Annie Lennox
Ann "Annie" Lennox , OBE (born December 25, 1954 in Aberdeen , Scotland ) is a British singer , songwriter and Oscar winner. At the side of Dave Stewart , she became known as the singer of the pop duo Eurythmics , which in the 1980s had a number of worldwide hits such as Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) , Here Comes the Rain Again and There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart) . After the Eurythmics split up, she started her successful solo career in the early 1990s.
Life
Beginnings
At the age of four, her parents discovered their only child's talent for poetry, music and drawing. Annie Lennox learned to play the piano and flute at an early age, she sang in the choir and took dance lessons. At the age of 17 she went to London to study classical music with a focus on flute at the Royal Academy of Music . Shortly before the final exams, she broke off her studies and from then on earned her living doing odd jobs as a waitress or as a temporary worker in bookstores. In the evenings she wandered through the pubs and clubs of the British capital with various musicians, but without a permanent commitment as a singer.
For a short time, she tried her hand at cabaret with Joy Dey. However, the duo called Stocking Tops only made a few moderately successful appearances. In 1976, Lennox met Dave Stewart in a restaurant where she worked as a waitress, who asked her directly: "Do you want to marry me?" They became a couple and worked together musically in the formation The Catch , which formed in 1978 in The Tourists renamed. This consisted of Dave Stewart, Peet Coombes, an old friend of Stewart, Annie Lennox as a singer and other musicians. The band had a few successes in the UK with their punk-influenced pop songs. She released three albums and had two hit singles, So Good to Be Back Home Again and the Dusty Springfield cover I Only Want to Be with You in the UK single charts. The band split due to musical differences and problems with the record company.
Eurythmics
Stewart and Lennox, although no longer a private relationship, continued to work together and released their first record as Eurythmics in 1981. The first Eurythmics album In the Garden (1981) and the singles that were released from it were not commercially successful. Only with Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) did Stewart and Lennox achieve their worldwide breakthrough in the spring of 1983. Other hits like Love Is a Stranger , Who's That Girl? , Here Comes the Rain Again , Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) (from the film 1984 ), There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart) or Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves in a duet with Aretha Franklin followed and shaped the sound of the 1980s with. The Eurythmics were able to sell 80 million records worldwide.
While the introverted Stewart often took a back seat, especially in the early stages of eurythmy, Lennox stylized himself as an androgynous being with raspy-short, carrot-red hair in strict men's clothing who played with gender roles. Later, she was also emphatically feminine, for example as a vamp with a platinum blonde wig.
Towards the end of the 1980s, Stewart and Lennox often went their separate ways musically. Stewart, who increasingly strove for the limelight, worked as a producer for other artists, while Lennox withdrew more and more into private life. However, she also pushed her solo career. In the fall of 1988 she published the play Put a Little Love in Your Heart with Al Green - a contribution to the film The Spirits I Called . After the Eurythmics album Savage (1987) could no longer build on earlier successes, We Too Are One (1989) was the last joint work by the duo, which was followed by a greatest hits collection in spring 1991 .
It wasn't until 1999 that she recorded another eurythmics album, Peace , with Dave Stewart . The album and the single I Saved the World Today was followed by the worldwide 'Peacetour', the proceeds of which went to Greenpeace and Amnesty International . In November 2005, Stewart and Lennox released a second best-of record by Eurythmics, Ultimate Collection . In addition to the biggest hits, this also contains two new titles, including the single I've Got a Life .
On February 9, 2014 Lennox performed with Stewart at the tribute concert The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles with the Beatles song The Fool on the Hill in Los Angeles .
Solo career
On Easter Monday, April 20, 1992, Lennox performed together with David Bowie at the tribute concert for the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury . Lennox took over the vocal part of Mercury in the successful song Under Pressure .
With the release of her album Diva in April 1992, Lennox achieved worldwide success as a solo artist. The critically acclaimed album contained numerous hits, including Why and Walking on Broken Glass (both 1992). The fifth single from Diva , a remix of the album track Little Bird (1993), contained Lovesong for a Vampire, a song from the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula . In 1993 Annie Lennox received a BRIT Award for Diva for Best British Album and Best British Solo Artist .
