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Lily Allen says lengthy contracts make it difficult for musicians to share #MeToo stories
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 11 June 2018
Lily Allen has said that she’s been reluctant to join in with the #MeToo movement and share her own stories, because her career remains linked to a man she says sexually abused her.
This, she added, is due in part to a reluctance in the music industry to act on complaints against executives, and the fact that she is still bound by a five album contract she signed aged nineteen, thirteen years ago.
“I’ve had things happen that I would feel uncomfortable talking about because they’re linked with lots of people I work with”, she told iNews last week. “People who are in control of things that affect me … I reported it to people around me – women! – and no one did anything”.
She continued: “My record label have a list of priority acts, pretty much all of which have a link to the person who did something to me. I know what will happen. They’ll say, ‘Let’s try and get rid of Lily because this person is worth more to us because he makes us lots of money'”.
“In film and TV, you can choose not to work with any of those people again. You can move country, move out of London to LA. You can’t do that in music. It’s the same bunch of people on both sides of the Atlantic and it’s inescapable because [artists are tied to] fifteen year long contracts”.
Allen released the fourth of her five contracted albums on Friday.