After
a post about George Clooney I am going to write one about Annie Lennox and a
recently appeared singer. I like making comments on how famous starts deal with
human rights issues -- you already know that I deeply care. So... who is Emeli
Sandé? A simple pop singer or a
rebellious celebrity? She has jumped onto the path which Jessie J or Ellie
Goulding also follow... but, sometimes I just like forgetting all the hype,
awards (Brits Critics Choice award), let the music speak and let them speak.
We celebrated the
international women's day exactly two weeks ago. London - not surprisingly - beats Budapest
in the celebration, except for our lovely cookie action! :) If you don't
remember, you can read back my post (link here).
Now, let's see what
happened in the UK: party party party -- but how? Annie Lennox
was joined by Emeli Sande (and some others
including Katy B and Jess Mills) for a night of live music to promote the fight for equality. Annie Lennox is
the founder of Equals, a coalition of over 30 organizations unified by a common
cause – to promote gender equality. Love this project.
I have just
read the interview held by Time Out (link here) and they started the article by
demonstrating they overheard Lennox and Sandé discussing empowerment, sexism in
the music industry and reclaiming the word ‘feminist’. I
copied out the interview from the above linked article because it is just
fascinating, love it!
Emeli Sandé: ‘Have
women’s issues and gender equality always been important to you?’
Annie Lennox:
‘Women’s issues have always been a part of my life. My goal is to bring the
word “feminism” back into the zeitgeist and reframe it. I would love to see
young men and women embracing this word, and saying we want to see the
empowerment of women.’
Emeli Sandé: ‘My
dad is from Zambia and he always made me and my sister feel very capable, and
that you should be able to do anything regardless of where you come from or
what sex you are. But I did study medicine, and there was a distinct view that
women should be GPs and guys should become surgeons, because women are going to
have a family to look after. In the music industry I’ve found there’s rarely a
woman who has her own music studio, or a room of her own. I’m a big fan of
Virginia Woolf’s essays about how important it is to have a real space of your
own. I’d like to see more women behind the scenes in publishing and
management.’
Annie Lennox: ‘My
issue with the state of women became incredibly stimulated when I was visiting
developing countries and it became obvious that women bore the brunt of so many
things in society. They haven’t got anywhere near the first rung of the ladder
in terms of their own legislative empowerment or personal protection. You were
studying to become a doctor and that would’ve been unheard of only a century
ago. I want to see women having those opportunities globally.’
Emeli Sandé:
‘Creating some kind of identification between women in the west and in
developing countries is important so we can see the similarities between us. On
another note, nowadays there’s so much overt sexuality in music, especially
regarding women. Do you feel like that’s progress, that they’re liberated or do
you think it’s a step backwards?’
Annie Lennox:
‘When I see something innovative that doesn’t rely on a sexual cliché, it’s so
refreshing. I’m not against sexuality and sensuality being expressed; Beyoncé
is a really sexy, sexual woman, but she does it with such good grace.’
Emeli Sandé: ‘When
people say, “We’re being brave by doing this” or, “We’re being ourselves”, the
majority of the people being inspired by these artists are young girls. Young children
buying the music are seeing that that’s how they’re successful. Also, I do feel
it’s a shame that women seem to be in competition with each other. We don’t
think that we’re more powerful together and if we just support one another,
then we’ll have leverage.’
Annie Lennox: ‘I
loved meeting the girls [last year]. What I got from them was their vivacity,
enthusiasm and awareness of gender issues. And that feeling of being together
under the same umbrella for an evening. No, we’re not competing with each
other, we can benefit from having this camaraderie.’
Emeli Sandé: ‘I
was quite surprised to see that Britain is only 16th in the list of gender
equality. Why do you think we’re so low down?’
Annie Lennox: ‘I
think people in Great Britain are a bit jaded sometimes. Women should be more
engaged with the issue of gender and equality. It seems like it’s gone on to
the back burner – we’ve come this far but there’s nothing left to do – but when
you see some of these facts and numbers, you’re shocked. There’s so much more
to be done. That’s why I think women’s magazines have got fantastic potential
to influence young women’s minds in a healthy way and that really should be on
the agenda.’
Emeli Sandé:
‘Which feminists from the past have inspired you?’
Annie Lennox: ‘The
person who inspired me the most was a friend of mine, Anita Roddick. I know
that Anita wasn’t known to be an ardent feminist but she truly was. She was all
about women having power and supporting women. She was a businesswoman who was
hugely successful and incredibly inspirational and vibrant and can-do – yes I
can. Yes we can. And I loved that about her.’
Time Out: ‘Recently there’s been some
discussion about how there’s a lack of protest music in popular culture these
days. Is it important for you to write lyrics that go beyond pure escapism and
address more pertinent issues?’
Annie Lennox:
‘When I look at the majority of my own songs they really came from my own sense
of personal confusion or need to express some pain or beauty – they were coming
from a universal and personal place. I would have loved to have been a more
politically based writer but I didn’t feel I had that skill set. ‘Sisters Are
Doin’ It For Themselves’ [by the Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin] is a very
anthemic song and it’s self explanatory, but that’s a rarer song for me to
write. There are some incredible songs like ‘Biko’ by Peter Gabriel which
became the essence of what apartheid had brought and it was a personal story.
Or when Sting wrote ‘They Dance Alone’ about the women who had lost their sons
in Chile. When I heard those songs I felt very inspired, but those songs are
few and far between. They’re so great that they’re challenging to write.’
Emeli Sandé: ‘Do
you feel that music can open people’s eye across the world? We get caught up in
our own bubble with what’s happening in the west and we don’t feel that
connection with people around the world. Even though the world feels like it’s
getting smaller it feels like we’re still very separate.’
Annie Lennox: ‘I
think music is the most phenomenal platform for intellectual thought. It’s a
language of it’s own. We can all speak in different languages and have
different cultures but we hear music and it connects us together which is such
gift for human kind.’
