Annie Haslam

Annie Haslam earned her chief recognition through an extended stretch as lead singer for the progressive rock group Renaissance. She emerged from a household filled with music, where her father performed as an amateur vocalist and comedian while her brother Michael worked as a rock and roller in the mid-1960s under Brian Epstein’s management. Her first passion, however, centered on fashion design. Only during her university period did she take up singing, prompted by friends after an unplanned rendition of Mary Hopkin’s hit “Those Were the Days” inside a neighborhood pub. She soon began instruction with opera singer Sybil Knight. In late 1970 she replied to an advertisement in Melody Maker seeking a new vocalist for Renaissance. Her crystalline, five-octave soprano stayed the ensemble’s focal point for the rest of its run. While still fronting the band she issued her solo debut, the Roy Wood-produced Annie in Wonderland, in 1977, then followed it with Still Life in 1985. Her third solo album, a self-titled release from 1989, marked the first project to appear after Renaissance’s dissolution and also her final recording for Epic. After that she moved to the U.S., where a breast cancer diagnosis arrived in 1993. Those challenges shaped the 1994 album Blessing in Disguise. Live Under Brazilian Skies appeared five years afterward, and Dawn of Ananda came out in mid-2000.