INTERVIEW
Text Brian Boyd
Image Rex Features
Increasing awareness of the Aids crisis in Africa has given Annie Lennox’s career new focus, culminating on World Aids Day with the digital release of ‘Sing’, a track featuring 23 of the world’s most famous female vocalists
Annie Lennox is not happy. “If you have a sex with a virgin, you’ll be cured of Aids,” she says. Lennox, arguably the greatest white soul singer of her generation, is stretched out on an antique couch in a £8-for-a-cup-of-coffee London hotel. She lets the words linger in the fussily decorated room before suddenly sitting bolt upright.
“This is what I’m up against!” she says. “You have government ministers in African countries saying you should take lemon juice, garlic and olive oil if you have Aids. You have [South Africa’s president] Thabo Mbeki holding – and let’s be charitable here – ‘unorthodox’ views on Aids.
And, as always, you have women bearing the brunt of it: women who are infected, and whose children are infected in utero, because a man is ‘too proud’ to wear a condom.
“Aids is wreaking more havoc than apartheid ever did in South Africa,” Lennox continues. “I’m just back from touring the country’s women’s groups, who are working in the frontline of Aids prevention and, as they say, trying to make people ‘HIV literate’. The stories they told me… I tell you something, the architects of apartheid must be laughing in their graves.”
It was listening to a speech by Nelson Mandela when he revisited his Robben Island prison a few years ago that “totally connected” Lennox with the Aids pandemic. “I know I’m privileged, I know I have a fantastic lifestyle, but I also have a voice and I will be heard,” she says. “This isn’t about being a do-gooder or being ‘charitable’. This is about engaging with the rest of the world. This is about being, and feeling like, a fully rounded human being.”
Her new solo album, Songs Of Mass Destruction, is her first since 2003’s Bare. It features the single ‘Sing’, for which she gathered together 23 of the world’s most famous and talented female singers. Madonna, Gladys Knight, Celine Dion, kd lang, Joss Stone, Shakira, Pink, KT Tunstall and Martha Wainwright all join her on the powerful feminist anthem. All money raised by the single – which is released digitally on World Aids Day, 1 December – will go to Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The South African HIV and Aids activist organisation is run largely by women who are aghast at the myths perpetuated by male politicians about the still-rampant virus.
A remark made by a British journalist saying she was trying to be “the new Bob Geldof or Bono” is still very much on Lennox’s mind. “For the love of God!” she says, as her eyes flash with palpable anger. “Do people know nothing about me, about who I am, where I come from, what I’ve done?
“Here’s my connection to South Africa. I’m 17 and living in Aberdeen [where she was born and brought up]. My father is a trade union socialist, as was my grandfather. One night, there’s a knock on the door. There’s this man on a recruitment drive to sign up people to work as teachers in apartheid South Africa. The salary he offers is massive. I’m broke and it’s a very attractive package. But because of how I was brought up, I tell him exactly what he can do with his job offer.
“Later during the 1980s, when Eurythmics [the duo she was in with Dave Stewart] were selling millions of records, we were offered silly money to play to ‘mixed’ audiences in South Africa. Now remember, during the 1980s Thatcher had labelled the ANC [African National Congress] a ‘terrorist’ organisation. Besides not playing shows under that heinous regime, we also saw to it – and this was against the law at the time – that all the royalties we made from South African sales of our albums were secretly channelled to the ANC.”
The connection was reawakened when Lennox met Nelson Mandela. “I saw him address the world’s press from his old prison cell,” she says. “He was talking about how the country had come through apartheid but now had to deal with an Aids crisis. He used the word ‘genocide’. It’s only when you visit the country that you realise the scale of the devastation, seeing Aids orphans on the street. Millions struggle secretly with the virus because of the taboo attached to it. The time for worries about taboos is well, well over. I have a voice. I will use it.”
She traces her commitment back to her father’s equally committed trade union socialism. “My family were proactive socialists,” she says. “I was aware the world was unjust. We were never that badly off, but I saw other situations. I ended up with fame and wealth. I can use both to move this campaign forward.
“That’s why I got all those magnificent singers to contribute to the album. I’ve been quiet now for a number of years – I have two children, so I can’t tour that much. But I feel engaged again now, I feel busy. I feel connected – and for a long time I wasn’t.”
