Annie Lennox’s songwriter daughter Lola Lennox addresses ‘nepo baby’ discourse: ‘I really did earn my place’

Lola Lennox, the daughter of Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox, has offered her thoughts on the “nepo baby” debate.

The term is used (often perjoratively) to describe the offspring of a celebrity, with the phrase suggesting that the person is a beneficiary of nepotism.

Lennox, 32, has followed her mother into music, and has just released an EP, titled Dreamer. In an interview with the whisky and lifestyle publication Barley Magazine, Lennox was asked about the term “nepo baby”.

“Obviously I’ve thought a lot about that because I’m the daughter of someone who’s had a lot of success,” she responded. “I’ve always wanted to work really hard at what I do. I’ve always returned back to ‘can my music speak on my behalf rather than by the context of who I am?’”

“I recognise I’ve had privileges that majority of people might not have had,” she continued. “But I also think that if the music isn’t up to scratch, you might be able to get your foot in the door, but you can’t walk through it. I don’t feel like I bypassed anything – I really did earn my place in where I am now.”

Lennox was born to Annie and her second husband, Israeli activist and producer Uri Fruchtmann.

Her career as a musician took off in 2020, sparked by a virtual duet performed with her mother during lockdown.

Lennox joined the Eurythmics singer for a rendition of “There Must Be an Angel”, as part of the One World Together at Home concert event. The song was streamed more than a quarter of a billion times.

“I didn’t know it [the duet] would be as big as it ended up being,” Lennox told the publication. “I didn’t think too much about what would happen once it came out.”

Over the last year, a number of celebrities with famous parents have pushed back against the term “nepo baby”, and the negative connotations it carries.

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Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz, said that it was “completely normal” for children to enter the same line of work as their parent.

“It’s literally where last names came from. You were a blacksmith if your family was, like, the Black family,” the Batman star said.

The full interview with Lennox can be read at Barleymagazine.com.