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The 11 best Lily Allen songs
Why have a Top 10 when you can have one more? Here are the 11 best Lily Allen songs ahead of her return to Ireland this summer
Since the release of her sharp-tongued, self-aware debut album back in 2006, Lily Allen has always been able to make even the darkest of topics sound suspiciously fun. Throughout her career, she’s penned songs about everything from break-ups and tabloid chaos to class politics, each one centred around choruses made to be screamed from sticky dancefloors.
Look past the huge pop hooks and the sarcasm though, and you’ll see that humanity is what sits at the heart of Lily Allen’s music. Whether she’s skewering laddish entitlement, dragging the government, or simply admitting that sometimes she’s the problem, the 40-year-old has spent the last two decades dealing out anthems for anyone unafraid to speak up for what they believe in.
Capturing the messiness of life within songs that leave you unsure whether to laugh or cry, her 2025 comeback album West End Girl is a stunningly deep reflection on the breakdown of her marriage. Gripping storytelling fuelled by genuine rage and despair, it’s gut-wrenching in the most glorious way, catapulting the musician back into the spotlight as one of British pop’s most unapologetic forces.
Returning to the stage for a run of arena shows including two nights at 3Arena, Dublin this summer, we take a look back over Lily Allen’s career, counting down 11 of the best songs in her catalogue.
11. ‘Everyone’s At It’
(It’s Not Me, It’s You, 2009)
Serving a killer side-eye to the world and its nonsense, the opening track of Lily Allen’s second album is an anthem of savage bite and barely contained disgust. Tackling the hypocrisy of drug culture and the media sensationalism that largely exacerbates the issue, it’s a scintillating slice of synth-pop that makes no real attempt to offer a solution, and it doesn’t need to. With no grand statement to make, it’s a great example of the songwriter doing what she does best – turning her everyday observations into brutally honest lyrics that capture what we’re all thinking.
10. ‘URL Badman’
(Sheezus, 2014)
Written in response to the online controversy surrounding the music video for ‘Hard Out Here’ – which centred on the objectification of female popstars – ‘URL Badman’ delivers a sharp slap across the face of all the commenters hiding behind their computer screen. Leaning into the bright, breezy synth-pop that dominates her third album and throwing in some dubstep influences for good measure, it strikes a balance between savage and silly in a way that Allen does so well. With its mocking of internet trolls and misogynistic gossip culture still sadly relevant over a decade on, it’s a venomous snapshot of how it feels to be watched, judged, and chewed up in the name of entertainment.
9. ‘Come On Then’
(No Shame, 2018)
By the time that Lily Allen began work on her fourth studio album, she had been in the public eye for over a decade. No stranger to journalists prying into her private affairs – even whilst navigating a divorce, raising two children, and struggling with an identity crisis – it makes sense that No Shame opens with a song like ‘Come On Then’. Unpicking the lies spread by the media, it’s a remarkably candid insight into the realities of celebrity life, calling out fake friends and strangers who pass judgement without knowing the facts. Each line delivered softly over a laid-back beat, it’s slightly subtler than some of the other attacks in her arsenal, but it hits with all the same force.
8. ‘Hard Out Here’
(Sheezus, 2014)
There are few artists who do pop feminism as perfectly as Lily Allen, and there are few examples as powerful as the lead single from Sheezus. A cutthroat takedown of misogyny in the entertainment industry – especially the pressure from the media to look and behave a certain way – it flipped gross double standards into a chorus you could chant with your mates during pre-drinks. Abrasive, brash, and delighting in every bit of discomfort she causes, this is Allen at her most gleefully confrontational.
7. ‘LDN’
(Alright, Still, 2006)
In 2006, it was hard to go anywhere without hearing the ska-infused intro of ‘LDN’ blaring through a speaker somewhere. Released as Allen’s first official single following a surge of popularity on MySpace, the unglamourous ode to city life remains one of her top-selling tracks to date. Describing a bike ride through her hometown and the characters encountered along the way, it was here that the world was introduced to the sharp observational storytelling that has become her signature. Two decades on, it’s still impossible not to sign along.