In February 1995 her second solo album Medusa was released , which is a collection of cover versions of her personal favorite songs by artists such as Petula Clark , Paul Simon and Procol Harum . It includes the British hit single No More 'I Love You's' and a remake of the classic A Whiter Shade of Pale . At the same time, the soundtrack for the movie Apollo 13 appeared , in which she was involved with the piece Dark Side Of The Moon and the closing music.
In June 2003 Lennox released a new album with Bare , from which there were no singles in Europe; Remixes of Pavement Cracks (2003), 1000 Beautiful Things and Wonderful (both 2004) made it to number 1 on the US dance charts. After the release of Bare , Annie Lennox went on tour for the first time solo in 2003; In 2004 she completed a successful tour of the USA with Sting .
For the third part of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy , The Return of the King , Lennox contributed the title song Into the West, composed by Howard Shore and written by Fran Walsh . The song won both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best movie song.
On July 2, 2005, Annie Lennox performed with many other stars at Live 8 in London's Hyde Park . Like Sting, Carlos Santana and other well-known artists, the singer can be heard as a guest musician on the album Possibilities by jazz musician Herbie Hancock, which was released in September 2005 . Their song Hush Hush Hush , a Paula Cole cover version, was critically acclaimed as the album's highlight.
Her solo album Songs of Mass Destruction was released on September 28, 2007 . The feministly motivated song Sing includes some of the world's most famous singers: Madonna , Melissa Etheridge , Céline Dion , Sugababes , Dido , Anastacia , Gladys Knight , KD Lang , Pink , Angélique Kidjo , Bonnie Raitt , Shakira , Sarah McLachlan , Fergie , Beverley Knight , Faith Hill , Martha Wainwright , Joss Stone , KT Tunstall , Shingai Shoniwa , Beth Gibbons , Isobel Campbell, and Beth Orton .
In April 2008, the song Many Rivers to Cross , which she sang on American Idol Gives Back , entered the US singles charts at number 80 - thanks to its numerous downloads on iTunes. In 2008 she also worked with Till Brönner . On his album Rio she can be heard as a guest musician with Milton Nascimento in the song Mistérios (Mysteries) .
In March 2009, their first greatest hits album was released, The Annie Lennox Collection . In addition to material from her previous solo career, it contains three cover versions: A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum , Shining Light by Ash and Closer Now by Keane . She returned to the high points of her success with The Annie Lennox Collection . In Great Britain the best of album was in the top 10 for several weeks, in Italy it was gold. Lennox promoted her album on numerous TV shows and at several festivals around the world. In 2009 she recorded the duet Full Steam with the British musician David Gray . Although she describes herself as "not religious," she released an album of Christmas carols in 2010.
In 2014 Annie Lennox contributed the song I Put a Spell on You , originally by Screamin 'Jay Hawkins , to the film Fifty Shades of Gray .
Social and political engagement
Annie Lennox has been an ambassador for the development aid organization Oxfam for years and has played a key role in the I'm In and Make Poverty History campaigns. She has been the official ambassador of the Hear the World Foundation since 2007 ; it helps make the public aware of the importance of hearing. In 2008 she received the special prize of the German Sustainability Award “for her longstanding humanitarian commitment” . She also advocates the independence of Scotland from Great Britain, because she expects more "environmental friendliness and high moral values" from it.
At a press conference on January 2, 2009, Annie Lennox, along with other celebrities such as Bianca Jagger and Ken Livingstone, condemned the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip . She supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign through cultural boycotts.
Honors
In 2008 Annie Lennox received the “Special Achievement Award” of the German Sustainability Award in Düsseldorf. At the 10th World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, she received the 2009 Peace Summit Prize .
On October 29, 2010, GQ awarded her the special prize for commitment at the evening gala in the Komische Oper in Berlin for her commitment to HIV education .
In the same year, Lennox was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elisabeth for her commitment to fighting hunger and AIDS in Africa .
In 2008, Rolling Stone listed Lennox 93 of the 100 best singers of all time .
family
Her mother Dorothy was a cook before Annie's birth, her father Tom worked as a fitter at Aberdeen Shipyard Hall, Russell & Company ; both parents died of cancer.
