Annie Lennox spent years as the lead singer for the Eurythmics before striking out on her own. Diva was her first solo album in 1992 and a video companion was crafted for it. Even having grown up during MTV’s heyday, this is somewhat unusual. The norm for artists was to pick a single or two (or more for some of them) off of an album and craft a video for them, rather than making videos for the entire album.

If you’ve heard the album, you know it’s a fine release in its own right. However, just listening to it, there doesn’t seem to be a real coherent theme that runs through the album. None of the songs are what I would call fluff, and coupled with Lennox’s strong and emotional voice they make up a terrific album.

The video companion is excellent as well. This DVD version includes two songs not available on the VHS release, Walking on Broken Glass and Remember. Sophie Muller directed the entire thing and uses commusicmon imagery throughout the videos to give it a bit of a common theme. That’s not to say all of the videos don’t have individuality – they do. It just has the feeling of being more than just individual videos slapped together.

Lennox is totally stunning and a fantastic performer. She stars in most of the videos and really makes each of them her video, despite the characters at the focal point being quite different. Whether an angel or princess, she captivates. Lennox always seemed to have an affinity for taking on different characters in the Eurythmics videos, and that trend continues here. She appears as different characters in different period dresses throughout the video collection. Precious and Walking on Broken Glass have her in Victorian-era costuming.

Legend in my Living Room is in stark black and white and features Lennox in top hat and tails. I loved the use of the mirror in Money Can’t Buy It. On The Gift, there are great scenes of Lennox in an exotic costume being photographed by tourists who don’t realize who is behind that mask.

All of the videos are of excellent quality. If there’s a major complaint with the DVD it’s the sound. Rather than truly being remastered for DVD, the original stereo soundtrack is used and although that will be fine to most people who listen to it, it could be better. I prefer watching it like this over just streaming the videos for free over YouTube simply because of the elegant way they are strung together.

Of all the female artists to come out of the 1980s, Annie Lennox was easily the one I liked the most. Her talent puts all those other headline-grabbers to shame, and this DVD for her first solo work is definitely worth owning.


Set List

Why
Legend in My Living Room
Precious
Money Can’t Buy It
Cold
Primitive
The Gift
Walking on Broken Glass
Keep Young and Beautiful