Last Friday, Annie Mac delivered her final broadcast for BBC Radio 1 after 17 years on the world-renowned music station. This was a monumental evening celebrated by the global dance music community, and you can listen to the full two hours here for the next 26 days.
Across her near two decades on the air, Annie Mac—a shortened version of her real name, Annie MacManus—became synonymous with sharing what would become the biggest hits in the world. Notorious tracks like Shiba San‘s “OKAY” and Skream‘s remix of La Roux’s “In For The Kill” first came to prominence following MacManus’s dulcet tones.
MacManus started at BBC Radio 1 in 2004 with a weekly Thursday night slot from 10PM to 12AM. She eventually worked her way up to the most coveted slot on the radio, Future Sounds every weekday from 7PM to 9PM, taking over for one of her earliest mentors, Zane Lowe, who left to head Apple’s newly founded Beats 1.
Monday through Thursday, Future Sounds was dedicated to new music from all genres. Throughout her time at the helm, MacManus welcomed legends across every era of music history. Billie Eilish, Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Anderson .Paak, Damon Albarn of Gorillaz. Whenever a new album was pending, MacManus’s show would be one of the first stops.
Friday’s from 7PM to 9PM the slot would shift to Annie Mac’s Dance Party, two hours dedicated to the hottest dance music in the world. Each show hosted a five-minute mimimix from all the dance idols one can imagine. Nero, Duck Sauce, Fatboy Slim. Every name worth knowing in dance music did a mimimix for MacManus, and for a number of years the show was three hours long instead of two, with MacManus providing a DJ set for the last hour.
As a dance-lover at heart, this is where MacManus thrived. It is only fitting that her last show was a dance party episode, populated by crowd favorite tracks across her years in the booth.
MacManus literally asked her fans on Twitter to make requests of songs to play, many of which she honored. A-trak‘s “Heads Will Roll” edit. “Swoon” by The Chemical Brothers. Disclosure‘s remix of Jessie Ware’s “Running.” They all made the cut at the behest of her loyal community (and she also mentioned she took Disclosure on tour before either brother could drink legally).
To close she played DJ Rolando’s techno journey “Knights Of The Jaguar,” over which she gave one final message live on the air:
“There’s one thing I’ve forgotten to say, as a 43-year-old woman, life is short, it goes by really, really fast, it thunders by. If you like the music, you gotta get up and dance. Just do it.”
MacManus’s life has certainly been thundering by during her time on the radio. Not only did she meet her husband—fellow selector Toddla T—and have two children, but she has expanded her efforts far beyond broadcasting.
MacManus has curated the Annie Mac Presents brand which released numerous yearly compilations of her favorite tracks, hosted music showcases all over the UK, and culminated with her own music festival Lost & Found, which will return to Malta for its fifth year in 2022.
In recent years as she transitioned away from music broadcasting, MacManus started her own podcast, Changes, where she took her conversational skills to discuss topics of social relevance like psychology of pandemics while exploring the lives of former far right extremists. She also published her first fiction book entitled, Mother Mother.
All this goes to show that while Annie Mac may not be delivering the hottest record in the world anymore (at least for now), she is far from finished contributing her insight and her voice to those who want to listen. Her body of work exists in so many different forms ready for the eager fan to dive in.
Check out some heartfelt goodbyes to Annie from dance music stalwarts below:
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Featured Image Provided By BBC Radio 1
