good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight, our conversation with four-time grammy winner annie lennox about her new. -- new c.d. titled "nostalgia. k" -- "nostalgia" which mimes the great american songbook. includes classics like "summertime," "god bless the child," and "georgia on my mind." she's one of the greatest of all time in her records. she's received an obe, order of the british empire, in recognition of her humanitarian work, as well. we're glad you've joined us. a conversation with annie lennox coming up right now. ♪ whether ♪

♪ and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪ annie lenox has four grammy awards, an academy award, golden globe, and obe -- order of the british empire -- in recognition of her humanitarian work to her credit. she's sold more than 83 million records worldwide, a testament from the public to her brilliant artistry. her latest is called "nostalgia," a good one. she turns her unique voice to

classics from the great american song book, songs like "god bless the child," "georgia on my mind." before we start our conversation, we'll look at annie singing "i put a spell on you." ♪ i ain't lying i ain't lying ♪ ♪ you know i can't stand it you're running around ♪ ♪ you know baby baby i can't stand it because you put me down ♪ ♪ can't stand you because you're mine ♪ >> i'm so glad but this project. >> thanks. thank you. >> i'm so glad, annie, that you did this because your voice lends itself so nicely to the american songbook. but how did you know that your voice would match the music?

>> well, i didn't, you know. you never really do. and jazz was never my genre, as you know -- >> it is now. >> been around for a while. t now. >> it is now, yeah. >> it is now. i was rehearsing with herby hancock a couple of years ago. and we were doing a concert in washington. for many years i have been a campaigner. i haven't released so many albums. there i was doing this concert with him and rehearsing with his band. we were extemporizing and having fun in the rehearsal studio. and i just realized -- i started to think, you know when, i have never recorded anything in the jazz genre. and that would be interesting. >> uh-huh. >> and hershey and i were do -- herby and i were doing a verb of "every time you say good-bye" by cole porter, which i had recorded in the '80s for the red, hot, and blue hiv/aids project. i loved the experience of stepping into there different genre. i kind of left it there. and i'm guessing a little long

in the tooth now, to be frank. >> yeah. >> you know, we all are. face it -- >> beats the alternative. >> yeah. what, you mean the other way? >> exactly. you could be sick feet undart . >> there you go. i'm alive and kicking. there's time left. and i thought just for the love of it -- i've always made music for the lost of it. in some way or another i could see as an experiment what would happen if. and then i very quietly spent some time just by myself listening to the songs -- you know, sort of wikipedia'd as you do, wiki, 1930s classic american song. and saw the list of legendary composers and the songs. and they're songs i didn't grow up with, you see. they're not part of my culture. maybe people in scotland, where i come from, they listen to jazz, of course. but in my household, that really wasn't -- we weren't listening to jazz. >> right. >> and i thought, well, i know a little bit -- that title, that's

interesting. the cover the waterfront. i came to it as a newcomer. >> right. how much of your decision to do this went beyond whether or not your voice could match to being turned on by the lyrical content? since you mentioned the composers. >> absolutely. here the thing -- this are thousands of cover versions of songs. and many of them are absolutely wonderful. so -- you know, the bar is quite high already. but for me, i wanted to interpret the songs. i wanted to just explore them, first of all. i did it in a step-by-step fashion. i heard the song. there's always that magnetic quality in a song for a singer or interpreter of song that draws you in. and it's a combination of the beautiful, special melody, something that haunts you, something that captures your interest. something about the chordal progression. something about the message that the song is trying to express. if you get a fusion of all though things and then you can sing it and just play it with

guitar or keyboard, you have a classic song. to me, those are the elements in classic songs. >> i'm glad you said that. i was going ask you -- you're pressing it. i was about to ask what for you make a good song. i'm always fascinated by artists as to their opinion as to what really makes a good song. i think you answered it. >> yeah. i think i probably just did. at the end of the day, there's an alchemy that's -- that is the correlation of all those ingredients. actually, it's like the fingerprint. each individual person has a unique fingerprint. i always think that there's something so miraculous about that. and each special song has its own particular fingerprint. and we can't quite really, truly break it down into the sort of separate parts and say, well, it has to have this, this, this, and this. we never know. like when you hear a new song and you know -- oh, it kind of -- you sort of stop. you could be driving in your car, kind of go, oh, i have to turn that up, what is that? who's singing that?

