Synopsis

In a stark, surreal boardroom, Annie Lennox appears in a tailored men's suit and cropped orange hair while Dave Stewart works at an electronic drum machine. Images of rockets, crowds, cows, fields, and open water interrupt the corporate setting. Stewart plays cello in dreamlike outdoor scenes, while the duo alternates between rigid performance and strange, deadpan tableaux. The video closes with Lennox in bed, linking the song's uneasy meditation on desire, ambition, and survival to the private world of dreams.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in January 1983, shortly before the single and album were released.

• Its boardroom scenes were shot in a studio on Wardour Street in West London. Dave Stewart described the concept as a commentary on the music business blended with performance art.

• The cow was intended to represent reality intruding on the artificial world of the record-company boardroom. Stewart later recalled that the animal caused practical problems by urinating around the set.

• The computer Stewart operates is not a conventional office computer. It is an MCS drum computer, the same type of machine used in creating the song's electronic rhythm.

• Annie Lennox's cropped orange hair, men's suit, cane, and deliberately controlled performance became one of the defining images of early MTV. Lennox said the styling was meant to reject the usual presentation of a female pop singer and place her on equal terms with Stewart.

• The video's surreal imagery helped make "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" a breakthrough for Eurythmics in the United States. Heavy MTV rotation turned the duo into major video-era stars.

• Stewart later recalled that the cow was made to appear purple at one point, adding another deliberately strange visual touch to the clip.

• The original video was digitally restored in HD 1080p, marking its first high-definition restoration since it was filmed in 1983.