Diva Delight

Annie Lennox shares the intentions of her most iconic tunes

There comes a time in every accomplished recording artist's career when a best-of compilation is-—well-—best. From her early-'80s era as the vocal lead of the Eurythmics to a 16-year spanning solo carreer, four Grammy Awards, 78 million records sold and a dynamic AIDS advocacy/human rights campaign that has literally stretched across the globe, for Annie Lennox that time is now.

"I only ever wanted to create inspirational music," Lennox says in a press release. "That's it."

The Annie Lennox Collection is a retrospective of her chart-topping tracks as well as two new songs available only on this release. In conjunction with this release, Lennox shares some of her inspiration and intention on the music that has been grooving fans for almost two decades:

On "Walking on Broken Glass"
"It was a wonderful video. There are some great people involved-—John Malkovich and that Hugh Laurie before he had an American accent. That was just tremendous fun: the idea of it being a period piece, a woman scorned, hell hath no fury ... The video is very tongue-in-cheek. People take me a little seriously [but] I have a sense of humor."

On "No More I Love You's"
"This is the best video we've ever made. This old bordello juxtaposed where we're all looking for love, but the sexual exchanges are the smoke and mirrors that confuse us. I love turning things on their heads. I love questioning sexuality and what it all is because we're all so confused about it, including myself still."

On "Why"
"I think the meaning's changed over the years: It's a universal sense of 'I need to say this.' It's almost like testifying. Things in the world are so baffling at times, so you ask a question. It's taking all this darkness and disappointment about the wars and what you've gone through, the ashes of experience, and looking back on it. It's a building that's crashed and burned. It's looking at the aftermath of things. What is this about, the human condition."

On "SING"
"The function of this song was to launch the SING campaign. I wanted to make an anthem. I want to come back and write more SING theme songs and use them as a vehicle. People talked a lot about the 23 artists that I invited to sing with me; it's a call of solidarity. HIV/AIDS has so much stigma and people are terrified to speak up. Singing is a metaphor for speaking. We must speak up about AIDS. Women must express themselves. They must take up arms, not in weapons, but they take up the fight."

The Annie Lennox Collection was released through Arista Records February 17, 2009. www.annielennox.com

*Lennox quotes compiled by Fly Life Inc.