Last fall, Annie Lennox was doing a lot of promotional work for her album of jazz standards, Nostalgia. She ended up answering a lot of questions about the state of feminism today, plus what she likes and does not like in the music industry. She got a lot of headlines for throwing shade at twerking-as-feminism, plus she called Beyonce “feminist lite.” Annie also stirred up a controversy when she discussed one of the song covers on her album, “Strange Fruit.” The most famous version of “Strange Fruit” is Billie Holiday’s version. It’s a song about witnessing a lynching in the American South, back when lynchings were a regular event (post-Civil War through the 1950s).
The lyrical imagery in “Strange Fruit” is striking and disturbing. But when Annie appeared on Tavis Smiley’s show last year, she refused to say the word “lynching.” Gawker accused her of “whitewashing” the subject matter of the song – go here to read Annie’s comments to Smiley, and Gawker’s take on Annie’s comments. At the time, I did think Gawker was being slightly unfair to Annie (she clearly knew the history of the song) AND I thought Annie could have explained herself and her reasoning better. Well, Annie gave a new interview this week, and she directly addresses the “Strange Fruit” whitewashing controversy and sort of slams Gawker.
Annie Lennox says online criticism leveled at her remarks about the anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit” was hurtful and unfair.
“It was so painful. I can’t even begin to tell you. I’m the last person who would disrespect that history,” Lennox said.
In a TV interview last fall about her new CD, “Nostalgia,” and the “Strange Fruit” track it includes, Lennox didn’t mention that the 1930s song made famous by Billie Holiday was a direct attack on African-American hangings of the era. Blogs and posts on Twitter accused her of “whitewashing” the song’s origins by referring generally to human violence and bigotry while speaking to PBS host Tavis Smiley last October.
Lennox, appearing Monday night at a Television Critics Association meeting to promote a spring PBS “Nostalgia” concert special, was asked about the controversy. She said she was glad to address it after initially remaining silent. Because of one blog and what she called its “opportunistic swipe,” the “whole thing blew out of context,” said the Grammy-winning musician and activist. She didn’t respond at the time “because if I did that it would all get blown up again.”
“Let me just say that if I offended anyone — anyone — about not mentioning the lynchings, I wholeheartedly apologize. It was never intended and I was hurt” by the blog, she said.
A DVD released about the album includes her comment that “Strange Fruit” is about hangings in the Deep South and that they were “shameful,” she noted. The Scottish-born Lennox, 60, who first gained success with Dave Stewart as the Eurythmics in the 1980s, has received numerous honors for her artistry and for her work against AIDS and poverty in Africa, including the Order of the British Empire in 2011.
“I’m a person who really, really cares about social injustice, and racism is so vile to me and it disturbs me, since I was a kid I’ve been distressed by this, this fact that there’s still so much injustice,” she said.
What’s the difference between “whitewashing” a song’s substance and simply being a non-American white woman who is deeply uncomfortable discussing in detail one of the most horrible parts of American history? Granted, Annie chose to include a cover of “Strange Fruit” on her album, so she had to know those questions were coming. But go back and read her initial comments. I don’t think she was “whitewashing,” I think she was uncomfortable discussing in detail a subject matter that is not part of her national history.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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