6. ‘Madeline’
(West End Girl, 2025)
When her long-awaited fifth album arrived last year, Allen made no secret about the events that inspired its creation. A heartbreakingly personal collection of songs written around her ex-husband David Harbour’s infidelity, West End Girl marked her first real concept album, discussing her own experiences and emotions through fictional characters including ‘Madeline’. Fitting into the album’s narrative after Allen has discovered messages to the mystery woman on her husband’s phone, this country-inspired track plays out as a jaw-dropping confrontation as the musician tries to determine the nature of the affair. A painfully intimate insight into the emotional trauma caused by deceit, bubbling with fury yet never overflowing into self-pity, it’s a masterstroke of pop storytelling.
5. ‘The Fear’
(It’s Not Me, It’s You, 2009)
Lily Allen has always had a penchant for writing about universal issues from a distinctly personal standpoint. Able to filter her wider opinions on the world through her own unique experiences in a way that many artists struggle to do, it’s on tracks like ‘The Fear’ that her talent truly shines. Exploring the unhealthy cultural obsession with fame and the lengths people will go to find the spotlight, it’s a sleek electro-pop cut laden with danceable soft synths. Poking fun at materialism in a distinctly self-aware way, it’s a beautifully crafted and deceivingly clever pop song.
4. ‘Knock ‘Em Out’
(Alright, Still, 2006)
If ‘Knock ‘Em Out’ is a person, it’s the girl you get chatting to in the smoking area of a club. The kind who passionately talks you through all of the reasons why should dump your boyfriend whilst holding your hand as if you’ve known each other for years. Mocking the boring pick-up tactics employed by men on nights out and the struggle of trying to avoid those unwanted advances, it taps into the type of harassment sadly familiar to most women, its sentiments delivered over a sample of Professor Longhair’s jazzy piano-led 1965 single ‘Big Chief’. Overflowing with youthful energy and chaotic confidence whilst taking a swing at the creeps who need to learn to take ‘no’ for an answer, it’s one of the ballsiest offerings from an artist who’s never been afraid to make her point heard.
3. ‘Not Fair’
(It’s Not Me, It’s You, 2009)
A scathing ode to a boyfriend who’s perfect in almost every way except his lack of generosity in bed, it’s hard not to feel a little sorry for whoever inspired this hilariously ruthless pop hit. Underpinned by a disarmingly sweet country-pop melody, Allen recounts all the positive traits of her partner in the song’s verses before using its chorus as a call-out for his sexual selfishness. A uniquely savage type of break-up song released at a time when it was even more taboo for women to openly discuss their sex lives than it is now, some might say it’s petty –but there’s no denying that it’s iconic.
2. ‘Pussy Palace’
(West End Girl, 2025)
Simply put, West End Girl is the sound of someone desperately trying to stay composed whilst their brain feels like it’s on fire. Cycling through every emotion across its 14 tracks, ‘Pussy Palace’ marks the moment where Allen realises that the circumstances of her marriage breakdown are somehow even worse than she thought. With each revelation in the song’s narrative delivered with an emotionally crushing naivety, it feels almost as though you’re there alongside her watching the events unfold. A dark, painful account of betrayal accompanied by some of the most addictive pop hooks we’ve ever heard from her, this is Allen at her artistic finest.
1. ‘Fuck You’
(It’s Not Me, It’s You, 2009)
The depressing reality is that a song like ‘Fuck You’ is perhaps more relevant now than ever before. In 2026, there are still plenty of reasons for us to raise a middle finger to the racists and bigots, but why not do it whilst dancing along to a great pop song? With its jaunty piano line and a theatrical chorus that would slot seamlessly into a musical score, it’s one of the most fantastically composed diss tracks ever released. Originally directed at former U.S. President George Bush, it took on a new poignance when Allen joined Olivia Rodrigo onstage at Glastonbury Festival 2022, performing the song as a protest against the Supreme Court’s continual rollback of abortion rights in America. An anthem of rage and defiance, offering a glimmer of reassurance that no one is fighting alone, ‘Fuck You’ is a rare kind of pop song that is not only able to stand the test of time, but becomes more powerful every day.
Lily Allen performs at 3Arena, Dublin on 30 June & 1 July 2026. Find tickets here
