Biography
Multi-disciplinary artist Anohni fronts the ensemble Antony and the Johnsons, which frames her soulful vocals and direct lyrical themes through piano balladry, chamber pop, and orchestral textures. International recognition arrived via the Mercury Prize-winning I Am a Bird Now in 2005, after which the group expanded its sonic palette across releases such as the delicately somber The Crying Light in 2009 and the lush, uplifting Swanlights the following year. Themes Anohni had long addressed—racism, sexism, homophobia, capitalism, and climate change among them—took center stage on the electronic-oriented Hopelessness, her Mercury-nominated solo debut issued in 2016. That same unflinching approach carried over when Anohni and the Johnsons resurfaced with the soul-inflected protest material of My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross in 2023, extending her longstanding fusion of activism and vulnerability.
Born in the U.K. and raised in California, Anohni Hegarty (born Antony Hegarty) drew early influence from British new wave vocalists such as Boy George, Alison Moyet, Kate Bush, and Marc Almond. After her family relocated to California, she absorbed additional inspiration from American artists including Donnie Hathaway, Otis Redding, and Nina Simone. In 1990 Anohni moved to New York City to pursue experimental theater studies at New York University, where she began testing material as a songwriter and performer in the city’s underground clubs of the early ’90s. She co-established the collective Blacklips Performance Cult, which staged weekly Monday-night productions at the Pyramid Club from 1992 through 1995. During this period her stage persona drew from Blue Velvet-era Isabella Rossellini and from the cover illustration of a shaved-head woman on Soft Cell’s 1982 single “Torch.”
A New York Foundation for the Arts grant for the production The Birth of Anne Frank/The Ascension of Marsha P. Johnson enabled Anohni to assemble the musicians who would become the Johnsons. Honoring the gay liberation activist, Antony and the Johnsons coalesced in 1998 and regularly appeared at spaces including the Knitting Factory and the Pyramid Club. A demo reached Current 93’s David Tibet, leading to a 2000 release on his Durtro label that included Baby Dee and William Basinski among the players. That same year Anohni took a singing part in Steve Buscemi’s film Animal Factory. The 2001 EP I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy followed, incorporating covers of Current 93’s “Soft Black Stars” and David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s “Mysteries of Love.” Subsequent years brought guest appearances on Lou Reed’s albums The Raven and Animal Serenade, plus a 2003 world tour as a member of Reed’s band.
Following the November 2004 Lake EP on Secretly Canadian, Antony and the Johnsons delivered their second album, I Am a Bird Now, on the same label in February 2005. Reed, Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, and Joan Wasser contributed performances; the record earned widespread praise for its haunting atmosphere and captured the Mercury Prize. Post-victory, I Am a Bird Now entered the U.K. Albums chart Top 20 and registered on charts across Europe, while the singles “Hope There’s Someone” and “You Are My Sister” both appeared on the U.K. Singles chart. The album achieved gold certification in the U.K., Norway, and Sweden. Amid extensive touring in support of I Am a Bird Now, Anohni collaborated with video artist Charles Atlas on the performance work Turning, pairing a concert by Antony and the Johnsons with live video portraits of New York City women, among them Honey Dijon, Johanna Constantine, Connie Fleming, Julia Yasuda, Kembra Pfahler, and Eliza Douglas. Late 2006 and early 2007 saw Anohni participate in Reed’s first complete renditions of the album Berlin in New York City and Sydney, Australia. She also featured on Björk’s 2007 album Volta and appeared in the Leonard Cohen documentary I’m Your Man, while supplying vocals to several Hercules & Love Affair singles, notably the 2008 U.K. Top 40 hit “Blind.” July 2008 brought an exhibition of her visual artwork in Brussels.
Antony and the Johnsons returned in October 2008 with the Another World EP, which charted in multiple European territories as well as Australia and the U.S., where it reached number four on the Top Heatseekers chart. January 2009’s full-length The Crying Light, mixed by Bryce Goggin with arrangement input from Nico Muhly, centered on themes of “landscape and the future.” The album topped the European Billboard charts, entered the Top Ten in France and Italy, and reached the Top 20 in the U.K. and Germany; in the U.S. it peaked at 65 on the Billboard 200 and number seven on the Independent Albums chart. After North American and European tours, Antony and the Johnsons presented the album at the 2009 Manchester International Festival alongside the Manchester Camerata and laser designs by Chris Levine. Later that year Anohni curated the exhibition 6 Eyes at Paris’ Agnes B. Galerie Du Jour, performed with Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band at Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown Festival, and joined Bryce Dessner for a version of Bob Dylan’s “I Was Young When I Left Home” on the Red Hot Organization’s AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night.