that is a hit song. you know -- everybody's chasing it. >> yeah. if everybody knew what it was, all the songs would be hits. >> every one. they're real. they have a speciality value. >> i couldn't agree more. i want to get something before i forget about it because it was fascinating when you raised it to me at least. that is this notion that by your own admission for years you didn't put out a couple records because you were busy doing your -- not just your work but your witness, as i would call it, your witness as an ambassador, talking about issue that really matter in the world. how does one make a decision, or of it really not a decision, it just happened that you stepped away from the music? stepped away from the work to engage your witness? >> i think it's a process, you know, for me. i mean, all of us, we all go through different stages in our lives. you know, when you're a child, you do childish thing. you become adolescent, then you become a young adult. you have to be far more responsible. those thing. if i look at my particular life, there are all these curves.

the time i got to my early to mid 30s, i really of longing to have a normal life, whatever that was. i'd nbeen on the road doing wonderful, creative stuff with the eurythmics, but i lost what -- not to be normal, but to have a life/life. i stepped away. and i thought i'm an artist, i want to know what it's like -- can i do something by myself, separately, as a solo artist. at that time, i was having children. i was multitasking because i well t had two little children. i was making "deva." the question, should i tour with the record -- no, i have children, i don't want to leave them. complex things. stow's just about an evolutionary process. in 2004, i was very fortunate because -- it was because of dave stewart actually, that this concert of held in cape town, in south africa.

to launch nelson mandela's 4664 hiv and aids foundation. it was to become a turning point in my life. through 466 i had the opportunity to witness the south african aids pandemic in the face. you know, we were taking -- all the artists were taken to township, hospitals, clinics, people's homes. we saw the pandemic that nobody was talking about, and mandela was striving to advocate for to say we have to get access to treatment for my people because they're dying like flies. and they were. i mean, we're talking about ebola now. i'm going back because i've had experience of human pandemic, and in the face of aids, it is so difficult because that is a sexually transmitted disease. nobody wants to acknowledge it. you know, very, very challenging. so i saw how women and children were being so badly affected, and as a mother myself with children, i thought that's such

injustice. the women have no voice. and i just wanted to make my contribution as a woman. and i thought gender's a great leveler. you know, we talk about race and different races and skin color expe and all of these -- bigotry, hatred, differentiations. and the beautiful thing, two things for me. i'm a musician, music. the great connector. doesn't matter about skin color. doesn't matter about culture, no. music will connect all of us. and the other thing is gender. my gender. the feminine gender. we can connect through our gender and try to empower each other that way. >> when you had -- i feel the power of your passion that you were brought into by this experience. but when you had this experience, how does that impact and then influence your artistry? one you get out there and start engaging your witness, you eventually get back to the work of putting out more records. how does that experience influence and impact your

artistry? >> you see, i've had quite a successful -- so-called career. i don't think of it in terms of career. but a life in music, you see. and then there's an aspect of me that really wanted to be engaged and to -- to participate in making transformative change in whatever way i could. and the platform of music and being a spokesperson in that way is very, very helpful. you can get obfuscation. i went out and basically had filmed pieces that i made with some wonderful documentary filmmaker. we'd go to remote places. very remote places where you see two doctors to 100,000, 200,000 people. they can't get access to any health care whatsoever. you get the scale -- you compare that to what's happening in western countries, there's no comparison whatsoever. what you try to do is say, look, this is what's happening. tell the human interest story. people take from the abstract to the the sort of here it is. my god, it's really happening. we have something in great britain called comic relief.

and comic relief does this on an annual basis. and everybody in every household, if they want to watch that comic relief program, they get taken in to places where actually they get the one human interest story and can relate with that. so music has helped to give me that platform and to give me utterly -- sort of use my spoken voice more than my singing voice in a way. and then there came this point when i thought, you know what, before time run out for me because i'll be 60 this year, it's not that old, but you know, still, it's -- i'm looking into the autumn years. i thought -- >> of that -- that was nicely put. >> 60 is the new 30. >> there you go. thank goodness. >> it would be the new 20. hey. >> you make 0 look good, annie -- 60 look good, annie. that's all i can say. >> thank you very much. i think it's about the spirit you have in you. and of course health, it's terribly important. i don't take anything for granted.

