Annie lennox gay
Vocal Hero
You were born in Aberdeen on Christmas Morning 1954. What were your parents like?
They had been teenagers during the war, when Aberdeen was bombed. My father worked in the shipyards for years – he followed my grandfather into an apprenticeship – and then he went off to operate on the railway.
Did they have any religious belief?
No, on my father’s side none whatsoever. But going to the countryside, to the village where my mother’s parents lived, we would go to church on Sunday because that was what people did. I don’t really realize what my parents’ spiritual beliefs would have been.
I’ve read that your father was rather over-protective.
Well, yeah, I was a miss and I was an only child, and so I think that was very natural. My father came from a fairly rigid background… I always have to contextualise my parents, because it’s really not fair to accept them at face value, if you see what I mean.
Of course. Was their outlook on being a positive one?
I assume my father felt that the world was incredibly unjust. I think he was very conscious of abuses of power and it offended him deeply. He was a very moral man.
By the day you came down to London, to the Royal Ac Annie Lennox’s new album, Nostalgia was out Oct. 21. Icon on her legacy, the ‘nostalgia’ of youth and why Beyoncé is ‘feminist lite’ By: Chris Azzopardi*/Special to TRT— They don’t make hearts bigger than the one beating inside of Annie Lennox. Despite the icon’s legendary recording career, dating assist to the delayed ’70s, music has taken a backseat to another passion: people. While still dedicated to philanthropic work focused on causes like HIV/AIDS and global calm, the singer-songwriter returns with her first disc in four years, a covers album called Nostalgia. On the heels of its release, Lennox called from London for a frank conversation about loathing her “gender bender” label, the reframing of feminism (Beyoncé is “feminist lite,” she says) and being uneasy with the superficiality of the music business. Chris Azzopardi: During a recent Q&A in London, you mentioned that you stopped writing because, and I quote you, “I’m too happy.” Annie Lenox: I said a lot of things that night! To be honest, looking help on being artistic and what that was about and where the impulse lies to communicate yourself – there was a lot AnnieLennoxandher androgynous look may have broken fresh ground in the prior 1980s, but just don't dial the iconic singer-songwriter a "gender bender." "I really felt it was diminishing in a way," Lennox, 59, tells Pride Source's Chris Azzopardi. "I wasn't bending gender; I was making a statement in a kind of subtle way ... I was saying, 'Look, as a gal I can be equal to a man,' and in this partnership with the Eurythmics, where I was in a partnership with a man [Dave Stewart], the two of us felt so connected that my gender didn't matter." Of course, Lennox's reputation extends beyond music and into the realm of philanthropy. She's certainly been an outspoken womxn loving womxn, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocate as well as an outspoken HIV/AIDS activist. "One day we'll get rid of this word 'gay,' because it's irrelevant," she notes. "Of course it's terribly relevant when you are trying to create a campaign. During a human rights movement, it's terribly important to have labels and to own platforms that are very recognizable, but ultimately we should just be fine with everybody no matter what our sexual orientation is." Lennox's forthcoming album, "Nosta .
Photo: Robert Sebree.