August 2010 brought the Thank You for Your Love EP, featuring stripped-down renditions of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” ahead of October’s Swanlights. This richly orchestrated art-pop statement reached the Top 20 in several European countries and number 28 on the U.K. Albums chart, while peaking at number 122 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In 2011 Abrams Books published a companion hardcover edition of Swanlights containing Hegarty’s paintings, drawings, photography, collages, song lyrics, and writings. At that year’s Manchester International Festival, Anohni served as musical director for The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, an experimental opera drawn from the performance artist’s life. Early 2012 saw Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum mount a solo exhibition of Anohni’s sculptures and drawings. Around the same time Antony and the Johnsons staged Swanlights at New York’s Radio City Music Hall with Levine’s visual designs; the production later appeared at London’s Royal Opera House and Madrid’s Teatro Real. August 2012 yielded Cut the World, a symphonic overview arranged and performed with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra that included eleven catalog selections plus the new title track written for The Life and Death of Marina Abramović. The album earned double-silver certification across Europe, reaching number 41 on the U.K. Albums chart and number 42 on the U.S. Independent Albums chart.
Anohni’s 2013 activities encompassed a solo exhibition at New York City’s Sikkema Jenkins Gallery and a performance with Franco Battiato at the Verona Arena, later documented on the November release Del Suo Veloce Volo. In 2014 she mounted another exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins and initiated the Future Feminism exhibition and event series with Pfahler, Johanna Constantine, and CocoRosie’s Bianca and Sierra Casady; a 13-day festival accompanying the project featured Abramović, Juliana Huxtable, and Laurie Anderson. Also in 2014 the soundtrack to Atlas’ documentary about Turning appeared alongside a concert film. The following year Anohni contributed vocals to “Atom Dance” on Björk’s Vulnicura, while Antony and the Johnsons performed at Tasmania’s Dark Mofo festival in support of the Martu people of Western Australia and their opposition to a uranium mine near Parnngurr.
November 2015 saw the release of “4 Degrees,” the initial single from Anohni’s first solo album. Issued in May 2016, Hopelessness emerged from a collaboration with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never and conveyed her deepening disillusionment through dark, experimental electronics. The album charted throughout Europe, reaching number 26 on the U.K. Albums chart and number 121 on the U.S. Billboard 200. That year Anohni also presented the exhibition My Truth at Germany’s Kunsthalle Bielefeld and, together with J. Ralph, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for “Manta Ray,” featured in the 2015 environmental documentary Racing Extinction. Early 2017 brought the Hopelessness companion EP Paradise, which entered the U.S. Heatseekers Albums chart at number 24; later that year Anohni appeared on CocoRosie’s single “Smoke ’Em Out.” August 2017 found Anohni, Pfahler, and Constantine presenting Future Feminism in Aarhus, Denmark. The next year she created a multimedia exhibition for Copenhagen’s Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center that gathered artifacts from her New York experimental theater period, archival footage of her 1996 production Miracle Now, paintings, and sculptures; to mark the occasion she issued the song “Miracle Now” on YouTube. Another exhibition, LOVE, opened at New York City’s The Kitchen in 2019 and was accompanied by a book of photographs by Erika Yasuda, wife of Anohni’s late collaborator and friend Julia Yasuda. Also in 2019 Anohni staged the play She Saw Beautiful Things, featuring Atlas, Anderson, and Fleming among the performers. In 2020 she released covers of Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband,” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”
Early-2020s projects included scoring Fragile Future, a 2021 sculpture installation by the collective Drift, and co-writing and performing on six tracks of Hercules & Love Affair’s 2022 album In Amber. She then reconvened with her band as Anohni and the Johnsons, issuing the soulful protest single “It Must Change” in May 2023 as the first preview of July’s full-length My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross. Co-produced by pop/soul songwriter Jimmy Hogarth and shaped by the loss of several close friends, intensifying climate impacts, and touchstones such as Jimmy Scott and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, the album carried an image of Marsha P. Johnson on its cover and layered American soul foundations with British folk and experimental elements.
Born in the U.K. and raised in California, Anohni Hegarty (born Antony Hegarty) drew early influence from British new wave vocalists such as Boy George, Alison Moyet, Kate Bush, and Marc Almond. After her family relocated to California, she absorbed additional inspiration from American artists including Donnie Hathaway, Otis Redding, and Nina Simone. In 1990 Anohni moved to New York City to pursue experimental theater studies at New York University, where she began testing material as a songwriter and performer in the city’s underground clubs of the early ’90s. She co-established the collective Blacklips Performance Cult, which staged weekly Monday-night productions at the Pyramid Club from 1992 through 1995. During this period her stage persona drew from Blue Velvet-era Isabella Rossellini and from the cover illustration of a shaved-head woman on Soft Cell’s 1982 single “Torch.”
A New York Foundation for the Arts grant for the production The Birth of Anne Frank/The Ascension of Marsha P. Johnson enabled Anohni to assemble the musicians who would become the Johnsons. Honoring the gay liberation activist, Antony and the Johnsons coalesced in 1998 and regularly appeared at spaces including the Knitting Factory and the Pyramid Club. A demo reached Current 93’s David Tibet, leading to a 2000 release on his Durtro label that included Baby Dee and William Basinski among the players. That same year Anohni took a singing part in Steve Buscemi’s film Animal Factory. The 2001 EP I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy followed, incorporating covers of Current 93’s “Soft Black Stars” and David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s “Mysteries of Love.” Subsequent years brought guest appearances on Lou Reed’s albums The Raven and Animal Serenade, plus a 2003 world tour as a member of Reed’s band.
