Annie Lennox has added her name to an open letter addressed to the G8 leaders who are meeting in Canada this week. The letter called on the G8 club of rich nations to look beyond their own economic struggles and set out how they will fulfill the promises to poor countries made in 2005. They suggested a financial transaction tax so that poor countries could “receive their fare share.” Read the letter online at sabotagenewmedia.com (PDF).

Annie Lennox updated fans on her blog at MySpace on Monday (April 5), discussing her visit to South Africa. The Eurythmics singer writes:

I’ve just been very quiet over the last couple of days since I came back from Cape Town. It’s good to recharge.
We spent ten incredibly productive days there, filming, recording, observing, learning, and altogether being engaged with a whole variety of people and projects.
This time our encounters were more about “positive /productive” responses to issues, rather than focusing on the overwhelm of despair.
Going back to Khayelitsha is always a resonant experience in all kinds of ways… and I keep getting flashes of images that have made a lasting impression.

Check out the entire message here.

Annie Lennox updated fans on her blog at MySpace on Sunday (March 28), discussing her HIV AIDS awareness efforts and spending time with Elton John. The Eurythmics singer writes:

It’s been a while…but ..hey…I’ve been on the move, and bizzeee with it!
The momentum for SINGING has been building steadily over the last few years, and now it seems that the work is bearing fruit.! I always wanted to create “a voice for women and children affected by the HIV AIDS pandemic”, and people are really starting to pay attention.
There have been so much going on of late…in a really constructive way.
Time spent with Elton J was super special. He’s an amazing powerhouse.. the ultimate consummate artist and performer. Listening to him backstage… playing, singing and burning his socks off through a repertoire spanning the last forty years was a revelation..They don’t make them like that too often.. trust me!

I have soooo many plans and schemes…so many things to create, and dreams to fulfill…Life begins at fifty five…Go steady!

Annie Lennox updated fans on her blog at MySpace on Monday (March 8), which was International Women’s Day, using the opportunity to reiterate the attention people should heed towards HIV/AIDS amongst women, especially in the developing world. The Eurythmics singer writes:

It was great to be out there “on the bridge” today to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. And I was very glad and delighted that Sarah Brown personally joined in… First of all, because she can set the tone by standing up, and speaking out for women’s rights, and also because she sets an example to the wives of other International political leaders, who could all use their platform to extend allegiance and solidarity in the demand for women’s rights.

It has to be understood, that, for the most part, women who’ve been brought up in Western countries have generally had a very different up bringing and life style from the sisterhood of the South.

My travels to Uganda, Kenya,South Africa, Morocco, Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean, and various parts of Asia have given me an insight into the lives of girls and women living in the extremely challenging circumstances of chronic poverty… and this has changed my concept of “normal”…

Check out the entire message here.

Annie Lennox updated fans on her blog at MySpace on Wednesday (March 3), discussing her “magical mystery tour for the last six days” as she works to educate people about the impact HIV/AIDS has on women. The Eurythmics singer writes:

I want the world to understand the extent that the HIV and AIDS pandemic has become a WOMEN’S issue. And I still don’t think that people in general have much idea about it…ie.. UNAIDS has clearly stated that AIDS RELATED ILLNESSES ARE THE MAJOR CAUSE OF DEATH OF WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE IN THE WORLD.

That’s staggeringly significant, but the message isn’t getting through.

And as much as the media have their gripes about “celebrity endorsement” (which I totally understand from a certain perspective)… I’d really like to see them come up to the plate with this.

Check out the entire post here.

Annie Lennox checked in with fans on her blog at MySpace on Thursday (February 18), where the Eurythmics singer weighed in on the tragic death of Alexander McQueen, who hanged himself in his London home last week. Lennox writes:

I was incredibly shocked to read the newspaper headlines. It just didn’t compute. Why should a young man in the prime of his life, and the apex of his creative artistry arrive at such a violent point of exit?
We are all mysterious.. even to ourselves. Given a particular set of circumstances, we have no idea what our capabilities might be.
I just feel so sad that he arrived at such a place, and I’m left wondering what on earth prompted him to take his own life in such a way. I’m sure that’s the last thing his mother would have ever wanted.
It’s not my place to comment on a person who I never met. I’ve probably only ever been to two fashion shows in my life, which kind of lets you know how little of a “fashionista” I am, or ever was.
I just wish that “someone” could have been there to intervene, or dissuade him. And the thing is that there’s no turning back… Suicide is such a fait accomplis.
Done, dusted and forever…. and the friends, family and acquaintances’ are left holding this enormous question mark.. this painful puzzle.
It’s absolutely haunting… and I’m terribly sad about it.

Annie Lennox updated fans on her blog at MySpace on Monday (January 25), discussing the reaction to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this month. The Eurythmics singer writes:

Haiti has overwhelmed me, as it has countless others, least of all the citizens of the country themselves, who’s suffering and trauma is beyond our collective imagination. And the ironic thing is that it takes a catastrophe of this unimaginable scale to earn international media focus and space.

Like so many people living in impoverished countries, Haitians have been trapped in a certain kind of suffering for decades, but we (Westerners) have become sidelined, because it’s off our radar and doesn’t compute. That doesn’t make us evil.. It merely highlights our overwhelming sense of disconnect and powerlessness. If you/ and I become consumed with despair, everything else becomes an even more lost cause… Just like the metaphor of someone trapped in the rubble for days, after the emergency response has been called off. A waning of tapping sounds to say that “you are alive” diminishing by the second.

Check out the entire message here.