ANNIE LENNOX: "I JUST WANT TO LOOK AS I AM"
No crazy re-touching, please. Photo by Robert Sebree 2014-La Lennoxa ltd via elle.com: Music Has No Colour.
Annie Lennox is so. freaking. cool. You saw her mind-blowing performance on the 2015 Grammys earlier this year, right? Killer. And now, in an interview with makeup maven and Yahoo Beauty editor-in-chief Bobbi Brown, Annie Lennox discusses her views on Botox and plastic surgery, and explains why she prefers to show her face without crazy retouching on the cover of her most recent album, Nostalgia.
Annie Lennox shows her real face on her album cover for Nostalgia. Photo: Blue Note Records via annielennox.com.
Annie Lennox: "I just wanted to represent myself at my age in a nice way, obviously." Photo: Blue Note Records via annielennox.com.
BOBBI BROWN: I’m really loving your new album, Nostalgia. Congratulations on deciding to put your beautiful face on the cover without retouching.
ANNIE LENNOX: It’s such an issue for women as they get older, especially women like myself who have been performers all our life. What are we supposed to do? I go to America, where I see a lot of plastic surgery. I have no problem with plastic surgery, but the issue is, I don’t think it’s done very well because it kind of screams at you from hundreds of yards away. It tells you: Wow, that woman’s had a lot of work, or that man’s had a lot of work. I find it disturbing. If I were going to do some work, which I mean, again, I haven’t done it yet, I might. But if I did, I wouldn’t want to end up with this frozen mask, which is Botox, which is surgery. I think, the day they get it right will be the day that you can’t really tell.
Annie Lennox portrait by Casey Curry/Casey Curry/Invision/AP via columbian.com: Annie Lennox Embraces Nostalgia
BB: I have spoken out many times about the same thing. The thing is, looking at photos of yourself photographed under HD lighting is awful. You see things that you don’t see in real life. **
AL: [laughs] That’s right. Photographs — they’re so tough, aren’t they? You know, when I was in my early 20s, getting my photograph taken with poor lighting, I’d be like, “Oh my God, do I really look that bad?” Then, all of a sudden, with photographers who had great lighting, that know how to bring out the best in you, I’d be like, “Whoa, that’s a nice picture! We all have our little vanity, you know, it’s part of being human. But if there is going to be an image that’s going to represent you, whether it’s just a snapshot or something, you want to look your best. Everybody wants to look their best. That’s natural.
Photo by Robert Sebree 2014-La Lennoxa ltd via eurythmics-ultimate.com
BB: But I do feel that there is the beginning of positive movement happening. There are more and more women our age talking about it and wanting to project authenticity. I do think that it’s going to be an incredible gift to women when they see your album cover, because you look gorgeous, but you look real.
AL: I just wanted to represent myself at my age in a nice way, obviously. There’s lights and there’s makeup, and there’s a probably a tiny, tiny bit of manipulation here and there. But I said, “Please, I just want to look as I am.”
Photo by Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times via the latimes.com: Annie Lennox Makes the Past Her Own on Nostalgia.
There's a lot more fascinating stuff in the Annie Lennox Says No to Retouching piece on yahoo.com, including her opinion on makeup, especially for her age group; her frump-up strategy to avoid the spotlight when she was raising her kids; her upcoming PBS special set to air on April 3rd; and her social activism and charitable work. Go, read!
#AnnieLennox4EVAH, right??
More Annie Lennox stories via the photo-credit links under each image. Enjoy!
