th 20
Anniversary
Summary
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2
Let’s celebrate! A message to fans / Celebremos: un mensaje a los fans
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3
DIVA Reviews
DIVA: A interview
DIVA: The album: Song by song
Why Precious
Cold
Walking on broken glass Legend in my living room
Money can’t buy it
Little Bird
Primitive
The gift
Stay by me
Keep young and beautiful
The Bonus songs: Step by step * Love song for a vampire ** Don’t let me down ***
5 DIVA: The Video Album
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Photo gallery
6 DIVA: discography collage
9 Ppromos and others stuffs
7 Awards
10 Credits
Let's celebrate! A message to fans
T
his year the incredible masterpiece of Annie Lennox: DIVA, celebrates 20 years of its launch, this is a tribute from a fan, to celebrate with other fans, the first facet of Annie as a solo artist.
In this book you will find a beautiful journey through photos and lyrics of his songs that have been with us throughout the years, as well as, their iconic video clips, with the particular and wonderful art, that has made a strong mark in our hearts, with no doubt now occupy a special place. Accompanying this book there‘s a interview, commentaries and even some of the DIVA awards garnered over two centuries. I hope you will enjoy it, touch your soul, and remember what DIVA meant and the importance of this album that is already a classic. Enjoy it and let my warm greetings to all those fans who walk around the world and not forget our big DIVA. Greetings and cheers, let’s celebrate! Myler Edson Moss Córdoba, Argentina 1992 - 2012
Celebremos: un mensaje a los fans
E
ste año la increíble obra maestra de Annie Lennox: DIVA, cumple 20 años de su lanzamiento, este es un homenaje - tributo de un fan, para celebrar junto a otros fans, la primera faceta de Annie como artista solista.
En este libro encontraras un hermoso recorrido de DIVA a través de fotos y letras de sus canciones que nos han acompañado a lo largo de estos años, así como también, sus icónicos videos clips, con ese maravilloso arte muy particular, hacen de DIVA una marca fuerte, que sin lugar a dudas, hoy ocupan un lugar muy especial dentro de nuestros corazones. Acompaña a este libro de colección una entrevista, comentarios y hasta algunos de los premios que DIVA cosechó a lo largo de estos dos siglos. Espero que les sea de su agrado, les toque el alma, y puedan recordar lo que DIVA significó y la importancia de este álbum que ya es un clásico. Disfrútenlo y dejo mi más sincero saludos a todos aquellos fans que andan alrededor del mundo que no se olvidan de nuestra gran DIVA. Saludos y a celebrar! Myler Edson Moss Córdoba, Argentina 1992 – 2012
is the first solo album by Scottish singer/songwriter Annie Lennox, released on 6 April in 1992. The album entered the UK album chart at no.1 and has since sold over 1.2 million copies in the UK alone, being certified quadruple platinum. It was also a success in the U.S. where it was a top 30 hit and has been certified double platinum.
REVIEWS State-of-the-art soul pop, Annie Lennox's solo debut is sonically gorgeous; it also declares her aesthetic independence. Ace sessionmen polish Diva's gloss, and producer Stephen Lipson (Pet Shop Boys, Propaganda) operates in hyperdrive, but these eleven songs are fiercely those of a sister doing things for herself. Three years after her last outing with Dave Stewart, her cohort in Eurythmics, Lennox voids any notion that he was her Svengali and she merely the MTV beauty with stunning pipes. Writing nearly all of Diva, she manages a whirlwind tour of mainstream R&B and retains her singular persona – an ice queen thirsting to be melted by love. With Annie as a singing Helmut Newton fantasy and Dave as composerproducer-player, Eurythmics hit in 1983 with "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," a Kraftwerk-derived study of erotic politics, but soon forged a broader sound. By the end of the Eighties, Stewart was lending postmodern hip to such old wavers as Dylan and Jagger, and Lennox had sung with Al Green and Aretha. Diva's confessional lyrics should dismiss charges of remoteness against Lennox, and the album's sure, smooth funk confirms that among blueeyed soulsters, she ranks high. Lennox keeps her melodies spare – the four-note motif of the album's intro, "Why," is representative. Instead, nuance and synthesizing disparate styles constitute her true skills. Sad lyrics meet upbeat tunes ("Walking on Broken Glass"); quirky instrumentation creates musical tension (Seventies staples like clavinet and wah-wah guitar juxtaposed with mandolins and strings or their techno equivalents); black-derived forms – pop gospel, pop jazz, Afro-pop – are refreshed by means of unlikely embellishments (Beach Boys-like backups on "Stay by Me," Moorish strings on "Primitive"). Lennox's gift is for pastiche; there's nothing rootsy about Diva. This may daunt detractors who thought Eurythmics too studied to be real. But her words – self-revealing ("This is the book I never read/These are the words I never said"), mock-poetically ironic ("But I've shed my tears in bitter drops until the thorn trees bloomed/To take the spiky fruit to crown myself the Queen of doom") or self-mocking ("Pay attention to me/'Cause I'm a rich white girl and it's plain to see") – move beyond the flashy sound bites of her former band. Lennox remains a compulsively dramatic performer, but she's now parting the veil for the sake of candor. And while its songs make Diva her most mature music yet, it's her singing, characteristically striking and impeccable, that makes the message r e s o u n d .
