Sisters: Annie Lennox And Friends
Royal Albert Hall, March 6, 2025
Tonight the Royal Albert Hall is packed out with Annie Lennox fans, who sit patient and politely appreciative of the featured guests at this fundraising event for The Circle, the global feminist charity Lennox founded in 2008 to support women and girls facing gender based violence and economic inequality.
Organised to celebrate International Women’s Day, the event is hosted by former Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo and has an eclectic line-up that includes speakers, poets, Irish folk-hop artist Rioghnach Connolly, smoky neo-soul singer Celeste, and an electrifying Nadine Shah. The latter performs just two songs – Topless Mother (from her current album Filthy Underneath), and a cover of Nirvana’s All Apologies – but she delivers them with audacious, rigorous intent, mindful of tonight’s brief.
Each artist explains what feminism means to them. “I’m a Muslim woman and I know how difficult it is to do what I do in the world,“ she says.”If only everyone could just be a little bit more…Annie.” There is a complete change of pace when surprise guest Beverley Knight bounds onstage just before the break, the full-octane pop soul of Coulda Shoulda Woulda rousing the crowd, and perfectly paving the way for Lennox’s funky approach.
Lennox’s last full UK gig was 2019 in Glasgow, so there is a palpable sense of excitement. Now aged 70, she seldom plays live, focusing more on her activism and charity work, but tonight she combines both in an ambitious show, accompanied by a band that features keyboardist MD Mike Stevens, drummer Don Hepburn, Lee Pomeroy on funky bass, and three backing singers including her 32-year-old daughter Lola. The moment Lennox strides onstage with her top hat, black glittery jacket, and ‘GLOBAL FEMINIST’ T-shirt, the crowd erupts with an outpouring of love. This is what they’ve been waiting for.
Opening with the brooding vision of Dark Road (from 2007’s Songs Of Mass Destruction), Lennox then segues into the gliding melody of solo hits Little Bird, and Walkin’ On Broken Glass (from 1992’s Diva). It’s taking a while for her vocals – normally pristine, but here lacking a little power – to warm up. The crowd encourage her, singing along, delighted when she launches into Love Is A Stranger, Eurythmics’ early ‘80s paean to sexual confusion, which is accompanied by montage clips of a younger Annie from those MTV days, projected onto the video screen.
This carefully curated set is not about mining nostalgia, however. Halfway through No More “I Love You’s”, (the opener of 1995’s Medusa), Lennox breaks off and says in a childlike voice: “Mummy, the monsters are really crazy,” a nod – like every other artist on the bill tonight – to current chaotic world events, and the precarious environment for feminist work with women and girls, many of whom are refugees from areas of conflict like Rwanda and southern Sudan.
As antidote to that, it’s particularly moving when Lennox and her daughter hold hands and sing in a harmonic, celestial rush, There Must be An Lennox (Playing With My Heart). And with deliberate emphasis on key words, Annie reinterprets past songs to reflect political reality. From Why, for instance, she picks out the phrase: “This boat’s sinking”, singing it plain and spare three or four times.
The sense of spiritual fervour deepens when Lennox duets with second surprise guest Hozier, who genially towers over her as they sing Take Me To The Church. This seems to ignite something in her, and she booms out as loudly as him, suddenly finding that voice, the soulful, testifying voice that’s startling in its clarity. The rest of the set is like a Eurythmics’ revivalist meeting – driven by the R&B stomp of Missionary Man, and the jubilant anthem Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves, executed here with third mystery guest Paloma Faith taking on Aretha’s role, and Shah, Celeste and Rioghnach Connelly joining them for the chorus.
Most emphatic, though, is the encore, and the inevitable Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This). Turning the song into a glam rock stomp singalong, Lennox emphasises the words “Hold your head up! Keep your head up!”, ending the night on a note of optimism, of solidarity, and a call to action. Movin’ on indeed.
Lucy O’Brien
Annie Lennox setlist
Dark Road
Little Bird
Walking on Broken Glass
Love Is A Stranger (Eurythmics’ song)
No More “I Love You’s” (The Lover Speaks cover)
There Must be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)
(Eurythmics’ song, with Lola Lennox)
Here Comes The Rain Again (Eurythmics’ song)
Take Me To The Church
(Hozier cover, with Hozier)
I Put A Spell On You
(Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ cover, with Hozier)
Missionary Man (Eurythmics’ song)
Why
Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves
(Eurythmics’ song, with Paloma Faith)
Encore
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
(Eurythmics’ song)