SCOTS songstress Annie Lennox has hit out at the music industry for “exploiting” vulnerable female singers.
The 54 year-old claimed “nasty” record executives don’t care about the welfare of performers – as long as they can cash in on their talents.
Speaking before a charity gig in South Africa, she told a weekend interview that girl-singers with problems are an easy target.
The “Sweet Dreams” singer said: “People are very nice and they are all smiling, and everybody’s interested in you – but basically they are looking for the profit margin, looking at ‘Where can we make the money’ and not necessarily with your best interests.
“Without naming any names, because everyone knows who they are, there are a lot of young female artists out there who have problems and people with a vested interest keeping them going.
“But it might not really be to their best interests as a human being.
“I have encountered things in the industry that were vile, people were unscrupulous, people took advantage, people betrayed and let down, people who were just in it for themselves.
“It was a wake up call and sometimes it was really nasty.”
The Aberdeen-born former Eurythmics front-woman recently created a female pop super-group to record a song to raise fund for women and children with HIV/AIDS.
The track features vocals from Dido, Celine Dion, KT Tunstall, Sugababes and Joss Stone.
But the multi-Grammy Award winner, who has sold more than 80 million records, said her success was down to shunning the rock and roll lifestyle.
She added: “Bacchanalian excess is not a great bedfellow, excuse the pun, for a singer, a performer.
“It is incredibly physically draining and you have to have tremendous physical stamina.
“So to smoke and drink and go and party, unless you are a very unusual person, it does not bode well for sustainability.
“I was never drawn to it. I can be quite extrovert, especially during performance, but as a person I am quite shy.
“I spend a lot of time alone, I am a really quiet person, so I was never that one, and I was always thinking, ‘If I lose my voice we have to cancel tomorrow’s show’ and the pressure on me as the front person, or on any front person is huge.”
