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You may recall that the pop music realm of the early 80s was dominated by some interesting sexual personnae. Now close your eyes and think back...there's Madonna rolling around in her slutty wedding dress!...there's Boy George, bringing drag into the living rooms of middle America!...there's sexy manboy Prince in sausage-casing velvet pants...and there's...Michael Jackson....

And there's Annie Lennox. I've begun thinking of her as Madonna's darker cohort. While Madonna stared into the camera with her trademark mixture of contempt, come-hither and brute power, Annie was crossing her own power lines by cross dressing, dancing robotically, then getting nasty with her own anima.

She matches Madonna in her ability to transform herself, and her exquisitely androgynous beauty took her places that Madonna did not or could not go. She was a beautiful boy singing about sexcrimes. She was a a mechanized chanteuse singing her own corrupt gospel. She was, perhaps most amazingly, the famous court model statue of Nefertiti made flesh (a theme she would adopt later, and even more startlingly, in her video masterpice "Money Can't Buy It.)

After some less effective artistic turns, she closed the circle and went full on drag again in her first solo effort, Diva. Watching the opening video of her video collection, "Why," I just couldn't get past her melting beauty...but there was something else. Ah yes. After years spent playing a man, she's became the woman who played a man and returned to her feminity through drag. This is one of the most miraculous artist statements I've ever witnessed.

Over all these years Annie Lennox has constructed a sexual house of mirrors, ripe with transsexuality, a sumptuous, understated sadism and the most delicate kind of narcissism. No other pop culture figure taught me so much about sex. Not that she didn't make some mistakes along the way.

Anyone else a fan?
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I have always been a BIG Annie Lennox fan.
Lots of times I think Annie Lennox is the stepchild of Amanda Lear and Grace Jones (2 big 70s acts) - but then Annie developed into her own very unique androgenous act in the 90s - and I think it is totally cool and separate from her precursors.

Anyway, to me, Annie looks like Martina Navratilova, but sexier...

BTW, Annie's new CD "Bare" is totally awesome...
I think Annie is great and love her music! But did anyone see her at the oscars? She was like...nutty. My entire oscar party was laughing hysterically the entire night. You would think that someone who has been in the limelight for as long as she has would not be so excited and worked up over an awards show. But I guess at the same time it was kind of sweet...how she can still be so happy to be recognized after all these years.

**The Fabulous Miss Helen Jones**
Have you ever seen her in an interview - she does not like them and rarely grants them - but she is so obvously uncomfortable when she is not performing. Like so many genius performers she feels most comfortable with a microphone and a band behind her. Besides, I imagine that no matter how long you have been in the public eye doing the Oscars for the first time would make all but the most confident people a little,"nutty".
Welcome Daughter!!! Glad to have you with us Sharon. Wow Annie, Annie, Annie. I have to say I have enjoyed Annie as part of The Eurythmics, but it wasn't until DIVA that I re-examined her body of work and fell completely in love with her and her music. There is so much passion and restraint in her unique musical style. Her voice can be both fragile and ferocious. I really think she has such a fabuously wide range in her musical abilities. The song "Why" is by far one of my favorite songs ever. Glamamore turned me on to DIVA and made me perform "Why" at Limelight soon after the album came out. Many people hadn't heard the song yet. I had heard it some time earlier sung by Hattie Hathaway in a BlackLips production. The lyrics are stunning. One of my other favorite songs sung by Annie is "Sylvia". THe imagery in that song is so strong. "Dark stars tattooed across her face", what a lyrical way to describe something as awful as bruises. Annie is a genius in the true sense of the word. I think her role as a visionary in todays pop music industry will be celebrated for generations to come. Annie is flawless.

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