This time last year, Lily Allen publicly accused an unnamed music industry executive of sexual assault.
In her tell-all autobiography, My Thoughts Exactly, Allen wrote: “I woke up at 5am because I could feel someone next to me pressing their naked body against my back. I was naked, too. I could feel someone trying to put their penis inside my vagina and slapping my arse as if I were a stripper in a club.
“I moved away as quickly as possible and jumped out of the bed, full of alarm … I found my clothes quickly … and ran out of his room and into my own.”
She added that, soon after the incident, she signed an affidavit with a lawyer relaying details of what happened, because: “I wanted it on record that I’d been sexually abused by someone I worked with.”
More details about that alleged assault have now come to light via a BBC podcast interview with Allen.
In the new interview, Allen confirms that the incident took place during a music industry work trip to the Caribbean in 2016. She says she attended a party with the individual, after which they both returned to the same hotel.
“We got to my hotel,” she said. “I couldn’t find my room keys. So he was like, ‘Well, why don’t you sleep in my bed while I go and get the keys or whatever.’ So I passed out in his bed.
“I woke up and he was in my bed naked slapping my bum and trying to insert his penis into my private parts. I recoiled and got up out of the bed and I screamed.”
In the BBC interview, Allen recounts discussing the incident last year with Warner Music global recorded music boss, Max Lousada, subsequent to writing her book.
Podcast host Miquita Oliver, then asks: “Did he say, ‘Now that we know, boy are we going to do something about it?’” Allen laughs and says, “No.”
According to an internal memo issued by Lousada on Friday (September 13), Warner believes that the alleged perpetrator does not work for the company – and did not at the time.
“The BBC piece does not say that the person involved is our employee and we understand that he wasn’t and isn’t,” says Lousada, who adds that Allen’s account is “deeply disturbing and obviously an appalling thing to have happened”.
Continues Lousada: “While there’s a robust process in place when it comes to our employees, we need to improve how we handle situations involving an artist and a person who’s not an employee. We’re going to listen and learn from this experience, and take concrete steps so we do better in future.”
This situation raises wider questions for record labels, and what they can do to assist and/or protect their artists when misconduct is suspected or discovered amongst those working in other fields of the business – especially those who are professionally connected to signed artists.
“[Lily Allen’s] account of an assault that took place in 2016 is deeply disturbing and obviously an appalling thing to have happened… I want everyone to know that we take allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously, and in situations where they’ve been made about Warner employees, we’ve quickly investigated and taken action… The BBC piece does not say that the person involved is our employee and we understand that he wasn’t and isn’t.”
Max Lousada, Warner Music
Allen has previously said that, following the event in the Caribbean, she was offered the chance to play at a gig promoted by BBC Radio 1, where an artist connected to the executive would have also appeared.
“[I] had to turn it down,” she wrote in My Thoughts Exactly. “Because I didn’t want to be around him. And I got punished by Radio 1 with no airplay for my next single, Trigger Bang [released in December 2017] – I just couldn’t tell them why I couldn’t take the slot.”
The first major Radio 1-promoted event following the incident would appear to have been the network’s Big Weekend in Exeter in May 2016.
You can read Max Lousada’s internal memo below in full.
We wanted to talk to you about today’s BBC podcast with Lily Allen. Her account of an assault that took place in 2016 is deeply disturbing and obviously an appalling thing to have happened. Behavior like that has no place in our industry.
I want everyone to know that we take allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously, and in situations where they’ve been made about Warner employees, we’ve quickly investigated and taken action.
The BBC piece does not say that the person involved is our employee and we understand that he wasn’t and isn’t.
While there’s a robust process in place when it comes to our employees, we need to improve how we handle situations involving an artist and a person who’s not an employee. We’re going to listen and learn from this experience, and take concrete steps so we do better in future.
Please, if you ever hear of anything like this, you must raise it through official channels, such as your manager or HR. You can also call the Compliance hotline anonymously or refer to our Code of Conduct.
Best,
MaxMusic Business Worldwide
