New Wave · Synth-Pop · Art Pop
Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart — two people, one vision, and a decade of reinvention.
The biography
Eurythmics were Annie Lennox — born December 25, 1954, in Aberdeen, Scotland — and Dave Stewart, born September 9, 1952, in Sunderland, England. The two met in London in 1975 and first played together in The Tourists, a new-wave band that released three albums before splitting in 1980. Out of the wreckage, Lennox and Stewart decided to continue as a duo, with Stewart handling instruments and production and Lennox singing.
The beginning was not promising. Their debut album, In the Garden (1981), flopped, and the duo retreated to a cramped attic studio above a London picture-framing shop to record its follow-up on an 8-track machine. The result was Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983). Built around a pulsing sequenced synthesizer riff, the title track reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in the US — and Lennox’s androgynous image in the video, all orange crew cut and business suit, made her an MTV icon overnight.
The hits kept coming. Touch (1983) produced “Who’s That Girl?” (No. 3 UK) and “Here Comes the Rain Again” (No. 4 US). For Be Yourself Tonight (1985) the duo pivoted to guitar-driven rock-soul, scoring another American Top 5 with “Would I Lie to You?”, and Revenge (1986) gave them the UK Top 5 “Thorn in My Side.” Later albums Savage (1987) and We Too Are One (1989) closed out a remarkable decade.
Eurythmics reportedly sold more than 75 million records, won Brit Awards and a Grammy, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. They remain the defining British synth-pop duo: proof that two people with a clear vision could out-imagine entire orchestras.