Lily Allen says she feels “validated” by how people have reacted to her explosive break-up album West End Girl.

The Smile singer made headlines when she unveiled her fifth album in October, as the project appears to trace the end of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, which came to a close after four years last December.

Laid out in chronological order, the brutally honest body of work includes lyrics about an open relationship, possible cheating, and the process of rebuilding.

Looking back on how well West End Girl has been received, Allen told CBS Mornings that she feels “overwhelmed” and “massively grateful” for the response, and also “validated” by how people have connected with her story.

“It’s amazing, I write music for myself to make myself feel more normal and when something connects with people, it’s affirming, right? It’s validating,” she said in a preview from Thursday’s interview. “The things that I was experiencing in my life at the time, I wasn’t really getting that validation for whatever reason, so to now have people listen to this record and to go, ‘Yeah, that’s really messed up, that’s really painful. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through something like that,’ it’s like OK.”

With a laugh, the British singer added, “Now I know why I had to check myself into a treatment centre!”

The 40-year-old, who spent several weeks in a treatment centre in January and February for her mental health, also told the U.S. morning show that the success of West End Girl reminds her of the excitement that surrounded her 2006 debut Alright, Still.

“It felt like a moment in time that you couldn’t recreate and I certainly haven’t felt anything like what that felt like until now. It sort of feels quite similar in a way…,” she said. “It’s highly entertaining, very overstimulating.”

Because of the album’s huge momentum, Allen has added arena dates to her 2026 Lily Allen Performs West End Girl U.K. tour, where she will perform the full album in sequence after her theatre shows sold out almost instantly.

Announced on Thursday, the tour will now include arena stops across nine cities in June, including London, Newcastle, and Birmingham.