Annie Lennox: The Eurythmics star's first big gig in years was pure joy
Sweet dreams really are made of this. One of British music's greatest stars took to the stage for the first time in years and knocked it right out of the park. Sporting short white hair, bright red lipstick and a sparkling tuxedo, the Eurythmics ' Annie Lennox swaggered through a magnificent hit-packed set at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of her global feminist charity The Circle, which she founded in 2008. Backed by an eight-piece band, the 70-year-old Scotswoman looked and sounded like she was having the time of her life, still hitting the high notes and throwing pop shapes as if she does it all day every day rather than once every decade or so.
I last saw Lennox seven years ago in a similar charity event, and my only complaint then was that she was too good to let such talent go fallow. Lennox is a monumental artist, with a sky-scraping voice, an inspiring presence, and a hit song catalogue that stand up to any great artist of our times. Yet Lennox has only toured twice since 1990, her last outing being with Eurythmics in 2003. Her career has devolved to popping up in odd places to sing a couple of songs for charity. And here she was again, though this time she played for over an hour, and stormed around the stage like she knew it was where she really belonged.
'You can sing along if you want,' she invited the audience in the opening bars of There Must Be An Angel, then added, 'it's a bit high' to let them off the hook. 'Ba da dee dee da da dah,' Lennox trilled, fluid notes fluttering beneath the domed roof as if they belonged up there in the gods. She performed Here Comes the Rain Again solo at the piano, recast as a sorrowful ballad, every exposed note wrung out with emotion. And she vamped soulfully through Screaming Jay Hawkin's blues ballad I Put A Spell On You, comically wiping sweat off her brow as she flirted with Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, who is 36 years her junior and looked awestruck to be sharing a microphone.
'Is anybody here as old as me?' she asked the 5,000-strong crowd who had turned up for the International Women's Day event. 'Stand up if you're over 70 and you can still stand!' Lennox made a lot of jokey complaints about the aches and pains of old age but ended her set rolling around on the floor in the showboating style of James Brown during a Paloma Faith duet on Sisters Are Doin' it For Themselves, before bouncing back for a room-shaking version of synth anthem Sweet Dreams. The whole cast of the evening was onstage for the finale, including powerhouse singer-songwriters Beverly Knight, Celeste and Nadine Shah, all watching Lennox in incredulous delight.
I would venture that age and perhaps lack of use have knocked a little bit off Lennox's incredible vocal prowess, with a slight thinning in the falsetto range and a few shaky notes amidst all that audacious swooping and soaring. But if you can pull this kind of performance together out of nowhere, imagine what heights it might reach a few weeks down the road. The great veteran rock frontman Roger Daltrey always says you've got to use it or lose it. Come on Annie, get your guns out for one last blazing showdown.
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