“When Annie and I lived together, we didn’t write songs together. It was only when the relationship ended that we produced 120 pieces. A funny anecdote that Dave Stewart likes to intersperse between his uplifting songs on his European tour. The 71-year-old British pop star, who was Always wearing a hat, his ‘Eurythmics Songbook’ debuted at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The reviews were so enthusiastic that the world tour hardly needed any convincing. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the all-time new wave classic, ‘Sweet Dreams’, which The Eurythmics launched onto the pop/rock Olympus after years of moderate success (at least a top ten hit as “The Tourists”).
Not there: the charismatic, always androgynous former singer Annie Lennox, who last performed with Stewart in 2022 when the Eurythmics were inducted into the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame. “Annie doesn’t want to go on tour anymore, she never liked it. It’s an exhausting life,” Dave Stewart said in an interview. Instead, Stewart is on stage at the Berlin Tempodrome with an eight-woman band (!) Three of them play Annie Lennox: Dave Stewart’s daughter Kaya, and Australian Vanessa Amorosi (who started her career at the Sydney Olympics). Starting with the hit song “Absolutely Everybody” and Manchester-based soul singer RAHH. The band members were personally selected by Dave Stewart, Partially via Instagram.
The song list for the nearly 90-minute show ranges from early works (such as the opening single “Never Cry Again”) to “The City Never Sleeps,” which was set in the Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke thriller. “9 ½ Weeks”, the biggest hits of the 1980s (such as “Love is a Stranger”, “Who’s That Girl”, “Thorn in my Side” or “When Tomorrow Comes”) to the comeback single “I Saved the World” “. “Today” from 1999, a reunion shortly before the turn of the millennium, in which the Eurythmics toured again and donated all profits to Greenpeace and Amnesty International.
The great saxophonist Jasmine Ogilvie gets a special appearance on the classic score “Lily Was Here” and she is in no way inferior to Candy Dolfer. Stewart’s daughter Kaya stars alongside her father in the UK’s only centre. 1 hit by Eurythmics, “There Must Be an Angel” (which she sang on the lap of her godmother Annie Lennox when she was five years old), and the ballad “You’ve Put a Chill in My Heart”, Vanessa Amorosi turning the song into “Here Comes the Rain Again” ‘ chilled into a rock anthem at the end, as RAHH calls out the missionary man with her powerful vocals. During the feminist anthem “Sisters Do It to Themselves” (a roaring ’80s duet with soul legend Aretha Franklin) all three lead singers rock the stage together. The Finale Furioso of course “Sweet Dreams” in an extended version with scraps of rain.
Conclusion: A fantastic retrospective that was a treat not only for fans, but also for mastermind Dave Stewart and his girl band. Plus, enjoy the sanctuary of Eurythmics icon Annie Lennox.
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