Lily Allen hopes winning Mercury Prize will help shed her ‘caricature image’

"The artist part of me gets lost a lot of the time"

Lily Allen has opened up about her hopes of winning tonight’s Mercury Music Prize – and how it might help to shed the ‘caricature image’ that the media has created of her.

Allen’s acclaimed 2018 album ‘No Shame‘ is in the running for the award, alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Wolf Alice, Nadine Shah, Everything Everything, Florence & The Machine, Jorja Smith, King Krule, Noel Gallagher and more.

With the result revealed this evening, Allen has said that being shortlisted has helped for her to be taken more seriously as an artist – and that winning would cement her reputation.

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“There is a caricature version of myself which is portrayed in the mainstream press, and the artist part of me gets lost a lot of the time,” she told Sky News. “Already being nominated has helped with that immensely, but to win would just be amazing.”

She continued: “When things started not to go to plan with my third album, I felt like a massive failure – not just for myself, but that I’d let everybody else around me down. That was a real struggle.

“This album has been about figuring out what my intentions are with this work. It wasn’t really to get on the radio or brand endorsements.”

She added: “It was about explaining how I felt and putting that to music and I feel like I’ve achieved that.”

Allen will be performing at the ceremony at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith tonight (Thursday September 20), before the winner is revealed. Check back at NME for the latest news and interviews from the Mercury Prize 2018.

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Lily Allen, live 2018

Allen made headlines this week, when she opened up about sexual abuse in the music industry and claimed she was sexually assaulted by a record producer while she slept. The 33-year-old, who releaseS her tell all memoir ‘My Thoughts Exactly’ today, has detailed her own experiences and wrote that the industry, “allows and sometimes even endorses toxic behaviour by men towards women.”

Lily Allen on tour

Allen’s upcoming UK and Ireland tour dates are below. Tickets are available here.

Tuesday December 11 2018 – DUBLIN Olympia Theatre
Thursday December 13 2018 – GLASGOW Barrowland
Friday December 14 2018 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
Sunday December 16 2018 – MANCHESTER Albert Hall
Monday December 17 2018 – LONDON Roundhouse

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