FESTIVE ALBUM
The Eurythmics singer tells of her memories of growing up and why old songs have the power to connect us
CHRISTMAS is always a special time for Annie Lennox. It’s her birthday for starters and like many she uses it as a time to pause and reflereflect on the year gone by.
BBut the Scottish singing icon, whwho turns 66 on December 25, recreckons this year will be “hugely refreflective” because of Covid-19.
She said: “This year has been a paparticularly difficult time for mmillions around the world.
“Christmas 2020 will be a hugely rreflective time for everyone. Many pepeople will have lost friends, relativeslti and loved ones. Tragedy has happened this year, real tragedy.”
Before Covid changed the world, Island Records told Annie they wanted to rerelease A Christmas Cornucopia to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Her fifth solo album included classic carols such as Silent Night, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and In the Bleak Midwinter as well as an original song, Universal Child.
It includes a new recording, Dido’s Lament, which Annie describes as a “lament for our dying planet”.
The mum of two isn’t looking for double presents this year.
She said: “I was born on Christmas Day, so my birthday and Christmas are blended together. As a child I used to wait all year for my birthday, so I’d have birthday presents and Christmas presents at the same time.
“That’s all I’ve ever known, so funny when you think about it. People said to me, ‘What a shame because you don’t get to have two separate celebrations.’ But it’s all I know, just Christmas and birthday all wrapped up together.
“So this year I’ll be celebrating my 66th birthday and Christmas, and I don’t really need to receive any presents. I actually quite like givgiving presents more than receiving them.”them
Annie was born in Aberdeen and won a place at the Royal Academy of Music in London in the 70s70s.
Her first taste of ssuccess was in The Tourists with DavDave Stewart. They teamed up in EurythmicsEury to become one of the most sucsuccessful acts of the 80s with hits such as Sweet Dreams and Love Is a Stranger.
Annie began singsinging in church. She said: “I’ve been singinsinging these hymns and carols since I was reallyrea young. I learned them all mostly by oosmosis.
“Despite the fact I’m not Christian, these carols are in mmy DNA, as part of the jukebox I carry inside my head.
“I never would haveh imagined as a seven-year-old girlg singing these carols, that later iin my life I’d have a chance to record themth in my own way.”
Annie fondly remembersrem the church service at ChristmChristmas.
She said: “InstantInstantly in my mind, I can see the interior of the local church.
“My school was nearby and we all walked twoby-by-two up the street to ththe church. It was ththe most exciting experieexperience because the whole schoolsch was there. “I have beautifulbeau impressions of singing carols in church,chur with a beautiful
big tree and the colours of the lights and the decorations.”
Christmas is all about celebration for Annie but in a secular way. And she thinks carols can connect us.
She said: “This year has just been really hard for a lot of people, whether you’re Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu. Everyone in the world feels the need for connectivity.
“These ancient, traditional hymns and carols speak of unity, peace on Earth and goodwill to all men, and this is something I believe is the universal message in this music.”
Speaking from the California home which she shares with third husband Dr Mitchell Besser, the Aberdonian gets misty-eyed at the memories Christmas evokes.
She said: “Aberdeen was a very dark place in winter time. It’s very northern and it’s freezing cold. Deep snow used to come every winter.
“I have memories of walking to school in deep snow and looking at Christmas trees in people’s windows, with the colours of the fairy lights.
“Living in a town that was so dark and cold and seeing the glow of colour like that at the end of the year was quite magical.”
The tree is all important.
Annie said: “I lived with my parents in a two-roomed tenement flat. We had a proper tree, and it meant so much to me.
“All the way through my life there’s always been a Christmas tree. Every year in some different surrounding, whether it was a bedsit or a single room or a shared room when I was a student.
“I lived in so many different places. And reflecting back, I’m thinking, ‘How did I have a Christmas tree when I was sort of impoverished?’
“But it always meant such a lot to me. So, I would have a tiny tree, even if I didn’t have much space.”
Annie has always used her voice as an activist, whether it’s raising awareness for HIV and Aids in Africa or supporting Amnesty International and Greenpeace.
When she and Mike Stevens,