear".^[84][85] Allen has been named the face of the National Portrait Gallery as part of the gallery's marketing campaign.^[86] The picture was photographed by Nadav Kander emblazoned with the words, "Vocalist, Lyricist, Florist" .^[87] Allen and Jamie Hince, guitarist for The Kills, raised £48,350 for the children’s charity The Hoping Foundation. The pair sang "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" at a karaoke auction fundraiser.^[88] Karl Lagerfeld, the head designer for Chanel personally hired and photographed Allen for a campaign to promote a luxury line of handbags due to launch in September 2009.^[89][90]

In May 2009, French football magazine So Foot published a fake interview in which Allen was quoted as making derogatory remarks about David and Victoria Beckham and Ashley and Cheryl Cole. Some of the material was reprinted in the British tabloid The Sun. Both publications later apologized and paid damages to Allen.^[91]

2009–12: Musical hiatus, marriage and motherhood[link]

Allen began dating Sam Cooper, the owner of a building company, in the summer of 2009. In September 2009, Allen announced that she was considering a career in acting and that she would not renew her record contract. Allen additionally stated that she has "no plans" to make another record.^[92]

After the British government's plans to implement a three strikes policy for file sharing copyright infringement, Lily Allen came out in support for disconnecting repeat offenders.^[93][94] Creating a blog entitled "It's Not Alright" against file sharing, it subsequently came to light that she had copied text directly from the Techdirt website of an interview with 50 Cent, without attribution.^[95] This led to an exchange on the Internet, which culminated in accusations being made that Allen had infringed on other artists' copyrights by creating mix tapes early in her career, that she then made available via her website.^[96][97] A group of supporters of filesharing launched a denial of service attack dubbed Operation Payback that shut down Allen's website and targeted other critics.^[98]

On 1 October 2009, Allen and several other musicians released the world's first digital musical petition aimed at pressuring world leaders attending the December 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen. The petition included a cover of the song "Beds are Burning" by Midnight Oil.^[99] She featured on the UK top five single, "Just Be Good to Green" by Professor Green in June 2010.

In August she began a musical hiatus following a performance at the Big Chill Festival in Herefordshire, England.^[100] On 5 August 2010, Allen announced that she was pregnant with her and Cooper's first child,^[101] later confirmed to be a boy^[102] due early in 2011.^[103] Allen and her sister opened their own clothing store entitled "Lucy in Disguise" on 15 September 2010. Allen's pregnancy involved early complications, including "about a week and a half of really heavy bleeding."^[104] Six months into her pregnancy, Allen contracted a viral infection which caused her to suffer a pre-term delivery.^[105] On 6 November, Allen was rushed to the hospital, where she responded well to treatment for the blood poisoning condition septicaemia.^[106][107]

Citing invasion of privacy and copyright infringement, in November 2010 Allen took legal action against Associated Newspapers, the parent company of the Daily Mail after the Daily Mail published photographs of Allen's home.^[108] Allen and Cooper became engaged over the Christmas holidays in December 2010 while vacationing in Bali.^[109] In January 2011, Allen launched her own record label In the Name Of, financially backed by Sony Music. The first act signed to the label was New York noise pop duo Cults.^[7] In February 2011, Allen started penning songs for the musical version of Bridget Jones's Diary which is scheduled to open in London's West End in 2012.^[110] Allen and Cooper wed on 11 June 2011 at St. James church in Cranham, Gloucestershire, England. The designer of Allen's wedding dress confirmed she was several months pregnant on the wedding day.^[111] Allen gave birth to a daughter, Ethel Mary,^[112] on 25 November 2011.^[113][114]

2012–present: Third studio album[link]

On 8 April 2012, it was reported that Allen was planning a musical comeback. Wanting to record a third album later this year and release as early as next year.^{[115][116][117]}

Artistry[link]

Musical style[link]

	"LDN" noicon The first song released as a single, featuring ska influence and a sample of "Reggae Merengue."
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Allen's early released songs saw her take on a thick Cockney accent while singing against retro productions.^[26] Her music was used as part of an exhibition at the British Library tracing the history of Cockney English.^[118] Her songs also featured other elements, such as the ska influence on second single, "LDN". She was also noted for her liberal use of crude words in her lyrics.^[119] Allen has said she cringes now when listening to tracks from Alright, Still, as it reminds her that she was a "sort of over-excitable teenager who desperately wanted attention" when she wrote it.^[15] Wanting to move on from the retro sound that many other artists had adapted since her debut, Allen ventured in a new direction sonically and lyrically in her second studio album, It's Not Me, It's You. "The Fear", the first single from the album, is an electro-pop track denouncing consumerism.^{[120][121][122]} While Allen did not set out to make a revolutionary record, her new music direction and willingness to write lyrics that tackled less common subjects were lauded by critics.^[77][123] Allen's song Who'd Have Known was sampled in T-Pain's single 5 O'clock because of her accent.^[124][125]

Discography[link]

• Alright, Still (2006)
• It's Not Me, It's You (2009)

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

• List of awards and nominations received by Lily Allen

References[link]