Annie Lennox
Ann Lennox OBE (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart went on to achieve international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. Appearing in the 1983 music video for "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" with orange cropped hair and wearing a man's lounge suit, the BBC wrote, "all eyes were on Annie Lennox, the singer whose powerful androgynous look defied the male gaze". Subsequent hits with Eurythmics include "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)", "Love Is a Stranger" and "Here Comes the Rain Again".
Annie Lennox
- Singer-songwriter
- political activist
- philanthropist
1976–present
-
Radha Raman(m. 1984; div. 1985)
-
Mitch Besser(m. 2012)
Richard E. Besser (brother-in-law)
- Vocals
- piano
Lennox embarked on a solo career in 1992 with her debut album, Diva, which produced several hit singles including "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass". The same year, she performed "Love Song for a Vampire" for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Her 1995 studio album Medusa includes cover versions of songs such as "No More 'I Love You's'" and "A Whiter Shade of Pale". To date, she has released six solo studio albums and a compilation album, The Annie Lennox Collection (2009). With eight Brit Awards, which includes being named Best British Female Artist a record six times, Lennox has been named the "Brits Champion of Champions".[1] She has also collected four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2002, Lennox received a Billboard Century Award; the highest accolade from Billboard.[2] In 2004 she received the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Into the West", written for the soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Lennox's vocal range is contralto. She has been named "The Greatest White Soul Singer Alive" by VH1 and one of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. In June 2013 the Official Charts Company called her "the most successful female British artist in UK music history". By June 2008, including her work with Eurythmics, Lennox had sold over 80 million records worldwide. As part of a one-hour symphony of British Music, Lennox performed "Little Bird" during the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. At the 2015 Ivor Novello Awards Lennox was made a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (The Ivors Academy), the first woman to receive the honour. Lennox and her Eurythmics partner Dave Stewart were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, and the duo were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
In addition to her career as a musician, Lennox is also a political and social activist, raising money and awareness for HIV/AIDS as it affects women and children in Africa. She founded the Sing campaign in 2007 and founded a women's empowerment charity called The Circle in 2008. In 2011 Lennox was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for her "tireless charity campaigns and championing of humanitarian causes". On 4 June 2012 she performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert in front of Buckingham Palace. In 2017, Lennox was appointed Glasgow Caledonian University's first female chancellor.[3]
Early life
Annie Lennox was born on Christmas Day 1954 in Aberdeen, Scotland. She is the daughter of Dorothy Farquharson (née Ferguson; 1930–2003) and Thomas Allison Lennox (1925–1986).[4][5]
Lennox went to the Aberdeen High School for Girls (which since became Harlaw Academy secondary school) where she was encouraged by her parents to explore her artistic qualities. She excelled at music, poetry and artwork. Here she learned to play the flute and the piano. She also sang in the choir and later played in symphony orchestras and military bands, and each year took part in the Aberdeen Music Festival. Lennox attended dance classes run by Marguerite Feltges – one such dance style was a Greek dance called Eurhythmics – a name she would call her band in later life, though with a different spelling.[6]
In 1971, Lennox began studying on a three year Music Performance degree course at the Royal Academy of Music in London. It is one of a small number of quite elite British music conservatories predominantly for classical music study at third level.[7] At college in London she studied flute, piano and harpsichord for nearly three years. Although Lennox studied for close to the duration of the course she did not finish her studies at the college. She found the amount of time devoted to music practice required to become a professional classical musician obsessive and felt that she was unconnected with the "whole cultural aspect".[8] Lennox lived on a student grant and worked at part-time jobs for extra money. She was unhappy with the direction she was going in and doubted her own talent when compared to her student contemporaries[9] while at the Royal Academy and deliberated on what other direction she could take.[10]
Lennox's flute teacher's final report stated: "Ann has not always been sure of where to direct her efforts, though lately she has been more committed. She is very, very able, however." Two years later, Lennox reported to the academy: "I have had to work as a waitress, barmaid, and shop assistant to keep me when not in musical work." She also played and sang with a few bands, such as Windsong, during the period of her course.
In 2017, the Academy awarded her an honorary degree of Doctorate. In her acceptance speech of her honorary Doctorate, Lennox said, "Many of my life experiences can be described as unconventional, idiosyncratic and synchronistic – as this event [graduation ceremony] proves to be no exception. By rights, I feel I’m not entitled to be here – but as John Lennon once famously said…'Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.'"[11]
Lennox was also made a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.[12]
Personal life
Lennox has been married three times. She and Dave Stewart were in a relationship for three years in the late 1970s, before they formed Eurythmics. They never married.[107]
Her first marriage, from 1984 to 1985, was to German Hare Krishna devotee Radha Raman.[108] From 1988 to 2000, Lennox was married to Israeli film and record producer Uri Fruchtmann and they lived in The Grove, Highgate.[109] The couple have two daughters, Lola and Tali. A son, Daniel, was stillborn in 1988.[110]
While fundraising in 2009, Lennox met Mitch Besser who had started an AIDS charity in Africa.[111][112] Besser had divorce proceedings brought against him in April 2012.[113] On 15 September 2012 Lennox married Besser at a private ceremony in London.[114][115][113] Besser is the brother of Richard E. Besser.[116]
In September 2012, Lennox featured in Series 9 of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, in which she discovered that her great-great-grandmother Jessie Fraser worked at the Broadford Flax Mill in Aberdeen. Her maternal grandmother, Dora Paton, was a dairy maid at the Balmoral Royal Estate and her maternal grandfather, William Ferguson, was a gamekeeper also at Balmoral.[117]
Both of Lennox's parents died of cancer.[10] Lennox is agnostic[118] and a feminist.[119] Lennox became a vegetarian at age 29.[120][121] In the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List of British millionaires from the world of music, Lennox was estimated to have a fortune of £30 million.[122]
Lennox's vocal range is contralto.[123][124][125]