“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” still turns up in films, arenas, and late-night playlists with the reliability of a song that refuses to age out. The demand never left. Neither did the mythology. Yet Eurythmics — one of the defining acts of the 1980s — has not performed a full concert since 1999. In a recent interview with Spin, guitarist and producer Dave Stewart offered what may be the clearest explanation yet: the window for a reunion has probably closed. Not with a slam. More like a quiet click.
When the Offers Came, One Door Stayed Shut
Stewart says he was ready to accept reunion offers — Lennox, according to him, consistently was not.
Stewart told Spin he would have accepted reunion offers “in a flash.” According to Stewart, the obstacle was not promoter interest or audience appetite — Annie Lennox reportedly declined each time. Stewart presents this not as grievance but as matter-of-fact reflection. The duo reunited for their 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, but their last proper full-length concert remains a 1999 event now more than two decades behind them.
The Catalog Is Brutally Demanding
Those songs hit differently at the two-hour mark — and Stewart says the physical reality matters.
The nostalgia machine rarely accounts for this: those songs are genuinely hard to perform. A 105-to-120-minute Eurythmics set is not a victory lap — it is a sustained physical test for any vocalist. Stewart pointed to a recent Lennox appearance where she reportedly performed only four or five songs before bringing on guest performers, citing it as evidence of the catalog’s demands. “Here Comes the Rain Again,” “Would I Lie to You?” — sustaining that register across a full evening is a different proposition from performing a handful of selections at a live show.
Geography has compounded the distance. Stewart splits his time between Nashville and his Bahamas studio compound; Lennox lives in Los Angeles. Their once-regular emails and conversations, he told Spin, have “fizzled out” over the past two years. That detail carries more emotional weight than any dramatic falling-out narrative could. Stewart suggests Lennox now views Eurythmics as belonging firmly to the past — a stance that separates them from the many legacy acts who have leaned into documentaries and reunion tours as second careers.
Stewart Isn’t Standing Still
Recorded in spontaneous, one-take sessions at his Bahamas compound, his forthcoming album finds Stewart building something new from instinct rather than nostalgia.
Stewart’s solo album The Way It Was Back Then is scheduled for release October 30, 2026 — ten tracks recorded at his Bahamas studio, built largely from spontaneous, one-take performances. The material explores:
- memory
- survival
- love
- loss
- betrayal
The process is raw and guitar-led, a deliberate contrast to the synth-heavy studio craft that defined Eurythmics at their commercial peak. Whatever the reunion question ultimately settles into, Stewart is clearly not waiting on the answer.
The songs exist independently of the people who made them now. “Sweet Dreams” does not need a tour announcement to matter. Whether the duo who created it ever share a stage again is, increasingly, a separate conversation from the music’s reach — and Stewart’s continued output suggests he has already made peace with that distinction.
