Canadian artist Allison Russell has teamed up with the legendary Annie Lennox for her new track Superlover.
The folky country tinged track showcases Russell’s banjo playing and Lennox’s distinctive and powerful voice.
Lennox, who turned 70 last Christmas, recently made a rare live appearance when she performed a show in London for International Women’s Day. Nowadays Lenox spends her time split between activism and music, championing feminist causes, the global response to HIV, poverty and and other injustices.
Lennox has always been a huge supporter of other women in music, so its no surprise she agreed to appear on Russell’s new offering.
Allison Russell is set to play three shows in Australia next month, but sadly there are no west coast dates on her itinerary. She’ll be playing shows in Melbourne on 15th April, Sydney on 17th April and appearing at Bluesfest at Byron Bay on the weekend of the 19th and 20th of April.
The singer identifies as queer, and has previously shared that she wants to ensure that just because she’s married to a man and has a child, people should not assume she is heterosexual.
“I fall in the middle of the spectrum of orientation. I’ve been in love with women and I’ve been in love with men and I’ve been in love with trans people and I’ve been in love with non-binary people. I wound up falling in love and committing to share a life with a man, my husband. One could assume that I’m straight, but I am not and especially in this time of increased polarization and bigotry, it is really important that people understand that nothing is black and white.
“Nothing is simple and you can’t assume that because I am married to a man and I have a child that I am a straight person. You can’t say homophobic things to me and have it pass. Part of me wanted to really acknowledge that publicly”. Russell said in a 2021 interview with The Bluegrass Situation.
Russell got her start as a member of many different bands before she launched her solo career. Po’ Gil, Birds of Chicago, Fear of Drinking, Sankofa, Our Native Daughters and Sisters of the Strawberry Moon are all outfits she served time in.
In 2021 she released her debut solo album Outside Child. Her 2023 follow-up The Returner brought her more fans.
Annie Lennox has had a huge break for releasing new music. Her last album Nostalgia came out over a decade ago. Lennox first came to prominence in the 1970’s as a member of The Tourists, before spending the 1980s putting out iconic work in Eurythmics.
She launched a solo career in the 1990s with her album Diva. For her 1995 follow up Medusa she delivered a collection of covers. Two more albums of original material came with 2003’s Bare and 2007’s Songs of Mass Destruction. In 2010 Lennox shared a Christmas album, and 2014’s Nostalgia was a collection of tunes from the American Songbook.
