Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox Bio

Annie Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. She first achieved attention in the late 1970s as part of the band the Tourists and gained international fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of Eurythmics alongside Dave Stewart. Lennox launched a successful solo career in 1992 with the album Diva and has released multiple solo albums since. Renowned for her contralto voice and androgynous image, she has received numerous awards including Brit Awards, Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Into the West.” Lennox is also noted for her HIV/AIDS activism, founding the Sing campaign and The Circle to support women and children.

Early Life and Background

Annie Lennox was born on Christmas Day 1954 in Torry, Aberdeen, Scotland. She is the daughter of Dorothy Farquharson (née Ferguson) and Thomas Allison Lennox. Both of her parents later died of cancer. Lennox attended the Aberdeen High School for Girls, where she was encouraged by her parents to explore her artistic qualities. She excelled at music, poetry and artwork, learned to play the flute and the piano, sang in the choir, played in symphony orchestras and military bands, and took part annually in the Aberdeen Music Festival. While at high school she also attended Dalcroze eurhythmics classes, an approach to music education developed by the Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze that would later inspire the name of her band Eurythmics.

In 1971, Lennox began studying on a three-year Music Performance degree course at the Royal Academy of Music in London, one of Britain’s elite conservatories. At college she studied flute, piano and harpsichord for nearly three years. Although she studied for close to the duration of the course, she did not finish, finding the time required to become a professional classical musician obsessive and feeling unconnected with the broader cultural atmosphere. She lived on a student grant and worked part-time jobs to make ends meet, and she later played and sang with bands such as Windsong during this period. In 2017, the academy awarded her an honorary Doctorate in recognition of her subsequent achievements.

Path to Music

Lennox’s professional music career began in 1976 when she played flute with a band called Dragon’s Playground, leaving before they appeared on ITV’s talent show New Faces. From 1977 to 1980, she was the lead singer of the Tourists, a British pop band and her first collaboration with Dave Stewart. After that group dissolved, Lennox and Stewart formed the synth-pop duo Eurythmics in 1980, and the partnership produced her most notable fame as the duo’s soul-tinged lead singer.

Early in Eurythmics’ career, Lennox became known for her androgyny, often wearing suits and once impersonating Elvis Presley. The 1983 music video for “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” in which she appeared with closely cropped orange hair and wearing a men’s business suit, was both striking and surreal, helping make her a household name. Eurythmics released a long line of hit singles in the 1980s, including “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart),” “Love Is a Stranger,” “Here Comes the Rain Again,” “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” “Would I Lie to You?” and “Missionary Man.” Although Eurythmics never officially disbanded, Lennox made a fairly clear break from Stewart in 1990 and began her solo career.

Annie Lennox Career

Early Career (1976-1990)

Lennox’s first notable work came with the Tourists from 1977 to 1980, before she and Dave Stewart launched Eurythmics. The duo’s debut era delivered international hits throughout the 1980s, with “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” reaching number one in the United States. Eurythmics earned a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1987 for “Missionary Man” and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 1999.

As Eurythmics wound down in 1990, Lennox also recorded a duet with Al Green, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” for the 1988 movie Scrooged. The single peaked at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top 40 in the UK. She also performed the Cole Porter song “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” in Derek Jarman’s 1991 film Edward II, and in 1992 she appeared with David Bowie and the surviving members of Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, performing “Under Pressure.”

Breakthrough (1992-2000)

Lennox began her solo career with the 1992 debut album Diva, produced with Stephen Lipson. The album charted at number one in the UK and reached number 23 in the United States, where it was certified double platinum. Hit singles from Diva included “Why” and “Walking on Broken Glass,” with the music video for the latter featuring actors Hugh Laurie and John Malkovich in period costume. Diva won Best British Album at the 1993 Brit Awards and has sold more than 1.2 million copies in the UK alone.

Her second album, Medusa, was released in March 1995 and consisted solely of cover versions of songs originally recorded by male artists. It entered the UK album chart at number one and spent 60 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States, achieving double-platinum status in both countries. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single “No More ‘I Love You’s’.” In 1998, following the death of a mutual friend, Lennox reunited with Dave Stewart, and Eurythmics released the album Peace in 1999, their first album of new material in ten years.

Breakthrough (2003-2010)

Lennox’s third solo album, Bare, was released in 2003 and peaked at number four in the United States, her highest-charting album there to date. In 2004, she won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Into the West,” written for the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, a song that also earned a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award. In October 2007, she released her fourth solo album, Songs of Mass Destruction, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Glen Ballard. The song “Sing” from that album was a collaboration between Lennox and 23 prominent female artists, recorded to raise money and awareness for the HIV/AIDS organisation Treatment Action Campaign.

In November 2010, Lennox released A Christmas Cornucopia, a collection of traditional festive songs plus the new composition “Universal Child.” In 2011 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her tireless charity campaigns. On 4 June 2012 she performed at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert in front of Buckingham Palace, and on 12 August 2012 she performed “Little Bird” at the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony in London.

Breakthrough (2014-2022)

Lennox’s sixth solo album, Nostalgia, was released in October 2014 and is a collection of childhood favourite soul, jazz and blues songs. The album entered the UK and US Top 10 and reached number one on the US Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. In May 2019, she released the EP Lepidoptera, her first independently distributed record. In 2020, Lennox and Dave Stewart were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the duo were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Notable Works and Milestones

Lennox’s signature work spans “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” with Eurythmics, the solo debut Diva, the cover-led Medusa and the Oscar-winning “Into the West.” By June 2008, including her work with Eurythmics, she had sold over 80 million records worldwide. In June 2013, the Official Charts Company called her the most successful female British artist in UK music history.

Annie Lennox Award Nominations

Annie Lennox has earned nominations across the Brit Awards, Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Ivor Novello Awards and the Billboard Music Awards. Her album Bare was nominated for Best Pop Album at the 46th Grammy Awards, and her album Nostalgia was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. The music video for “Missionary Man” received five nominations at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards.

Annie Lennox Awards Won

Annie Lennox has won eight Brit Awards, including being named Best British Female Artist a record six times, and has been named the Brits Champion of Champions. She has collected four Grammy Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, the Billboard Century Award in 2002, the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 2004 and the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2004 for “Into the West.” In 2011 she was appointed an OBE for her humanitarian work, and in 2015 she became a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, the first woman to receive the honour.

Annie Lennox Family

Annie Lennox is the daughter of Thomas Allison Lennox and Dorothy Farquharson (née Ferguson). Her brother-in-law is medical doctor and executive Richard E. Besser. She has two daughters, Lola and Tali, with her second husband, the Israeli film and record producer Uri Fruchtmann. A son, Daniel, was stillborn in 1988.

Personal Life

Lennox and Dave Stewart were in a relationship for three years in the late 1970s, before they formed Eurythmics. She has been married three times: to German Hare Krishna devotee Radha Raman from 1984 to 1985, to Israeli film and record producer Uri Fruchtmann from 1988 to 2000, and to Mitch Besser, whom she met in 2009, in a private London ceremony on 15 September 2012. Lennox is agnostic and a feminist. She became a vegetarian at age 29 and was diagnosed with ADHD at 70 years old.