then i started to think, well, maybe -- i've never done this. it was very enticing to me just the notion, wow, this is an area of music that is so special. and i didn't want to cover the songs and do it in a very conventional way. i wanted to interpret them and bring my own sort of version of them back into -- back into the -- back here for people to know that it exists. >> i love the choices that you made for this project. some great choices. this are a couple that stood out, and i could not wait to get you in this seat to ask you why you chose a couple of tracks on here. the first is "strange fruit." we've gone right to the darkest track of the whole album. >> i want to go right to it, man. >> yes -- >> the scene almost in the middle of the project. >> it is. >> almost in the middle in terms of sequence. why -- it's a powerful, powerful

song. but why do "strange fruit"? >> "strange fruit" is a protest song. and it was written before the civil rights movement actually got its -- on its feet, got established. because of what i've seen around the world, i know that this field, this subject of violence, bigotry, hatred, violent acts of mankind against ourselves are -- this is a theme. the human theme that has gone on for time in memorial. it's expressed in all different ways. whether it be racism, domestic violence, whether it be warfare or a terrorist act or simply one person attacking another person in a separate incident. this is something that we as human beings have to deal with. it's just going on 24/7. as an observer of violence, even as a child i always thought why are we -- why is this happening, you know. so i've always had that send of embassy and kind oftranof outrat we behave in this way.

a song like this, if i were to do a version of "strange fruit," i would give the song honor and respect. i try to bring it back out into the world again and get to talk about the subject behind the songs, as well. >> when you hear billy holliday sing that, what do you hear? >> you know, it's -- hard to talk about. there's a woman who suffered so much in so many ways from her circumstance, from the situation of many things, from being a woman. being a woman of color. from addiction. from a kind of, you know, i'm not bringing -- extremely dysfunctional, and tended badly. and you see this happening with artists and female artists frequently. you ask why, why did this

beautiful woman self-destruct in the end? what caused her to disappear tragically? really quite an early age. she was in her 40s. of course, i've looked at youtube clips and looked at her face and just wondered if -- what happened. and it make me -- it makes me sad, and i feel that i want to kind of being standing shoulder to shoulder with her. if she was here now, i would be -- we would have a lot in common. this would be a lot of things that we could talk about. >> like what? >> like female empowerment, women's rights. bigotry, racism. what does it -- you know, there's so many thing we could talk about. we could talk about lipstick, too. we could talk about clothes. but we could talk about the things that are still going on in this day and age that haven't changed one iota. and the sort of pain that, you know, i feel because i -- i would like to a world that, you know, could transform.

we have so many resources, and when we dialogue, we have an opportunity to make good, positive things happen. but we're in a world of madness. and sometimes despair. >> yeah. what -- i want to ask a followup real quick. i don't want to forget this. i had the honor of going to my friend, audra mcdonald, the six-time tony winner, play billy holliday on broadway. i thought i loved billy holliday and thought i knew her until i saw audra play her on stage o broadway. i'm still -- wrestling, marinating on what i saw in her performance. just a powerful, powerful thing. but be that as it may, but when you hear a voice like hers or any other voices that you have reinterpred it in this

project -- this may sound strange, but what is it about the human voice that turns you on? does that make sense? >> it does make sense. it's hard to put into word. it's almost an electrifying experience. what you're talking about, being turned on to music. sometimes you get that physical response, where you get goosebumps running up your arm. sometimes you get a feeling like tears arise. you hear a piece of music -- i've had this many, many times. tears come, and i don't know what the chemistry is in the music. i can tell you that blues music contains beauty and pain, beauty and pain in that minor surge, you know, from the distance between the c to the e to the e-flat. and in that shift between the major and the minor, something happens. and you are anguished, and you are swooning. dark not and light. >> so beautifully put. that was a powerful answer. i love that. what is it about the world that

most sdresz yodistresses you, a conversely, what gives you the most hope? >> i see a huge desparity between the western world and so-called developing countries. i go places where people are living as if in the medieval times. they don't get access to basic things that we take for granted like clean running water coming out of our taps, sanitation, flushed toilets, you know, hand washing facilities. hand washing, very important thing. we must have access to clean water. we must be able to wash our hands. that is one of the simplest thing people can do to prevent spreading disease, for example. it's like we kind of know that, electricity, a safe home, education of young girls going up -- growing up, getting access to, you know, primary education, secondary education, maybe getting a college degree. the future opportunities. all these things that we kind of think, oh, it's done.

