The day Annie Lennox performed with David Bowie: “I can’t believe we did this”
It can hardly be said that Annie Lennox is known for casting herself into the shadows, but when she effectively had to assume the mantle of Freddie Mercury to honour his life and legacy, that would have probably been enough to scare most people into silence.
Instead, what she decided to do was slap on some warrior paint makeup, grab David Bowie by the neck, and just go for it. The stage was set for Mercury’s tribute gig, A Concert for Life, at Wembley Stadium in London on April 20th, 1992. But, as the song ironically details, Lennox truly was ‘Under Pressure’ to create a diamond of a show, despite her very little rehearsal. However, her determination to throw caution to the wind was one that ultimately paid off in big style, as her duet with Bowie became one of the most iconic moments of the whole night.
Some 33 years on – and, indeed, after the tragic passing of Bowie himself back in 2016 – this is something which you’d think Lennox would have had more than enough time to process and really wrap her head around. But it still seems that she’s completely bowled over by how she ever managed to pull it off, not least because she and the Starman only ever met for one run-through before taking to the stage. “Oh my God. I still honestly, genuinely, can’t believe that we did this,” she gushed in a recent interview with CBS.
She explained that although she and Bowie only met once for a rehearsal, he sent her away with instructions to get a custom dress made by the prolific designer Anthony Price, who created her a costume that looked like “armour”, Lennox explained. Her opting for such brutal makeup – “Blade Runner-ish, or Lone Ranger” – was an even more last-minute choice that she made backstage at the stadium, but its startling effect was immediate, even on the man who was seemingly unflappable in terms of looks.
“When I came on stage, I could see him, and he kind of did a double take,” Lennox recalled. “Oh, it was fantastic.” What then ensued was a performance which she described as one of the most “thrilling” experiences of her entire career, coming together with Bowie at the culmination of the song in a sort of sordid embrace – it was certainly a moment of pressure with more than enough capability to leave the weak-willed to falter. But that was simply never going to be her.
In many ways, it is moments like these that have proved the ultimate markers of Lennox’s career, aside from the obvious components of her own discography. Being able to square up to the absolute rock icons of the world without ever showing a hint of fear or trepidation, all while being able to establish a dominance within her own right, is not something that many could manage under the most intense glare and scrutiny of such seismic stadium light.
But it was almost as though, with her warrior makeup and knight in armour dress, Lennox could assume any sort of persona and emerge the triumphant victor. It was most definitely something that put Bowie in his place in that moment, but you also can’t shake the feeling that, wherever he was watching down, it was exactly the spirit Mercury would have wanted to carry on his legacy.
