Lily Allen has fired back at recent criticism of her West End Girl tour, saying that she’s “extremely proud of it.”
The British singer-songwriter, 41, is currently touring Europe in support of her latest album, the deeply personal West End Girl, released in October 2025.
Days after her Saturday show at London’s O2 Arena, a fan posted a brief recap of the concert on X. “No support act, arrived on stage at 9:10pm, all wrapped up by 10 p.m.,” they wrote in a post that has since been viewed 3.8 million times. “Not one word to the audience, £86 to sit in the gods.”
Within hours of the message, Allen directly replied, defending her concert. “There is a support act,” she argued. “The show has always been advertised as ‘Lily Allen performs West End Girl.’”
Allen is touring with the three-piece cello ensemble Dallas Minor Trio, who serve as her supporting act and open each concert with instrumental versions of her older hits.
Addressing her tardiness and the show’s hour-long run time, the “Smile” artist explained: “I was a few mins late as my tights were laddered and I had to change them. The show is just over an hour as it’s just the album in its entirety.
“It’s my artistic choice not to talk to the audience, the fourth wall helps with the storytelling. Most people find it to be effective. I don’t want anyone to feel ripped off,” Allen added. “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.”
The original poster on X later clarified that, despite their message appearing to be “framed in a negative way (my fault),” they actually found the “performance was brilliant.”
However, they stood by their criticism of ticket prices, insisting, “It can’t be right to charge that much for an hour, late on Sunday night.”
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West End Girl is Allen’s fifth studio album. The critically acclaimed record was hailed as a “brutal, tell-all masterpiece” in Hannah Ewens’s five-star review for The Independent.
It follows No Shame (2018), Sheezus (2014), It’s Not Me, It’s You (2012) and her debut record Alright, Still (2006).
Describing it as an “incisive diary of a marriage in freefall,” Ewens went as far as to praise it as the pop star’s “best album in 16 years.”
Allen will continue her tour around Europe this summer before bringing it back to the U.S. and Canada this fall. She will then kick off the New Zealand and Australia leg of the tour in October.
