Annie Lennox, born in 1954 in Aberdeen, was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the New Year’s Honours List. Lennox has had a sterling singing career spanning several decades, but the honour was not given for her singing career – it was for her charity work in relation to AIDS. In June 2010 she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the UN AIDS programme - her remit to focus on the impact of AIDS on women and children.

She recently released the album “A Christmas Cornucopia” – an album of Christmas carols she has known and been singing since childhood. Carols range from well known classics such as Silent Night to the French song Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant. The album offers a lively and haunting tribute to Christmas from a woman who was born on Christmas Day.

Annie Lennox has had success as both a group and solo singer. She is probably best known for her work with Dave Stewart in Eurythmics. I often find myself singing along if I hear a Eurythmics song – the tunes are memorable, Lennox’s voice is powerful and the words are easy to follow. Sweet Dreams (are made of this), title of both a song and an album, contains words that have stayed with me since I first heard them - “I travel the world and the seven seas; everybody’s looking for something...”.

Lennox’s SING campaign (the fund is managed by Comic Relief) promotes awareness of AIDS through publicity, lobbying, campaigning and performance. To date the campaign has raised over one million pounds. She became involved in the issue in 2003 when she heard Nelson Mandela talk about AIDS, describing the disease in Africa as a genocide. You may have heard the song “Sing”, recorded to promote the campaign. At the start of the video Nelson Mandela says “you can help break the silence... talk about HIV and AIDS...let us use the universal language of music to sing out our message.”

Visit Annie Lennox's website for more information - the site is interesting and innovative and I enjoyed exploring it whilst researching this article.

If you'd like to test your knowledge of Annie Lennox have a go at this Annie Lennox quiz.



I have provided links below to an album of Annie Lennox's old music with Eurythmics and her more recent music A Christmas Cornucopia.