Video Of The Day: This Legendary Annie Lennox Performance Maybe Probably Inspired Lady Gaga 27 Years Later
Did Annie Lennox’s ‘Earl’ walk so Lady Gaga’s ‘Joe Calderone’ could strut?
We’re just days away from the Grammys, aka music’s biggest night, so this week, we’re taking a look back at some of the most memorable queer and queer-adjacent performances to grace the Grammy stage.
Kicking things off: Eurythmics’ 1984 performance of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), where Annie Lennox served serious sideburn realness as her alter ego “Earl,” decked out in full boy drag.
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Nearly three decades later, Lady Gaga opened the 2011 VMAs as her alter ego, “Joe Calderone,” and if you think Joe and Earl could be long-lost cousins, you’re not alone. While Gaga has never explicitly cited Lennox as an influence, Lennox herself has called the pop star’s performance an homage.
Check out the clip below and witness an early example of gender-bending brilliance on the Grammy stage:
