Annie Lennox Biography

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Annie Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is an Oscar, Brit, Grammy and Golden Globe award-winning Scottish rock musician and vocalist. She is both a solo artist and the lead singer of the duo Eurythmics.

Life and career

Ann Lennox was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. She attended Aberdeen High School for Girls (now Harlaw Academy). She was educated as a classical musician and studied the flute at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Her time at the Royal Academy was not entirely happy for her. Her flute teacher's final report stated: "Ann has not always been sure of where to direct her efforts, though latterly 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." In 2006 the Academy made her an honorary Fellow. Royal Academy of Music Bulletin, August 2006, p. 7.

After three years as lead singer of The Tourists, Lennox achieved her most notable fame as the alto, soul-tinged lead singer of the 1980s pop duo Eurythmics with British musician David A. Stewart. Early in Eurythmics' career, she was known for her androgyny, wearing suits and once impersonating Elvis Presley. Many journalists often referred to her as "the white Grace Jones". The duo released a long line of classic singles in the 1980s: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", "Here Comes the Rain Again", "Who's That Girl?", "Would I Lie to You?", "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)", "Missionary Man", "You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart", "Don't Ask Me Why", among others. Though Eurythmics never officially disbanded, Lennox made a fairly clear break with Stewart in 1990, and began a long and equally successful solo career.

From the beginning, Lennox has experimented with her image as an artist and as a woman. She matured as a public figure in the late 20th Century, just as MTV and the medium of video were maturing as the obvious vehicles for selling contemporary popular music, and she has used image astutely, both as a means of interpreting and marketing her music.

Annie Lennox has also amassed a substantial fortune, said to be £30 million (UKP), over the years working both with Eurythmics and as a solo artist.

The father of her two daughters, Lola and Tali, is Uri Fruchtmann, to whom she was married from 1988 to 2000. She was previously married to Radha Raman from 1984 to 1985.

Solo work

Though it was produced by Stewart, the 1988 single from the movie Scrooged with Al Green, "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" (a cover version of Jackie DeShannon's 1969 hit), was credited to Lennox and Green, and can therefore be considered her first release as a solo artist. In 1991, her version of Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" appeared on the Porter tribute compilation [[Red Hot + Blue]] for AIDS awareness. Lennox performed the song that same year for a cameo appearance in the Derek Jarman film Edward II. She then made a memorable appearance with David Bowie and the surviving members of Queen at 1992's Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at London's Wembley Stadium, performing Under Pressure.

She began working with former Trevor Horn protege Stephen Lipson, beginning with Lennox's 1992 solo debut album, Diva, was an unambiguous commercial and critical success. Her profile was boosted by Diva's singles (including "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass"), numerous awards, and "Love Song for a Vampire", a soundtrack cut for Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 movie Bram Stoker's Dracula. The B-side of her single "Precious" was a self-penned song called "Step by Step", which was later covered by Whitney Houstonfor the soundtrack album of "The Preacher's Wife" and became a hit in its own right. Stephen Lipson has consistenly been involved in Lennox's solo offerings, providing a sonic unity within her solo recordings that is seldom found in popular music and is most desirable to an artist's fanbase.

Her profile decreased for a period due to her desire to bring up her two children outside of the media's glare, although she continued to be a major figure in popular music. Medusa, an album of covers in which Lennox tackled songs by everyone from Bob Marley to The Clash, was released three years after Diva, and sold well, with its single "No More I Love You's" becoming an international hit and the 1995 Grammy winner for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 1997 she re-recorded the Eurythmics track "Angel" for the Diana, Princess of Wales tribute album. In 1998 - following the death of a mutual friend (former The Tourists lead singer/songwriter Peet Coombes) - she re-established contact with Dave Stewart, and by 1999 Eurythmics had reformed for the album Peace. In 2003 she released her third solo album, Bare, which was accompanied by her first ever solo tour which played intimate venues all over the world.

In 2004, Lennox won the Academy Award for Best Song for "Into the West" from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at the 76th Academy Awards. The song also won a Grammy award and a Golden Globe award as well. She had previously recorded "Use Well the Days" for the movie, which incorporates a number of quotations from Tolkien in its lyrics. This song was not used in the film, but it appears on a bonus DVD included with the "special edition" of the movie's soundtrack CD.

In the Summer of 2004, Annie Lennox embarked on an extensive North American tour with Sting, stunning audiences with her powerful vocal delivery and magnetic stage presence. The reviews of Lennox's live performances were universally ecstatic and most fans agreed that this type of exposure was long overdue for her in America.

In July 2005, Annie Lennox performed at Live 8 in Hyde Park, London, along with Madonna, Sting and many of her peers.

Lennox and Stewart later collaborated on two new pieces for their Eurythmics hits album, Ultimate Collection, one of which, "I've Got a Life", was released as a single on October 31, 2005. The promotional video for the song features Lennox and Stewart performing in the present day, with images of past Eurythmics videos playing on television screens behind them. Lennox also appears in a man's suit with a cane, reminiscent of her "Sweet Dreams" video image from 1983. The single hit number fourteen in the UK singles chart and was a number-one U.S. Dance hit.

According to her official website, as of 2006, Lennox "is currently busy writing and recording songs to prepare for the next album, which will be her last whilst she is still contracted to BMG...". She is hoping to deliver an album "with twelve strong, powerful, really emotive songs that people can connect to." If she achieves that, she says, "I can feel proud of [it], no matter if it sells ten copies or 50 million."

In late July 2006, on her official web site, Lennox said she heard that her new album is called Venus, she's working with James Brown, and that she's romantically involved with John Sayles. "I must be someone else, living another life," Lennox joked.

In October 2006, Lennox spoke at the British House of Commons on the need for children in the UK to help their less fortunate counterparts in Africa.

It has been reported that for three months, between July and October of 2006, Lennox worked in Dave Stewart's home studio in Los Angeles recording her new album. The producer of the new album is Glen Ballard, not Steve Lipson who produced Lennox's previous three albums. Ballard co-owns the Hollywood Boulevard studio with Stewart and it was Stewart who suggested Ballard to Lennox. Lennox and Stewart have not collaborated together on the said new album, except for a track with hip hop recording star, Kelis [1].

Discography

Albums

Singles

Other work

Annie Lennox recently became patron of the Master's Course in Humanitarian and Development Practice for Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom. A university spokesperson said that they were "delighted that as a long-term supporter of human rights and social justice campaigns Ms Lennox has agreed to act as patron for its unique MA programme".

• Oxford Brookes Press Release
  

Lennox has been an active humanitarian over the years. On the Peace tour in 1999 she and Dave Stewart gave all their profits to Amnesty International and Greenpeace.

Trivia

• Actors Hugh Laurie and John Malkovich perform in the music video for "Walking On Broken Glass".
  

• Height: 5'9"
  

• Worked in a fish factory
  

• As a child attended a school for the profoundly gifted.
  

• Married a Hare Krishna
  

• Was asked to provide proof of gender prior to airing of ' Love Is A Stranger ' video
  

• Didn't know how to drive until several years ago. Supposedly the reason was to be able to drive her children around to various activities.
  

• Has a 4-octave voice
  

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
  
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
  

Notes

External links

• Official Annie Lennox website
  
• Official Eurythmics website
  
• stv video interview on aid for Africa
  

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