Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox is an award-winning singer, songwriter and activist who has sold over 80 million records worldwide between her solo work and the duo Eurythmics. At seventeen, Lennox won a scholarship to London’s Royal Academy of Music to become a flutist, but dropped out after feeling that classical music was “far too competitive” and “didn’t fit my kind of personality”.

While working as a waitress at a health food restaurant in London, Lennox met Dave Stewart, with whom she formed the band Catch with singer-songwriter Peet Coombes. Catch released one single before adding two more members and changing their name to The Tourists. Under that name, the band scored five UK hits before Coombes' substance abuse broke the band apart.

Lennox and Stewart continued writing together – with Stewart moving from guitar to synthesizer and Lennox adopting an androgynous look – and formed Eurythmics. Within a few years, the duo was propelled into international stardom when “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”, a single from their second album, became a top ten hit in nine countries.

Over the decade, the duo moved away from their dark new wave sound and S&M imagery, evolving into a more mainstream synthpop band. In that time, they scored twenty-one UK top 40’s (ten of which were also US top 40 hits). In 1988, Lennox had an international smash hit outside of Eurythmics with Al Green titled “Put A Little Love In Your Heart”. In 1990, Eurythmics quietly disbanded and Lennox took a break from music to have her first child.

In 1992, Lennox released her debut solo album Diva. It sold seven million copies (more than any Eurythmics album had sold) and featured three international hits – “Why” (top 10 in eleven countries), “Walking On Broken Glass” (top 40 in five countries) and “Little Bird” (top 40 in four countries). Her sophomore album Medusa, a collection of cover songs, followed in 1995. Despite most critics panning the effort, its singles “No More I Love You’s” and “Whiter Shade Of Pale” found widespread international success.

Lennox and Stewart reunited in 1999 for the Eurthymics album Peace, which gave the group two more UK top 40s that also found additional scattered chart success overseas. In 2002, Lennox won Billboard Magazine’s Century Award and was praised as one of “the most original and unforgettably affecting artists in the modern annals of popular music”.

In 2003, she released Bare. It had no charting singles but still sold moderately well. That same year, Lennox participated in Nelson Mandela’s concert for his HIV/Aids Foundation ‘46664’. After meeting Mandela, she became more inspired to participate in causes to make a difference around the world and less interested in writing music.

She released Songs Of Mass Destruction in 2007, her last collection of original music to date. It includes the single “Sing” featuring twenty-five fellow female artists. The track was used to raise money for an HIV Treament campaign. Lennox wrote her last original song “Universal Child” in 2010 for a charity, and it appeared on her holiday album A Christmas Cornucopia that same year. Lennox commented on her gradual transition from songwriter to activist:

Are there any songs that have actually inspired people into action? People write and sing about injustice. Music does shed a light on emotions and injustices, yet at the same time, when it comes to actual change, we must take more steps than just singing.

In 2011, Lennox received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her charity work and contributions to humanitarian causes. Another album of covers titled Nostalgia surfaced in 2014 and its lead single “I Put A Spell On You” was a minor hit in nine countries, her best solo chart success in almost two decades.