Moving on, Lennox thinks aloud about how female performers are treated by the press. It’s the same old story with successful female acts, she says. You’re defined by your relationships and people just won’t accept the body of musical work a woman has produced. Lennox herself has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, but it’s often “tragic Annie” with her divorces and separations. Once, rather dramatically, she was described as “Britain’s most tortured rock star”.
Lennox is as happy discussing texts such as Decoding Advertisements by Judith Williamson and Ways Of Seeing by John Berger as she is talking about Amy Winehouse. Remember, this is the woman who wrote and sang ‘17 Again’, containing the lyrics: “All those fake celebrities, and all those vicious queens/ All the stupid papers, and the stupid magazines/Sweet dreams are made of anything, that gets you in the scene.”
If people insist on defining Lennox by her relationships, it’s worth noting that, contrary to popular belief, Dave Stewart isn’t the key figure. Although she admits she never would have had the nerve to go solo if it hadn’t been for Eurythmics, and despite the fact that the duo were long-term lovers and found global fame together, she has gone years without speaking to him.
Lennox first met Stewart when she was studying classical music in London and working in a vegetarian restaurant. The first thing Stewart said to her was “Will you marry me?” The pair never wed, but Lennox did marry Israeli filmmaker Uri Fruchtmann in 1988. The couple have two children but divorced, amicably, in 2000.
According to Lennox, the divorce was the turning point in her life. “You mentioned earlier that you thought I was singing really freely on this new album. That is the case. On my last album, Bare, I was still coming out of that time in my life.” The song titles on 2003’s Bare tell their own story: ‘The Hurting Time’, ‘Bitter Pill’ and ‘The Saddest Song I’ve Got’.
For someone who was so ubiquitous (and her androgynous look so commented on) in the 1980s and early 1990s – she seemed to win Best British Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards almost by default during that time – Lennox is aware of how her profile has dropped. Before the release of Songs of Mass Destruction, her solo career, though wildly successful, had yielded only three albums in 15 years.
“I was a normal human being during those years,” she says. “Bringing up children and not being the singer on the stage. I keep going back to this, but I did feel like a bit of a dry sponge for a long while before I started getting involved with TAC in South Africa.
“I don’t want to come across as just another famous and wealthy person lecturing people, but there was a real awakening for me when it came to getting involved in the Aids prevention campaign.
“I don’t know – I just feel dignified by it. And now, recording and performing again are more special to me because they’re connected to something. I’m here, I’m back. It’s good.”
Ten of the best
The essential Annie Lennox
1 Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
The song that kick-started it all for Eurythmics in 1983. ‘Sweet Dreams’ is endlessly remixed and still charts today, most recently as a top ten hit in France. It has also been covered by musician of the moment, Kanye West.
2 Here Comes The Rain Again
This melancholic rumination on unrequited love was accompanied by a memorable video, which saw Lennox dressed in a nightgown walking along an Orkney clifftop.
3 There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)
Listen to Lennox’s voice soar over the opening few notes – it’s almost operatic in its execution.
4 You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart
When Lennox sings “Don’t cut me down when I’m talking to you/Because I’m much too tall to feel that small,” she almost scares you.
5 Would I Lie To You?
A full-on R’n’B song with brass backing. The question in the title is definitely not rhetorical.
6 17 Again
A little-known song from the brief Eurythmics reunion period in 1999/ 2000. A great tune with some social commentary too.
7 Why?
A relationship is falling apart and Lennox puts her side of the story in her most emotional delivery ever: “Do you know how I feel?/I don’t think you know how I feel.” Stirring stuff.
8 No More I Love You’s
This may be a cover version, but Lennox sings it like it’s her own.
9 Pavement Cracks
A beautiful vocal about an ugly situation.
10 Dark Road
From the new album, a masterclass in vocal phrasing and a stunning display of her four-octave range.
FR> Dialogue avec un ange
Annie Lennox n’est pas contente. “Vous pourriez guérir du SIDA, en ayant des relations sexuelles avec une jeune fille vierge,” clame-t-elle. Lennox, ex-membre d’Eurythmics, lâche ces mots avec une insistance appuyée, avant de prendre farouchement position.
“C’est ce qui me révolte!” dit-elle. “Dans les pays africains, certains ministres du gouvernement recommandent aux malades du SIDA de prendre du jus de citron, de l’ail et de l’huile d’olive. Thabo Mbeki par exemple, [le président d’Afrique du Sud] tient des propos ‘non orthodoxes’ – soyons charitables – sur le SIDA. Et comme toujours, ce sont les femmes qui en supportent le poids. En Afrique du Sud la maladie fait plus de ravages que l’apartheid.
