Annabella Lwin Interview

In this Annabella Lwin interview, the singer recalls the bullying, lack of respect and her ultimate triumph as she explains how she’s managed to thrive despite a lack of support…

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Malcolm McLaren shared his words of wisdom when I joined the band. He said to me: ‘You have to learn to sink or swim.’ And I’m still swimming.” Annabella Lwin may have needed to grab onto the sides of the pool occasionally, but she’s right – nearly 40 years after Bow Wow Wow’s debut single C30 C60 C90 Go!, Annabella is swimming more gracefully than ever.

Her story of being exploited and screwed over is eye-watering, even by the standards of the music industry. But she’s got an idyllic life in Los Angeles, about to release new music and is still performing – she seems content.

Skyping Classic Pop from her home after feeding her two cats, Annabella looks great at 53, despite claiming “I’m a weird, piratical lady” of a bandana tied around her short dark hair. “I haven’t had any cosmetic work done yet,” she volunteers.

“Since I turned 50, I think, ‘Goodness me, everyone else is having all these operations!’, but I don’t believe in having needles in my face and blowing it up for five seconds, just so I can go all smooth. What do you think? Am I bearing up OK?” Annabella Lwin is doing brilliantly, especially considering everything she’s been through.

A vegan and vocal supporter of animal rights, Annabella’s other public cause is anti-bullying campaign Be Kind. She was just 13 when Bow Wow Wow exploded in a whirlwind of controversy. Malcolm McLaren was a genius in some respects, but he perhaps wasn’t the most organised person to ensure the well-being of a schoolgirl in the spotlight, especially when mental health was less of a priority.

“I definitely experienced bullying, both personally and professionally,” says Annabella. “It was in undercurrents, really, a lack of respect from how people treated me, as a teenager and as a female. Put it this way, it was obvious there was a difference between how men and women were treated in the music business. I never want to go through bullying again – and I never want anyone else to, either.”

Annabella was born in Burma; she prefers the country’s old name to Myanmar, which she associates with its military regime. Her family soon moved to Dartmoor, before Annabella went with her mother and three brothers to London when her parents split.

She got a Saturday job at a dry cleaners, where she was spotted at 13 by Malcolm’s talent scout Dave Fishel singing along to ABBA on the radio. “My mother was a nurse and couldn’t afford to give us pocket money,” Annabella recalls. “I wanted to work so that I could afford make-up and scarves.”

Casually admitting “I assumed he wanted to pick us up” of Dave’s invitation to try out for Bow Wow Wow, there was thankfully no suggestion of sexual advances from him or Malcolm, though Annabella admits: “My first impressions of Malcolm were his orange hairdo, his pinstripe suit, his very posh voice and the way he used to stare at you. As a young girl, I never knew why that stare made me think, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’, but Malcolm stared that intensely at everyone. He was a very unusual character, very dysfunctional in how he worked, but brilliant. He was a genius.”