British singer Lily Allen's success has helped her get in touch with her feminine side after years of pretending to be a soccer-loving son to her actor father Keith Allen.

The Smile hitmaker admits she never used to "get on" with women until they started identifying with her quirky songs of heartbreak and strife - because she spent most of her time in gangs of boys.

Allen explains, "I'd always been a boys' girl. It probably has to do with my father; the only way we could interact was for him to take me to watch football every weekend, basically for me to pretend to be his son.

"I latched onto that. All my friends would be groups of boys... all of us shouting and chanting at football matches."