Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 38 on 11/04/2008.

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Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox has been a star for 30 years, the latest in a long line of fine Scottish singers. Dominic Roskrow reports

When Annie Lennox burst out of the punk rock scene with The Tourists there was little indication that she would join the elite group of fine singers from Scotland. But it’s well possible that had she not joined a rock band, she would have accomplished success in classical music.

But it was rock that called her, and after an initial burst of success she went on to form the internationally-acclaimed Eurythmics with former partner Dave Stewart, and she has since established herself as one of Scotland’s greatest ever musical stars.

She was born as Ann Lennox in Aberdeen on Christmas Day 1954, an only child. Her father, Thomas Allison Lennox was a boilermaker and her mother, previously Dorothy Farquharson, had been a cook before her marriage. Annie showed prodigious musical talent at school and at the age of 17, left her home town after gaining a coveted place in The Royal Academy of Music in London. Despite being considered a very able student, Annie never felt entirely at home in that bastion of classical studies and did not complete the course. Her success lay in a different direction. But where did this musicality come from?

None of her ancestors were professional musicians. Thomas Lennox was also an Aberdonian by birth, but his father, Archibald, although domiciled in the town by the time of his 1924 marriage, was originally from Lanarkshire. The son of a butcher, Archibald was born in Bonkle in the parish of Cambusnethan and the known Lennox line goes back through the gen.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Scotland Geneology

Page number : 65