“J’ai vu le discours de [Nelson Mandela] à la presse internationale,” explique-t-elle. “Il commentait la façon dont le pays était sorti de l’apartheid mais devait aujourd’hui faire face à une crise sanitaire. Il a utilisé le terme ‘génocide’. C’est seulement en visitant le pays que vous pouvez réaliser l’ampleur du désastre, des millions de personnes luttant secrètement contre le virus.”
Le nouvel album de Lennox, Songs Of Mass Destruction, inclut le single ‘Sing’, avec 23 chanteuses en première ligne, dont Madonna, Gladys Knight, kd lang et Joss Stone. Les fonds récoltés par ce single – distribué sous format numérique à l’occasion de la Journée Mondiale du Sida (1 décembre) – iront à la Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), une organisation sud africaine de lutte contre le Sida.
Pour faire suite à cette question lancinante du SIDA, Lennox exprime tout haut la manière dont les actrices et les interprètes féminines sont traitées par la presse. Elles sont définies en fonction de leurs relations et les gens n’acceptent pas la consistance de leur travail musical (Lennox a vendu plus de 75 millions d’albums dans le monde). Lennox a été un jour décrite comme la ‘Rock star la plus torturée de Grande-Bretagne’.
Pour quelqu’un qui a tellement bougé dans les années 1980 et au début des années 1990, la carrière solo de Lennox bien que réussie, a seulement produit quatre albums en 15 ans. “J’étais un être humain comme tout le monde à cette époque, j’élevais des enfants,” confie-t-elle. “Je me suis longtemps un peu sentie comme une éponge desséchée avant de m’impliquer dans l’organisation TAC. Depuis lors, enregistrer et être sur scène ont une dimension encore plus spéciale parce ces activités sont liées à un véritable cause.”
NL> De engel in Lennox
Annie Lennox is allesbehalve blij. “Seks met een maagd geneest aids”, zegt ze. De vroegere zangeres van de Eurythmics laat de woorden even nazinderen voor ze van wal steekt.
“Tegen dat soort dingen moet ik het dus opnemen”, verklaart ze. “Je hebt Afrikaanse ministers die beweren dat je citroensap, look en olijfolie moet gebruiken als je aids hebt. Er is [de Zuid-Afrikaanse president] Thabo Mbeki die, laten we beleefd blijven, vreemde ideeën heeft over aids. En zoals steeds trekken de vrouwen aan het kortste eind. Aids maakt meer slachtoffers dan apartheid ooit deed in Zuid-Afrika.
“Ik zag Nelson Mandela de internationale pers toespreken”, zegt ze. “Hij sprak over hoe zijn land het juk van de apartheid had afgeworpen, maar nu gebukt gaat onder een aidscrisis. Daarbij gebruikte hij het woord ‘genocide’. Alleen door het land te bezoeken, besef je hoe groot de schade is. Miljoenen mensen vechten in alle stilte tegen het virus.”
Op het nieuwe album van Lennox, Songs Of Mass Destruction, prijkt het nummer ‘Sing’, waar ze wordt bijgestaan door 23 zangeressen, onder wie Madonna, Gladys Knight, kd lang en Joss Stone. De opbrengsten van de single, die op Wereld Aids Dag (1 december) digitaal wordt uitgebracht, gaan naar de Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), een Zuid-Afrikaanse aidsorganisatie.
Naast aids drukt Lennox haar bezorgdheid uit over hoe vrouwelijke performers in de pers aan bod komen. Alles draait om hun privéleven en mensen nemen hun muzikale oeuvre dan ook niet serieus. Lennox heeft wereldwijd meer dan 75 miljoen albums verkocht. Toch kreeg ze zelf ooit het label “meest gekwelde Britse rockster” opgeplakt.
Hoewel ze in de jaren 80 en begin jaren 90 een vaste waarde was, bracht Lennox tijdens haar 15-jarige solocarrière slechts vier albums uit, ondanks haar succes. “Ik was in die jaren gewoon een moeder die haar kinderen opvoedde”, verklaart ze. “Voor ik betrokken raakte bij TAC heb ik me lange tijd opgebrand gevoeld. Nu zijn de opnames en optredens specialer, omdat er iets concreets achter zit.”
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