YEAR
2022
INDUCTED BY
The Edge
CATEGORY
Performers
Much like the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the film turns from black-and-white to Technicolor, the opening strains of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” irrevocably changed perceptions of 1980s pop-rock. Employing the mechanistic funk of Krautrock, the grit of gospel, and the strangeness of psychedelia, Eurythmics’ genre- and gender-fluid pop vision was both futuristic and beholden to past eras, while remaining eminently accessible. Eurythmics’ lyrics and imagery presaged the third wave of feminism and a more mainstream deconstruction of sexuality and gender, with their videos and live performances featuring androgynous frontwoman Annie Lennox, at once formidable and alluring. The stories the band told, through song and theatrics, spoke to what it meant to live and love in the late 20th century.
Annie Lennox
David A. Stewart
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Rob Bowman
In the 1980s the ultra-modern soundscapes of Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox, a.k.a. Eurythmics, were omnipresent on radio, MTV, and in dance clubs. Stewart and Lennox managed to combine an insatiable quest for growth, change, and at times radical experimentation, with an unerring ability to craft extraordinary catchy radio-friendly singles such as “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “Here Comes the Rain Again,” and “Would I Lie to You?” For many, the sound of Eurythmics defined much of what was great about the decade.
