Lily Allen passionately defended her performance at London’s O2 arena after a critic called out the show for its length and lack of audience engagement.
Specifically, the singer took to X on Monday to speak out in defense of her “West End Girl” tour after a critic rattled off a series of complaints on the platform, including the absence of a traditional opening act, a less than an hour runtime and the cost of the ticket.
“Lily Allen at The O2: *No support act *Arrived on stage at 9:10pm *All wrapped up by 10pm *Not one word to the audience *£86 to sit in the gods,” Rupert Hawksley, the opinion editor for London’s The Spectator, wrote early Monday morning.
The post clearly caught Allen’s attention, as she responded hours later with a defense for each one of Hawksley’s points.
“There is a support act. The show has always been advertised as ‘Lily Allen performs West End Girl.’ I was a few mins late as my tights were laddered and I had to change them,” she wrote. “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.”
As Allen continued, she noted that she doesn’t want any fans “to feel ripped off,” but defended that “everyone on this tour is really working very hard to give people the best show we possibly can.”
She added: “I’m extremely proud of it.”
The exchange with Hawksley didn’t stop there, however. The opinion editor followed up his post with a clarification that Allen’s “performance was brilliant,” but doubled down that “it can’t be right to charge that much for an hour, late on Sunday night.”
After fielding criticism from Allen’s fans, Hawksley clarified that he wasn’t criticizing the decision to perform only songs from “West End Girl.” Rather, he reiterated that the lack of an opening act and “not even a ‘thank you so much for coming’” felt “a bit weird.”
In response, Allen quipped on X: “I’d happily concede that I’m a bit weird, though.”
Allen first announced her “West End Girl” tour in October, shortly after the album’s release. Initially, Allen planned to play only theater shows, but eventually expanded her run to include arenas in the United Kingdom, Unites States, Australia and New Zealand due to popular demand.
