Lily Allen has claimed her infamous spat with rapper Azealia Banks helped to improve her songwriting.

The pop pair became embroiled in a Twitter feud last year after Banks insinuated that Allen’s children were ugly – and said the singer’s husband looked like a “thumb”.

Discussing the war of words in an interview with The Sun, Allen said: “I tried to write through my pregnancy with my youngest, but the hormones were really weird and it was just really forced and sounded terrible. Then it wasn’t until I stopped breastfeeding six months on [that] Azealia tweeted me on Twitter, that I was like, ‘Yes, you know who I am.'”

The singer went on to say: “I found my voice again, then I just bashed it all out. It was like two years of writing before I found it.”

Lily Allen has recently announced a special one-off show in London later this month to celebrate the release of her comeback album Sheezus.

The gig will take place at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on April 28 – and will be the singer’s first headline show in four years.

Sheezus – the follow-up to 2009′s It’s Not Me, It’s You – is set to be released on May 5. Lily Allen returned to music late last year when she released the chart-topping John Lewis Christmas single, a cover of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know.

Lily Allen unveils new single, announces album details
Lily Allen releases lyric video for new track ‘L8 CMMR’
Lily Allen: ‘My new music is rubbish’