Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox is a Scottish singer-songwriter from Aberdeen. She is known for work in pop, alternative pop, pop soul, rock, soft rock and sophisti-pop, and for a career that spans group work, solo releases and activism.

Early career and Eurythmics

Lennox begins her recording career in the late 1970s as a member of the new wave band The Tourists. In the 1980s she achieves international success with Dave Stewart in Eurythmics. The duo’s best-known songs include “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, “There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)”, “Love Is a Stranger” and “Here Comes the Rain Again”.

Solo work

Lennox launches her solo career in 1992 with the album Diva, which includes the singles “Why” and “Walking on Broken Glass”. That same year she records “Love Song for a Vampire” for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Her 1995 album Medusa consists of cover versions, including “No More ‘I Love You’s’” and “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. Her solo studio albums also include Bare (2003), Songs of Mass Destruction (2007), A Christmas Cornucopia (2010) and Nostalgia (2014), along with the compilation The Annie Lennox Collection (2009).

Awards and recognition

Her awards include eight Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, the Billboard Century Award and both the Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Into the West” from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. She is a contralto singer and is described by some as “The Greatest White Soul Singer Alive” and as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. With Eurythmics, she sells more than 80 million records worldwide by 2008.

Activism and honours

Lennox is also known for political and social activism, particularly on HIV/AIDS in Africa. She founds the Sing campaign in 2007 and the women’s empowerment charity The Circle in 2008. In 2011 she is appointed an OBE for charitable work. She performs “Little Bird” at the London 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony and appears at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert the same year. In 2015 she becomes a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, the first woman to receive the honour. She and Dave Stewart are inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. In 2017 she is appointed Glasgow Caledonian University’s first female chancellor.