After the liaison with Dave Stewart before the founding of the Eurythmics , Lennox married Radha Raman in March 1984; the marriage broke up in February 1985. Around the mid-1980s, Lennox was temporarily in a relationship with the musician Robert Görl . In 1988 she married the Israeli film and music producer Uri Fruchtmann , who made a documentary about the Eurythmics tour of Japan .
In December 1988, Lennox had a miscarriage . In memory of the lost child, she released the song Angel on the album We Too Are One . In 1990 and 1993 their two daughters were born with Fruchtmann. The marriage ended in divorce in 2000.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1992 | diva |
DE6th  (36 weeks)DE |
AT3 (16 weeks)AT |
CH5 (22 weeks) CH |
UK1  × 4
(91 weeks)UK |
US23 × 2
(72 weeks)US |
First published: April 6, 1992
Producer: Stephen Lipson Sales: + 6,000,000 |
| 1995 | Medusa |
DE4th (25 weeks)DE |
AT2 (16 weeks)AT |
CH6th (19 weeks)CH |
UK1 × 2
(54 weeks)UK |
US11 × 2
(60 weeks)US |
First published: March 6, 1995
Producer: Stephen Lipson Sales: + 5,000,000 |
| 2003 | Bare |
DE5 (12 weeks) DE |
AT17 (9 weeks) AT |
CH7 (12 weeks) CH |
UK3 (17 weeks)UK |
US4th (20 weeks)US |
Initial Release: June 9, 2003
Producer: Stephen Lipson Sales: +2,000,000 |
| 2007 | Songs of Mass Destruction |
DE15 (5 weeks) DE |
AT25 (3 weeks) AT |
CH7 (5 weeks) CH |
UK7th  (4 weeks)UK |
US9 (10 weeks) US |
|
| 2010 | A Christmas Cornucopia |
DE37 (7 weeks) DE |
AT35 (4 weeks) AT |
CH38 (5 weeks) CH |
UK16 (9 weeks)UK |
US35 (6 weeks) US |
First published: November 14, 2010
Producers: Annie Lennox, Mike Stevens Sales: + 100,000 |
| 2014 | Nostalgia |
DE15 (3 weeks) DE |
AT10 (4 weeks) AT |
CH8 (5 weeks) CH |
UK9 (12 weeks)UK |
US10 (10 weeks) US |
Initial release: October 21, 2014
Producers: Annie Lennox, Mike Stevens Sales: + 100,000 |
swell
- ↑ Queen "The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert" video, DVD and Blu-ray song lyrics. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
- ↑ https://eurythmics-ultimate.com/2015/06/in-tribute-to-james-horner-here-are-the-2-tracks-that-annie-lennox-recorded-on-the-apollo-13 -soundtrack /
- ↑ Zeit Magazin No. 52, December 22, 2010, p. 41.
- ↑ Spiegel online , September 12, 2014
- ↑ http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mq25llBqCQ
- ↑ gxb / AP: Middle East conflict: Annie Lennox group calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. In: Focus Online . January 2, 2009, accessed October 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Daniel Zylbersztajn: From because peace in Jewish General June 25, 2015
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Annie Lennox - Special Award Engagement ( Memento from November 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in gq-magazin.de
- ↑ Annie Lennox honored by the Queen ( Memento from January 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 9, 2017 .
- ↑ UnArt Live TV - Interview DAF, Cologne 2012. About minute 21 on www.youtube.com, accessed on February 7, 2014 (video).
- ↑ Web link to the official website
- ↑ Web link to David Wilkie's fan site
- ↑ Web link to www.laut.de
- ↑ Chart sources: Singles Albums DE UK US
- ↑ a b c Official Biography (Present Day). annielennox.com, accessed June 20, 2019 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Annie Lennox in the catalog of the German National Library
- Lennox's web presence
- Annie Lennox at Allmusic (English)
- Annie Lennox at Discogs (English)
- Annie Lennox at laut.de
- full Annie Lennox & Eurythmics discography
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lennox, Annie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lennox, Ann (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British pop singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 25, 1954 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Aberdeen , Scotland |