Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Ann "Annie" Lennox, OBEis 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 David A. Stewart went on to achieve major international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. With a total of eight Brit Awards, including Best British Female Artist six times, Lennox has won more than any other female artist. She has also been named the "Brits Champion of...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth25 December 1954
CityAberdeen, Scotland
I wanted to create something that was quite edgy and belonged to me. It wasn't about my sexual orientation, because I'm heterosexual. It was saying that appearance is just temporary, and I want to be as strong as a man.
You wouldn't find a Joni Mitchell on 'X Factor;' that's not the place. 'X Factor' is a specific thing for people that want to go through that process - it's a factory, you know, and it's owned and stitched-up by puppet masters.
One wouldn't want to have the same dilemmas at 50 as one had at 15. And indeed I don't. I have a very different take on life.
I understand what it is for a woman to want to protect their children and give them the best they can.
I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.
I didn't want to be perceived as a girly girl on stage.
I enjoy multi-tasking, so I want to do a lot of different things. I want to keep all the plates spinning.
Fame for fame's sake is toxic - some people want that, with no boundaries. It's unhealthy.
I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.
Even in the '80s when people were gay, it was still difficult for them to come out, whereas nowadays, 20 years on, I think, um, we have a far more open-minded society that embraces the notion of homosexuality, and I think there was this doubt about my gender, you know, and at the time it possibly was controversial but... they missed my message, if you see what I mean, because for me it wasn't about a sexual issue, it was more of a feminist thing.
I'm shy, yeah.There's a huge industry at the moment of celebrity and it's really evolved over the last 10-15 years and, um, although I'm somebody that's in the public eye from time to time, I don't play that game too much. I don't like it because I find it very superficial - I just like to make my music and I like to sing. I don't really hang out.
Catch me and let me dive under, for I want to swim in the pools of your eyes.
It takes a tremendous amount of faith every time I go into the studio. Music comes easy to me -- melody, chord progression, no problem. That's something very simple, and I like to sit down and do that. But to actually literally write something important ...
I identify with other women because of my gender, and I identify with other women if they are mothers because I'm a mother, too. It's very simple. It's nothing complicated, it's not rocket science. It's about empathy. It's about understanding that what happens with one person is potentially what happens to you, and seeing yourself in someone else's shoes. Fundamentally, we are all in the same place: we're born, we live, and we're going to die. In between, we'll have joy and we'll have sadness.