Diva (Annie Lennox album) – 1992
Diva is the debut solo album by the Scottish singer-songwriter Annie Lennox, released in 1992. The album entered the UK album chart at number 1 and has since sold over 1.2 million copies in the UK alone, being certified quadruple platinum. It was also a success in the U.S. where it was a top 30 hit and has been certified double platinum. Diva won Album of the Year at the 1993 Brit Awards, and was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards the same year.
Following the informal dissolution of Eurythmics in 1990, Lennox took some time away from the music industry, during which she gave birth to her eldest daughter. She commenced working on her first solo album in 1991 with producer Stephen Lipson. Though she had been accustomed to co-writing material with Dave Stewart during her years with Eurythmics, eight of the ten tracks on Diva were written solely by Lennox herself, with two tracks being co-written by her. Upon its release, the album debuted at number one in the UK Album Charts and would eventually yield five hit singles, three of which reached the Top 10 (although they had continued to achieve number one albums, Eurythmics had not scored a UK Top 10 single since 1986). Diva was ultimately certified quadruple platinum in the UK, more than any of Eurythmics’ studio albums.
The song “Keep Young and Beautiful” was included on the CD release as a bonus track (the original vinyl album had only ten tracks). Another bonus track, “Step by Step”, appeared on the Mexican and Japanese editions of the album and was also included as the B-Side on the single “Precious”. The song was later recorded by Whitney Houston for the 1996 film soundtrack The Preacher’s Wife and subsequently became a hit single.
The headdress worn by Lennox on the album’s cover (and seen in several of the album’s videos) was obtained from the London-based costume company Angels. It had been used previously in the James Bond film Octopussy.
In 1993 the album was included in Q magazine’s list of the “50 Best Albums Of 1992”. Rolling Stone magazine (6/25/92, p. 41) described the album as “…state-of-the-art soul pop…” and it is included in Rolling Stone’s (5/13/99, p. 56) “Essential Recordings of the 90’s” list.
In their review, Rolling Stone commented:
State-of-the-art soul pop, Annie Lennox’s solo debut is sonically gorgeous; it also declares her aesthetic independence. Ace sessionmen polish Diva’s gloss, and producer Stephen Lipson (Pet Shop Boys, Propaganda) operates in hyperdrive, but these eleven songs are fiercely those of a sister doing things for herself. Three years after her last outing with Dave Stewart, her cohort in Eurythmics, Lennox voids any notion that he was her Svengali and she merely the MTV beauty with stunning pipes. Writing nearly all of Diva, she manages a whirlwind tour of mainstream R&B and retains her singular persona – an ice queen thirsting to be melted by love.(RS 633).
Track listing
All songs by Lennox, except where otherwise noted.
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “Why” Annie Lennox 4:53
2. “Walking on Broken Glass” Lennox 4:12
3. “Precious” Lennox 5:08
4. “Legend in My Living Room” Lennox, Peter-John Vettese 3:45
5. “Cold” Lennox 4:20
6. “Money Can’t Buy It” Lennox 5:00
7. “Little Bird” Lennox 4:48
8. “Primitive” Lennox 4:19
9. “Stay by Me” Lennox 6:28
10. “The Gift”
Personnel
Annie Lennox – keyboards, vocals
Paul Joseph Moore – keyboards
Marius de Vries – keyboards, programming
Peter-John Vettese – keyboards, programming, recorder
Edward Shearmur – piano
Kenji Jammer – guitar, programming
Steve Lipson – guitar, keyboards, programming, producer
Doug Wimbish – bass
Gavyn Wright – violin
Dave Defries – trumpet
Keith LeBlanc – drums
Luis Jardim – percussion
Steve Jansen – drum programming
Production
Produced by Stephen Lipson
Recorded and engineered by Heff Moraes (also MIDI manager)
Mixed by William (Bill) O’Donovan
Ian Cooper – mastering
Anton Corbijn – photography (inner cover)
Satoshi – photography (front cover)
Laurence Stevens – design