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"Smile" is the debut single by British recording artist Lily Allen from her debut studio album ''Alright, Still'' (2006). It was written by Allen, Iyiola Babalola and Darren Lewis, while sampling The Soul Brothers' "Free Soul". The song was released as the lead mainstream single of the album in July 2006. After signing a contract deal with Regal Recordings and gaining popularity on the social network website Myspace with demo songs, Allen released a limited edition of "LDN" to promote her work and afterwards announced the release of "Smile". The song incorporates rocksteady music, as the lyrics tackle her dealing with the betrayal of her boyfriend, while enjoying his misery. Most contemporary critics complimented the song, noticing the confidence it hides and the carnival-esque, yet melancholy, theme. On the other hand, some considered it was not one of the album's best tracks and it makes the singer a "theoretical pop princess". The single peaked inside the top 40 of the charts of some European countries and Australia, while staying on the summit of the UK Singles Chart for two consecutive weeks and ended the year as the country's 11th most successful song. It is also charted on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100, where it was certified gold. For promotion, "Smile" was re-recorded in Simlish and played on shows; it also received its own answer song. The accompanying music video portrayed a revenge theme, with Allen hiring a posse to beat her ex-boyfriend. It was directed by Sophie Muller and, afterwards, banned on MTV due to obscene language. The song was performed live many times, including on talk shows, her 2007 concert tour and also during her 2009 concert tour, though Allen claimed to be "sick" of it. In 2008, it won a Pop Award at the London Broadcast Music Incorporated Awards.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Broadcast Music Incorporated )〕 ==Background== After meeting George Lamb on a holiday in Ibiza, Allen made him her manager.〔 〕 Lamb later introduced the singer to production duo Future Cut, with whom she had written and produced demos, which were sent to various labels.〔 In 2005, Allen was signed to Regal Records, who gave her £25,000 to produce an album. The singer considered it to be a "small development idea", as they were also unable to provide much support for it due to their preoccupation with other releases. Taking advice from Lady Sovereign, the singer created an account on MySpace and began posting demo songs in November 2005.〔 By March 2006, they attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7" vinyl singles of one of the demos, a song titled "LDN", were rush-released and sold for as much as £40.〔 Allen also produced two mixtapes to promote her work. As she accumulated tens of thousands of MySpace friends, ''The Observer Music Monthly'' took interest.〔 Few people outside of her label's A&R department had heard of Allen, so the label was slow in responding to publications who wanted to report about her.〔 Her label wasn't pleased with the sound of the demos, so they assigned the singer to "more mainstream producers and top-line writers".〔 After that, they finally approved some of her songs, being confident of their inclusion on the album. "Smile" was among the chosen ones, that Allen claimed she was happy with.〔 It was the first song she had ever written, claiming: When I set out to do this I knew I wanted to make songs that sounded a) up to date and now and b) really organic. Because you can't get really good players without spending loads of money these days, the only other option is to sample. The first song I ever wrote was 'Smile'. We just went through about seven or eight sample lyrics, found a beat, put it all in... Then when it comes to writing lyrics I write... like a rapper would, I suppose, with absolutely no melody involved whatsoever, I'm just getting my flow sorted. Then I write the whole text of the song and then ad lib the melody into the microphone. It's not terribly clever! "Smile" was released as a single, and the maxi single format for it contains two B-Sides, "Absolutely Nothing" and "Cheryl Tweedy", which Allen struggled to get on the album, but lost them in favour of "Take What You Take".〔 The latter is a satirical song about celebrity, finding the commercial promotion side of the celebrity machine uncomfortable, while mentioning Girls Aloud member Cheryl Tweedy, but argued she doesn't "have anything against her".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Smile (Lily Allen song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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