Annie Lennox, artist and activist

My admiration for Annie Lennox grew even greater when I saw her perform this song: no fancy costume, make-up, dancers, lights. Just her and the piano. She sings with artistry, but I always believe every word she sings.

"More manic Idols-on-phone zaniness, followed by more naked-eyed Bono earnestness, followed by a video of the wonderful Annie Lennox in Tanzania. Of all the people who appear on this show, she's one of the few who I can see doing this kind of thing when the show's not on. She accompanies four young boys on a trip to get tested for HIV, celebrates with them when they're negative, and horses around with them afterwards. She weeps as she talks about them -- not TV crying but actual hiccupping sobs. Then she takes the stage in Hollywood and performs "Many Rivers To Cross," and then the whole show shuts down and they send the Top 8 home and declare there will be no American Idol this year because of the shame."

Thus declareth the Television Without Pity recapper, and I concur.


Her website is called The House of Me, and it's a work in progress. Her work with SING to raise money and awareness about mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus in South Africa, and what needs to be done to alleviate suffering through access to drugs and care, as well as prevention, is of a piece with her earlier commitment to environmental and human rights work.