Lily Allen to tour West End Girl album in UK theatres

Singer Lily Allen has announced that she will perform her new album in its entirety on a UK tour in March 2026.

With its sincere lyrics, West End Girl has become one of the most talked about albums of the year since last Friday.

The album details some of the events that led to the breakdown of her marriage to US actor David Harbour, best known for his role in the TV series Stranger Things.

The tour will stop in Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham, Cambridge, Bristol and Cardiff, before finishing with two nights at the London Palladium.

Allen last toured between 2018 and 2019, following the release of his fourth studio album, No Shame.

He has only performed live occasionally since then; for example, Olivia Rodrigo and Shy appeared on FX’s Glastonbury sets.

However, in the intervening years, Allen has also become a successful theater actor and starred in 2:22 – A Ghost Story, the first production to be released in the West End shortly after the pandemic.

This period inspired the album’s title, West End Girl, and Allen appears to be describing how the casting of the play triggered the chain of events that led to his departure from Harbour.

In interviews, Allen emphasized that the words weren’t necessarily gospel truth — because she “wasn’t sure what was real and what was in my head” as she processed the end of the relationship.

The album’s lyrics and interviews he gave at the time indicate that Harbor was surprised and jealous that Allen had secured a leading role in the West End without having to audition, and that “his attitude began to change” after he was cast.

She says that starring in 2:22 led to a distance between the couple, both literally and figuratively, resulting in Harbor suggesting an open relationship.

Allen says on the record that this led to an “arrangement” with Harbor where he could be with other women, but the rules were “there had to be payment, there had to be strangers.”

But soon Allen hears that her husband is having an affair with “Madeline” (a pseudonym) that goes beyond their agreement.

Harbor has not commented publicly on the album’s content.

However, she appears to still have a relationship with Allen and their children. and seen She took her daughters to the theme park last weekend.

All 14 songs in West End Girl were written by Allen, mostly with musical director Blue May.

Allen claimed that some songs were written “out of character” and said that the lyrics could be considered “autofiction”, a genre that combines autobiography and fiction.

She rose to fame with her debut album Alright, Still in 2006, scoring number one hits including Smile, The Fear and her cover of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know, which appeared in a John Lewis advert.

He has two number-one albums in the UK, It’s Not Me It’s You and Sheezus, while his 2018 album No Shame was nominated for a Mercury Prize.

She released a heartfelt memoir called My Thoughts the same year, but took a break from music soon after and began dating Harbor in 2019.

The singer will perform West End Girl on her tour in March in the order in which the songs appear on the recording.

Tickets for the tour, which will start in March 2026, go on sale on November 7.