Annie Lennox: ‘I don’t know if I should celebrate turning 70 because there’s so much more to do’
EXCLUSIVE The staunch supporter of women’s rights says ‘need for global feminism’ has never been greater as she prepares to shine a light on the issues many females face with her first show in the UK since 2019
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Annie Lennox isn’t sold on celebrating turning 70 as her mind is full of more pressing matters – namely, changing the world for the better.
The Scottish singer-songwriter and activist, who swapped the UK for Los Angeles, is a staunch feminist and vocal supporter of women’s rights, who practices what she preaches.
She’s set to headline SISTERS: Annie Lennox and Friends at London’s Royal Albert Hall on 6 March 2025, which will mark her first UK show since 2019.
The special event is in support of non-profit organisation The Circle, raising funds to help women and girls facing violence and injustice accross the world.
Lennox founded The Circle in 2008 and since then, it has supported over 1.4m people directly on women’s rights and empowered more than 700,000 women and girls facing violence, discrimination and fear.
Sharing her trepidation around her milestone birthday, the Sweet Dreams hit-maker told The Standard: “I’m going to turn 70, I’ve been on the planet quite a while. I don’t know if I should celebrate it!
“Nowadays days, you wake up and things are changing all the time and the word ‘tumultuous’ is a really good one and unfortunately it does describe in so many instances that [womens] rights are being reversed, that rules are being changed and that women do not have the autonomy over their bodies.”
The former Eurythmics star continued: “I am really, really deeply concerned as I always have been about women and girls. It just seems to so quickly evaporate from the front pages of newspapers and media and we need this to be in the sight, we need this conversation everywhere to understand why there is a need for global feminism, not as opposed to anything but as an extension of western feminism that seems to sometimes have gone a little bit quiet since hashtag Me Too.”
While Lennox believes MeToo did help and “brought into focus very sharply the kinds of challenges that every day women face everywhere around the globe – whether you live in Luton or you live in Afghanistan,” there is still much more work to be done.
