Biography
Annie Lennox is 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 Dave Stewart went on to achieve international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. Similarly, appearing in the 1983 music video for “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” with orange cropped hair and wearing a man’s business suit, the BBC states, “all eyes were on Annie Lennox, the singer whose powerful androgynous look defied the male gaze”. Subsequent hits with Eurythmics include “There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)” and “Here Comes the Rain Again”.
Early life
Annie Lennox was born on Christmas Day 1954 in Summerfield Maternity Hospital, Aberdeen, the daughter of Dorothy Farquharson (née Ferguson; born 1930) and Thomas Allison Lennox (since 1925–1986).
In the 1970s, Lennox won a place at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied the flute, piano and harpsichord for three years. She lived on a student grant and worked at part-time jobs for extra money. Between 1977 and 1980, she was the lead singer of The Tourists. Similarly, a British pop band and her first collaboration with Dave Stewart. Lennox and Stewart reconvened Eurythmics in the late 1990s with the album Peace, their first album of new material in ten years.
Charity and political activism
Lennox appeared on stage at the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert and commenced activist work with the Sing Foundation afterwards. Since in 1990, Lennox recorded a version of Cole Porter’s “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” for the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue, a benefit for AIDS awareness. A video was also produced. Moreover, Lennox has been a public supporter of Amnesty International. Likewise, Greenpeace for many years, and she and Dave Stewart donated all of the profits from Eurythmics’ 1999 Peacetour to both charities. Concerned by Tibet freedom, she supported Amnesty International campaigns for the release of Tibetan prisoners Palden Gyatso and Ngawang Choephel.
Personal life
Her first marriage, from 1984 to 1985, was to German Hare Krishna devotee Radha Raman. Since 1988 to 2000, she was married to Israeli film and record producer Uri Fruchtmann. The couple have two daughters, Lola and Tali. A son, Daniel, was stillborn in 1988. Moreover, on 15 September 2012, Lennox married Mitch Besser in London in a private ceremony.
Since September 2012, Lennox featured in Series 9 of the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?, in which she discovered that her great-great-grandmother Jessie Fraser worked at the Broadford Flax Mill in Aberdeen. Her maternal grandmother, Dora Paton, was a dairy maid at the Balmoral Royal Estate and her maternal grandfather, William Ferguson, was a gamekeeper also at Balmoral. Both of Lennox’s parents died of cancer. Further, Lennox is an agnostic and a feminist.
Overview
- Birth name: Ann Lennox
- Date of Birth: 25 December 1954
- Age: 64
- Origin: Aberdeen, Scotland
- Genres: Pop, pop rock, rocksoulblue-eyed soulnew waveR&Bsynth-popelectronicaadult contemporaryjazz
- Occupation(s): Singer, Chancellor for GCU, songwriter, activist, humanitarian ambassador
- Instruments: Vocals, piano
- Years active: 1976–present
- Labels: RCAArista (since 1981–2009), Island, Decca (2010–)
- Associated acts: The Catch, The Tourists, Eurythmics
- Spouse: Mitchell Besser (since m 2012), Uri Fruchtmann (m. 1988–2000), Radha Raman (m. 1984–1985)
- Net Worth: $60 million
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