ANNIE Lennox’s official website reels off the impressive statistics: more than 80 million record sales to date (and “countless awards”); Eurythmics, the duo she formed with Dave Stewart, sold over 75 million albums, and achieved over 20 international hits across the world; her 1990 debut album, Diva, sold around six million copies, including 2.5 million in the USA.
In November 1986 the Eurythmics played two nights in front of 10,000-capacity audiences at Glasgow’s SECC (far right), and Lennox was in show-stopping form. The Glasgow Herald’s pop critic, David Belcher, feared that the group had passed its artistic peak. But, as he acknowledged, “it transpired that one was not wholly right”.
He noted that Dave Stewart “noodled aimlessly through a couple of long, dull solos” and that familiar songs “got mucked about with... But then a cheering thing happened, and all was saved. As Annie Lennox’s imposing vocal presence rose progressively above a muddied sound barrier, the temperature increased and the sun came out.
“It is difficult to analyse (and harder actually to perform), but somehow, in the grand old tradition of the showbiz trouper, Annie Lennox created a personal bond with every member of the audience.
“Possessed of a quite un-Aberdonian warmth, energy
and transparent generosity of spirit (and make that ‘utterly un-Aberdonian’), Annie relentlessly worked the stage, charming and coaxing the crowd into an ecstatic response”.
Nineteen years later, Lennox won over a vast crowd at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield (above) when, introduced by George Clooney, she was one of the main acts at Live 8: The Final Push. It was one of a series of high-profile concerts, calling for complete debt cancellation, and more aid and trade justice, for the world’s poorest people. Among the many other acts taking part that night were Wet Wet Wet and James Brown.
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