Lily Allen's tearful farewell as she bows out with three Ivors

11 April 2012
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Lily Allen won three Ivor Novello Awards today but insisted that she still plans to retire from music.


Child's play: Lily Allen arrives at the Ivor Novello Awards at Grosvenor House

The singer, 25, arrived at the ceremony with her four-year-old sister, Teddy Rose, before collecting the prize for best song musically and lyrically for The Fear. She was also named songwriter of the year along with Greg Kurstin, and The Fear was the most performed work.

Allen said: "I still just kind of think my songs are like nursery rhymes — little ditties. It's a real honour. My plans haven't changed though."

She was in tears after collecting her second award, and flouted the smoking ban by having a cigarette inside the hotel.

"I'm rubbish really," she said. "I've just managed to fool loads of people. It's great to feel respected. The Ivors are the real ones — they're not commercial or sponsored which makes it feel really, really special. I'll treasure this for the rest of my life."

Her father Keith, who was also at today's ceremony at Grosvenor House in Park Lane, said his daughter was putting her music career on hold so she can start a family with boyfriend Sam Cooper.

He told the Standard: "She's committed to some gigs in the summer, but after that that's it. I think what she means is that she doesn't want to go through the whole process of making another album and promoting it and touring again.

"I think she wants a family life, I think she wants to have a baby."

Paolo Nutini won the album award for Sunny Side Up, best original film score went to composer John Powell for Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Sir Tim Rice received the academy fellowship.

Sir Tim said: "I'm working on a musical play based on the book From The Edge Of Eternity which I hope will go to the West End. We've got a director, we've got a book, we've got a score, producers. It's all coming together. Once we've got the finished book we will probably start auditioning in the autumn and open in spring."

Award winners

PRS award for most performed work
The Fear — Lily Allen
Lily Allen/Greg Kurstin

Songwriters of the year
Lily Allen and Greg Kurstin

Best song musically and lyrically
The Fear — Lily Allen
Lily Allen/Greg Kurstin

Best contemporary song
Daniel — Bat For Lashes

Album award
Sunny Side Up — Paolo Nutini

The Ivors inspiration award
Johnny Marr

PRS for outstanding contribution
to British music
Trevor Horn

The special international award
Neil Sedaka

Lifetime achievement
Paul Weller

The academy fellowship
Sir Tim Rice

International achievement
Imogen Heap

The Ivors classical music award
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in