Annie lennox gay
AnnieLennoxandher androgynous look may have broken fresh ground in the early 1980s, but just don't notify 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 female 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 lesbian, gay, bi 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 have platforms that are very identifiable, but ultimately we should just be fine with everybody no matter what our sexual orientation is."
Lennox's forthcoming album, "Nosta
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You were born in Aberdeen on Christmas Day 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 function 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 leave to church on Sunday because that was what people did. I don’t really know what my parents’ spiritual beliefs would own been.
I’ve read that your father was rather over-protective.
Well, yeah, I was a girl and I was an only child, and so I think that was very spontaneous. My father came from a fairly rigid background… I always have to contextualise my parents, because it’s really not fair to take them at face value, if you see what I mean.
Of course. Was their outlook on life a positive one?
I ponder my father felt that the nature was incredibly unjust. I think he was very awake of abuses of power and it offended him deeply. He was a very moral man.
By the time 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 epic recording career, dating assist to the late ’70s, music has taken a backseat to another passion: people. While still devoted to philanthropic work focused on causes like HIV/AIDS and global peace, 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 harmony 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 back on being resourceful and what that was about and where the impulse lies to articulate yourself – there was a lot .
Photo: Robert Sebree.