they're not done. they're not done at all. there's so much to do. there's so much to do. and i have met wonderful organizations, we call them nongovernmental organizations, ngos. they are my champions. i absolutely honored the men and women, young men and women often that go off. and they do thing very often to their own danger, you know, or risk. and they tried to set up responses in places where there's nothing. they make all the difference. yet, i see governments and all i see is warfare and neglect and corruption and, you know, desperate situations of crime. it's just overwhelming. but, you know, one must have hope, i guess. >> yeah. so you sing on this project, "noosetal" noose tastalgia nostalgia" "god bless the child." >> the reference is biblical. i'm not a religious person myself. that's a whole other subject that we can discuss.

you know -- >> don line -- top line why you're not -- >> why i'm not religious? >> top line why you're not. i make a distinction between religious and spiritual. you are a spiritual person. >> we all are essentially spiritual, whether we acknowledge it or not. within us, we have the spirit of life. it's difficult to nail that. some people would say god. i don't have an issue with the word god. just that -- >> just christians? >> no. i don't have an issue with christians, i don't. what i have an issue with is that people are so divisive and polarized. how could you be christian and then have another kind of christianity -- say christian, i'm going to get myself in such trouble -- >> no, i'll go with you. you won't walk alone. >> how can you follow one pick is religion and say, you know, this religion is supposed to be about love, peace, respect, honor of your brother and sister, and yet still find that you hate people of color?

i've never understood that. for example -- that's one small example. or you know, in the christian world, we have catholic and protestants, and they still fight each other. anywhere you go in religion, you'll find that this god is right, everybody else is wrong. and that is the thing that i find so alienating. i think that, you know, nev nevneve never mind religion. are you kind? do you love, or do you hate? that's the point. when i heard about this crazy church where the woman is coming out with her family saying god hates fags, it's an o nomaly to. is this national -- >> international. you won't walk alone. i was making a joke, but i think there's truth in it as is the case in many jokes. when i said that you didn't have a problem with god but christians, somebody once told me, he said, i love god, just save me from the christian. the point that you made, so many of us who profess one thing -- i

don't believe that -- how might i put this? you can profess one thing, you can profess something and not live it. but you can't believe something and not live it. and that's the distinction sometime. >> yeah. >> i am a christian, but that's sometimes when we get caught up between professing and believing. we get tricked sometimes. >> the the labels are interesting. they could become very reductive. and actually, i don't want to make any distinct between you as a fellow -- human being, i don't care if you're muslim, buddhist, christian, it doesn't make any difference to me. i see a human being. and i want to respect that person and be kind. it's the divisiveness that upsets me. that's what i see a lot in religion. >> uh-huh. we were -- we got off on because i pushed you in a different direction. >> you did! >> i wanted you to top line. that was a little bit more than top line, but i appreciate it. i pulled you into it. i asked why you chose "god bless the child." >> you know, when i was

listening to these songs and transcribing them on to high keyboard and trying to find my way, my access into them, i was living in cape town at that time. just for a short period. every day i passed the township in cape town. you know, actually massive, massive townships of million people. if you land at the airport, you drive into cape town, there's the townships on either side. and you see the disparity. it is enormous. and although, you know, we don't have apartheid anymore, what we have is the same old, same old poverty. the same old, same old violence. the same old struggle. the same old struggle for survival. and still people don't get out of that rut of poverty. >> yeah. >> and that is really in my mind for this song, "god bless the child," she's talking about that disparity, billie holiday. that's what she's talking about. >> there's so much more to talk to you about. i'm going to beg you to stay in that seat for one more conversation. >> you don't have to beg. >> will you stay?

>> yeah. >> we're going to continue this tomorrow. i've decided. two nights of annie lennox. the new product is called "nostalgia." a wonderful project interpreting many of the great classics in the american songbook. so much more to talk about. i'm out of time. this is what happened when you talk to such a brilliant art of the like yourself. we'll continue tomorrow night with annie lennox. until then, thanks for watching. and as always, keep the faith. ♪ >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. hi, i'm natavis smiley. join me tomorrow for the second part of our conversation with singer annie lennox. that's next time. see you then. ♪

♪ and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> charlie: well come to the program. we begin with this, an appreciation of two men who were friends of mine and who had done remarkable things with their lives. first, oscar de la renta, the great designer. second, ben bradlee, the great editor. tonight, we look back at their conversations. >> you know, you have to have a very clear vision of who your consumer is and, obviously, over the years i have been in fashion, the consumer has changed a great deal because today the most important consumer is the professional woman. i expect the woman who will come buy clothes and in that sense, fashion has changed a great deal since i first started in the '60s because it's no longer a lady of leisure, a lady who lounges as the