Sony BMG blasts "ludicrous" Annie Lennox report
LONDON (Billboard) - Sony BMG has hit out at "ludicrous" press reports stating the company dropped Annie Lennox after a 25-year association.
British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror had quoted the former Eurythmics singer as saying Sony BMG ignored her calls and emails for three weeks and that this treatment was a "kick in the teeth." She also said she was out of contract following the RCA release of "Songs of Mass Destruction" last October.
However, while Sony BMG confirms it no longer has a contract with Lennox, the major says it hopes to work with her in the future. It will also continue to work with Lennox on her current album, which has sold 232,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and her SING project in support of HIV AIDS sufferers.
"The quotes attributed to Annie's dissatisfaction with her label arose out of a trip in December to South Africa and have no relevance to the expiry of her contract," said a Sony BMG statement.
"We are immensely proud to have worked with Annie over more than two decades," said Sony BMG Music Entertainment U.K. chairman Ged Doherty. "She now has a choice as to whether she wants to continue to work with us in the future. We very much hope that she will."
Lennox's London-based management, 19 Entertainment, had no comment to add to the Sony BMG statement, but suggested Lennox's quotes had been taken out of context.
Reuters/Billboard
