Over the weekend, it was revealed by the Official Charts Company that Lily Allen’s cover of Somewhere Only We Know is the biggest Christmas song of the 21st century by a British artist.
Originally released in November 2013 and chosen as the song for that year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, Lily’s rendition went straight to number one, and marked her first solo musical release in four years.
The song is a sweet, heartfelt cover of the early 2000′s hit and it obviously has continued to strike a nerve with the nation, judging from the stats. But as for Lily herself? Not so much.
Speaking on TV show Reply or Deny in 2021, Lily was asked which song she hated performing and she admitted: “I really hate singing Somewhere Only We Know. It’s just so not me, and reminds me of a really dead time in my life.”
“It was everywhere and it didn’t really work with the rest of what I was doing creatively at the time. It was number one for four weeks and people would be like, ‘Sing the song’,” she continued. “I just hate it, it’s horrible.”
Yikes.
She hated the song so much, in fact, that in 2014, she asked BBC Radio 1′s then-Breakfast host Nick Grimshaw to take it off the system. The host later joked that the station did as Lily requested because “she can’t stand it and neither can you”.
Whatever, I thought it was pretty.
We've just deleted @lilyallen's song 'Somewhere Only We Know' from the @BBCR1 system because she can't stand it & neither can you
— R1 Breakfast with Nick Grimshaw 2012-2018 (@R1Breakfast) January 22, 2014
Also a highlight ???? @lilyallenhttps://t.co/su79QTH6Nm
— nick grimshaw (@grimmers) December 11, 2023
