Lily Allen announces tour amid bitter feud with ex David Harbour

The pop star last toured between 2018 and 2019 following the release of her fourth studio album, No Shame, but has made appearances with Olivia Rodrigo and Shy FX at Glastonbury Festival.

The Brit Award-winner, 40, released West End Girl - her first album in seven years - on Friday, which is said to detail the alleged infidelity of her ex-husband, US actor David Harbour.

The record, which contains a mix of "truth" and "fantasy", according to Allen, sees the pop star sing about a sexual "arrangement" that was broken.

Allen told Interview Magazine that she wrote and recorded the album across 10 days in December with a "guy called Blue" who was the musical director on her last tour in 2018.

Read More: David Bowie’s final act: New documentary charts icon's 'extraordinary final' chapter

She said: "I feel very differently about the whole situation now. We all go through breakups and it's always fucking brutal. But I don't think it's that often that you feel inclined to write about it while you're in it."

It was at the end of December 2024 that reports surfaced of the singer's split from Stranger Things star Harbour, 50, who she married in 2020.

Allen said: "At the time, I was really trying to process things and that's great in terms of the album, but I don't feel confused or angry now. I don't need revenge."

She added: "Some of it (the record) is based on truth and some of it is fantasy...

"It's not a cruel album. I don't feel like I'm being mean. It was just the feelings I was processing at the time."

Speaking about the album's format, she said: "There's an album I love called A Grand Don't Come For Free by the Streets, and it's like a movie from start to finish.

"Each song can stand alone and make total sense, but together it's more like a novel. I've always wanted to do that, and it just happened that way on this record.

"The night before I went into the studio, I wrote 18 track titles - no melodies, no lyrics.

"Nobody in the studio knew what was going on in my life.

"I got there, spent about two hours crying my heart out, and then I was like, 'We're going to write an album based on some of these feelings'."

In the album the narrator mentions a woman called Madeline, and ponders if she is both emotionally and sexually involved with their cheating partner.

Allen said: "It was very important to me that I didn't sound like a victim, so I'd be like, 'We have to change that line. It just sounds too 'Poor me'. I wanted it to feel brutal and tragic, but also empowering, that there was joy in being able to express it."

The tour kicks off at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on March 2 with further dates in Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham, Cambridge, Bristol and Cardiff.

Allen has chosen the theatre venues for her tour, which concludes with two nights at The London Palladium on March 20 and 21.

The pop singer burst onto the music scene in 2006 with her debut album, Alright, Still, which was nominated for best alternative music album at the Grammy Awards.

She has had two number one albums in the UK with It's Not Me It's You (2009) and Sheezus (2014) and three number one singles with Smile, The Fear and a cover of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know.

Her 2018 album No Shame was nominated for the Mercury Prize, but she stepped away from music after releasing a candid memoir, My Thoughts Exactly.

All 14 songs on her new album were written by Allen, mainly in collaboration with her musical director Blue May.

The singer will perform West End Girl in its entirety in the order the songs appear on the record for her tour in March.

Tickets go on sale on November 7 at 10am.