Not Fair
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"Not Fair" is a song by British
singer-songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk- acoustic tradition with a guitar, although this role has ...
Lily Allen Lily Rose Beatrice Allen (born 2 May 1985) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. List of awards and nominations received by Lily Allen, Her accolades include a Brit Award, alongside nominations for a Grammy Award and a Laurence Olivi ...
from her second
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
, ''
It's Not Me, It's You ''It's Not Me, It's You'' is the second studio album by English singer Lily Allen, released on 4 February 2009 by Regal Recordings and Parlophone. It was produced and co-written by Greg Kurstin, with whom Allen had previously worked on her deb ...
'' (2009). Written by Allen and Greg Kurstin, the song was released as the second single from the album on 20 March 2009 by
Regal Recordings Regal Recordings is a British record label functioning as an Record label#Imprint, imprint of Parlophone, Parlophone Records. Background Regal Records was a British record label founded in 1913 as a subsidiary of the UK branch of Columbia Rec ...
. The song incorporates
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
as the lyrics depict sexual frustration. Contemporary critics did not positively receive the song and its theme, with some calling it a "pseudo-country track" and considering it a strange musical composition. The single peaked in the top 20 of the charts of some European countries and Australia, while scoring Allen's second consecutive top-five hit on both the UK Singles Chart and the
Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 () is a weekly music chart compiled by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40''. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore radio, offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" ...
(since in the latter " Fuck You" was a commercial success before "Not Fair"). The accompanying music video portrayed a western country theme, with Allen dancing next to a microphone while backing singers are dressed as cowgirls, accompanied by cattle and poultry. The video was shot the same day of the release of the single. It was performed live on different occasions, including Allen's 2009 concert tour. In Australia, the song was ranked at number eight on the
Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music poll presented by the publicly-funded Australian youth radio station Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Music of Australia, Australian and alternative music of th ...
of
2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
.


Background

In the song, Allen describes her relationship with a boyfriend to which she describes him as "the perfect guy" yet is frustrated at his sexual laziness. She furthermore describes the situation as "Not Fair" because while he plays the perfect boyfriend in every other way, he is selfish when it comes to their sex life ("all you do is take") – thus the song gives the impression that all his niceness and concern may have been just a face to get what he wants from his girlfriend without any genuine concern with her satisfaction and happiness. The single was officially released on January and climbed the charts, still being in the top 10 in June. The single was released as a digital download on 21 March 2009 (iTunes) and on 11 May 2009 as a CD. Allen performed it live for the first time on '' Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'' on 21 March 2009. The censored version of the song, which is often used on the radio, blanks out the words " wet patch" and "I spent ages giving head" on the second verse, replacing them with a burst of the background instruments. An alternative version only removes the word "head", replacing it with a short chord played on a
mouth organ A mouth organ is any free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed. Though it spans many traditions, it is played universally the same way by the musician placing their lips over a chamber or holes in the instrument, ...
. While performing the song in the BBC Radio Live Lounge and on ''
The Graham Norton Show ''The Graham Norton Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton ...
'', she replaced the latter with "I spent ages kneading bread".


Composition

"Not Fair" is a " bluegrass-infused"
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
song.


Commercial performance

"Not Fair" charted two months before the release date at number 200 in the United Kingdom. By 2 May 2009, "Not Fair" had reached the number-10 spot on UK Singles Chart before reaching a peak of number five. In New Zealand, the song debuted at number 32 and peaked at number 20, giving Allen her fifth top-40 hit there. The song has also been a big hit in Australia, where it peaked at number three and spent eight consecutive weeks in the top 10, equalling the success of her previous single " The Fear".


Music video

The music video for "Not Fair" was directed by Melina Matsoukas and filmed in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
on 19 February 2009. Allen released pictures from the video on her official
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account. A 17-second teaser of the video was released on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
on 17 March, before T4 premiered the entire video on Saturday, 21 March. As of October 2022, it has gained over 100 million views on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. The music video shows Allen performing the song on the Porter Wagoner Show, starting off with a snippet from the Porter Wagoner show from the 1970s to present Allen ( dubbed) by saying, "Now it's time for the purty little lady to come forth with a real purty song. And it's called "Not Fair". Let's make her welcome, Miss Lily Allen!" Allen is revealed to be singing alongside a country and western band, including a very bored-looking drummer, mullet-wearing
guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...
s, and backing singers/dancers. Allen performs the song into a
microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...
and can be seen dancing around the stage, dressed in a white jumpsuit and sporting a blunt fringe with long hair. The video was recorded on
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...
and with a real vacuum tube TV camera (as can be seen by the "comet trails" at 1:56 when the camera pans away from the studio lights) to keep with the theme of the video, as opposed to being filmed like most other music videos made in the 21st century.


Track listing

UK CD1 (Cardsleeve) # "Not Fair" (explicit) – 3:20 # "The Fear" (The Count (Hervé) & Lily Face the Fear remix) – 4:21 UK CD2 (Slim Case) # "Not Fair" (radio edit) – 3:03 # "The Fear" (The Count (Hervé) & Lily Face the Fear remix) – 4:21 # "Not Fair" (Di Angelis & Dobie 'Circus' remix) – 5:36 # "Not Fair" (Style of Eye remix) – 6:14 7-inch limited edition picture disc # "Not Fair" (radio edit) – 3:03 # "Why" – 3:16 Digital download # "Not Fair" – 3:23 # "Why" – 3:38 # "Not Fair" (Style of Eye remix) – 6:19 # "The Count (Hervé) and Lily Allen Face the Fear" – 4:22 # "Not Fair" (clean radio edit) – 3:24 # "Mr. Blue Sky" – 3:41


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


References


External links

* * * {{Authority control 2009 singles Lily Allen songs Number-one singles in Israel Music videos directed by Melina Matsoukas Songs written by Lily Allen Song recordings produced by Greg Kurstin