Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox (born 1954 in Aberdeen, Scotland) redefined pop androgyny and vocal power with Eurythmics — “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” — before a solo career (“Diva,” “Walking on Broken Glass”) that made her one of Britain’s most decorated artists, with multiple Grammys, a record haul of Brit Awards, and an Oscar for “Into the West.” She is equally known as a campaigner, from HIV/AIDS advocacy to feminist causes.

Deepfakes, then a silent album

Lennox brought her activist instincts to AI in August 2024, joining the Artist Rights Alliance in backing the Ban Deepfakes campaign — a coalition with SAG-AFTRA and the Future of Life Institute — and warning that deepfake technology had created “a new, rapidly expanding frontier of sexual abuse, primarily against women and girls,” with accountability owed by the AI companies whose models enable it.

In February 2025 she became one of the marquee names among 1,000-plus co-writers of “Is This What We Want?”, the silent protest album of empty-studio recordings organized against the UK government’s proposal to let AI developers train on copyrighted work unless creators opt out. The album’s track titles spell out its message — “The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies” — and its profits went to the charity Help Musicians.