(RS 633)
Andrew Ritchie After a two year hiatus and the birth of her first daughter, Lola, Annie Lennox returned to the music scene with a stunning solo album that would reinvent the prolific musician yet again. Diva is a refreshing change from the up-tempo rock that Eurythmics consistently offered. With lush, sumptuous ballads and a voice that is both restrained and teeming with emotion, Lennox emerges wiser and stronger, painting dark and uplifting portraits of love and pain. The album was produced by Stephen Lipson (Simple Minds, Trevor Horn) and instantly made waves on the charts. Diva debuted at the number one spot in Britain and was eagerly received throughout Europe and America.
The first single from the album, Why, is a self-described 'diatribe' about the misunderstandings and miscommunications human beings so often become entangled in. With her husky voice, Lennox illustrates the true pain of feeling alone: "Why can't you see, this boat is sinking?" The album moves stridently into the second single, Walking on Broken Glass an upbeat tune that flirts with the dainty strings and harpsichordarrangements of Victorian chamber music but with a fresh, modern twist. Annie rages against the pain of being abandoned by her lover, desperate to be uplifted and saved by love yet again. Precious is an outright celebration of motherhood that finds a deep, soulful groove while Legend In My Living Room is a bluesy, austere ament about the perils of fame and fortune.
REVIEWS
lament about the perils of fame and fortune. The album reaches its first emotional high with Cold - a brilliant song that passionately describes the emptiness of unrequited love: "But the more I want you, the less I get…Ain't that just the way things are?" The song, with its distilled and icy arrangements, belies and compliments Annie's rich, soulful voice that is sizzling with heat. Money Can't Buy It is a self-explanatory song about the misleading trappings of success that achieves some memorable vocal and instrumental moments, including Lennox's 'rich-girl' rap while Little Bird is a thumping return to her early Eurythmics roots, with a gospel take on the pain that comes with change and emotional flight.
REVIEWS
Primitive - a song about emotional and literal endings - employs rich Eastern and Middle Eastern sounds to achieve its melancholic aim, and Stay By Me is an unapologetic celebration of romantic love with lush instrumentation that undulates beneath Lennox's soft vocal turns. Diva ends twice; its emotional close is a collaborative effort with The Blue Nile called The Gift, perhaps the most profoundly emotional song on the album. The song is a farewell, an acceptance of things past and a yearning to move forward. Lennox clearly feels every single nuance of the song as she sings straight from the heart, rendering some tear-jerking moments.
The album finishes with what Lennox has described as "the liqueur at the end of a tencourse meal." A cover of a 1930s nugget called Keep Young and Beautiful makes the last track, complete with faux groove scratches and 30s orchestral arrangements. The song is a wry and ironic take on the demands placed upon women to be perfectly beautiful and young-looking at any cost and a comment on how little has changed over a 60-year period. Accompanying the album is a stunning catalogue of videos directed by long-time associate and friend Sophie Muller. Using high Regency motifs and ornate European settings, Muller and Lennox achieve a lush palette of elegance, femininity and drama for 10 of the 11 tracks on Diva, excluding Stay By Me. Lennox is striking in her Diva garb, complete with a feather headdress and 8-inch heels, captivating the viewer with her stunning grace and theatrical ability on camera.
Annie Lennox and her first solo album were nominated for numerous awards and won many, including Best British Album and Best British Female at the Brit Awards in 1993. It was nominated for several Grammy Awards as well, and won for Best Video Long Form for Why. With astounding lyrics and a timeless production value, Diva remains a worldclass pop album that firmly places Lennox among the greatest singer/songwriters of her generation. Notable songs: Why, Walking on Broken Glass, Legend In My Living Room, Cold, Little Bird, Stay By Me, The Gift Andrew Ritchie
REVIEWS
The Times (UK newspaper) Saturday, April 11th, '92. Edited . In 1985, Annie Lennox declared (in tandem with Aretha Franklin): "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves'. The song was a forthright espousal of female solidarity which chimed perfectly with the independent mood of those times, even if it was written and performed with the help of her Eurythmics partner Dave Stewart. Now, at last, Lennox really is doing things for herself. Of the 11 songs on her first solo album, Diva (RCA PD 75326), released this week, she wrote eight herself. Two others were collaborations (with The Blue Nile and Peter-John Vittese) while the final cut is a reprise of the post-war League of Health and Beauty theme song, "Keep Young and Beautiful", a lyric loaded with the innocent barbs of an era when the very concept of "sexism" was yet to be evolved: "It's your duty to be beautiful/If you want to be loved.�
However, Lennox has not taken advantage of her new-found freedom to extend herself musically; quite the reverse. With its airless synth-pop arrangements and studio-bound feel, Diva sounds disappointingly like an early Eurythmics album, but without the crisp, melodic spring in its step. There are one or two nice tunes, notably the hit single "Why', and Lennox sings with her usual imperious authority. But too much of the album is anodyne and predictable and there is a wearying abundance of cliches about precious little angels, little birds flying away, and pavements paved with gold. Historically, Lennox's most conspicuous contribution to rock's sisterhood has been in setting the new gender agenda.
REVIEWS
Capitalising on her regal bearing and severe features to produce that famously androgynous image a sort of David Bowie in reverse Lennox undoubtedly paved the way for a succeeding generation of handsome women, among them Tanita Tikaram, Michelle Shocked and kdlang. By David Sinclair (?) .
Source: http://www.annie-lennox.com/times.htm