Following the November 2004 Lake EP on Secretly Canadian, Antony and the Johnsons delivered their second album, I Am a Bird Now, on the same label in February 2005. Reed, Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, and Joan Wasser contributed performances; the record earned widespread praise for its haunting atmosphere and captured the Mercury Prize. Post-victory, I Am a Bird Now entered the U.K. Albums chart Top 20 and registered on charts across Europe, while the singles “Hope There’s Someone” and “You Are My Sister” both appeared on the U.K. Singles chart. The album achieved gold certification in the U.K., Norway, and Sweden. Amid extensive touring in support of I Am a Bird Now, Anohni collaborated with video artist Charles Atlas on the performance work Turning, pairing a concert by Antony and the Johnsons with live video portraits of New York City women, among them Honey Dijon, Johanna Constantine, Connie Fleming, Julia Yasuda, Kembra Pfahler, and Eliza Douglas. Late 2006 and early 2007 saw Anohni participate in Reed’s first complete renditions of the album Berlin in New York City and Sydney, Australia. She also featured on Björk’s 2007 album Volta and appeared in the Leonard Cohen documentary I’m Your Man, while supplying vocals to several Hercules & Love Affair singles, notably the 2008 U.K. Top 40 hit “Blind.” July 2008 brought an exhibition of her visual artwork in Brussels.
Antony and the Johnsons returned in October 2008 with the Another World EP, which charted in multiple European territories as well as Australia and the U.S., where it reached number four on the Top Heatseekers chart. January 2009’s full-length The Crying Light, mixed by Bryce Goggin with arrangement input from Nico Muhly, centered on themes of “landscape and the future.” The album topped the European Billboard charts, entered the Top Ten in France and Italy, and reached the Top 20 in the U.K. and Germany; in the U.S. it peaked at 65 on the Billboard 200 and number seven on the Independent Albums chart. After North American and European tours, Antony and the Johnsons presented the album at the 2009 Manchester International Festival alongside the Manchester Camerata and laser designs by Chris Levine. Later that year Anohni curated the exhibition 6 Eyes at Paris’ Agnes B. Galerie Du Jour, performed with Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band at Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown Festival, and joined Bryce Dessner for a version of Bob Dylan’s “I Was Young When I Left Home” on the Red Hot Organization’s AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night.
August 2010 brought the Thank You for Your Love EP, featuring stripped-down renditions of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” ahead of October’s Swanlights. This richly orchestrated art-pop statement reached the Top 20 in several European countries and number 28 on the U.K. Albums chart, while peaking at number 122 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In 2011 Abrams Books published a companion hardcover edition of Swanlights containing Hegarty’s paintings, drawings, photography, collages, song lyrics, and writings. At that year’s Manchester International Festival, Anohni served as musical director for The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, an experimental opera drawn from the performance artist’s life. Early 2012 saw Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum mount a solo exhibition of Anohni’s sculptures and drawings. Around the same time Antony and the Johnsons staged Swanlights at New York’s Radio City Music Hall with Levine’s visual designs; the production later appeared at London’s Royal Opera House and Madrid’s Teatro Real. August 2012 yielded Cut the World, a symphonic overview arranged and performed with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra that included eleven catalog selections plus the new title track written for The Life and Death of Marina Abramović. The album earned double-silver certification across Europe, reaching number 41 on the U.K. Albums chart and number 42 on the U.S. Independent Albums chart.
Anohni’s 2013 activities encompassed a solo exhibition at New York City’s Sikkema Jenkins Gallery and a performance with Franco Battiato at the Verona Arena, later documented on the November release Del Suo Veloce Volo. In 2014 she mounted another exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins and initiated the Future Feminism exhibition and event series with Pfahler, Johanna Constantine, and CocoRosie’s Bianca and Sierra Casady; a 13-day festival accompanying the project featured Abramović, Juliana Huxtable, and Laurie Anderson. Also in 2014 the soundtrack to Atlas’ documentary about Turning appeared alongside a concert film. The following year Anohni contributed vocals to “Atom Dance” on Björk’s Vulnicura, while Antony and the Johnsons performed at Tasmania’s Dark Mofo festival in support of the Martu people of Western Australia and their opposition to a uranium mine near Parnngurr.
November 2015 saw the release of “4 Degrees,” the initial single from Anohni’s first solo album. Issued in May 2016, Hopelessness emerged from a collaboration with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never and conveyed her deepening disillusionment through dark, experimental electronics. The album charted throughout Europe, reaching number 26 on the U.K. Albums chart and number 121 on the U.S. Billboard 200. That year Anohni also presented the exhibition My Truth at Germany’s Kunsthalle Bielefeld and, together with J. Ralph, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for “Manta Ray,” featured in the 2015 environmental documentary Racing Extinction. Early 2017 brought the Hopelessness companion EP Paradise, which entered the U.S. Heatseekers Albums chart at number 24; later that year Anohni appeared on CocoRosie’s single “Smoke ’Em Out.” August 2017 found Anohni, Pfahler, and Constantine presenting Future Feminism in Aarhus, Denmark. The next year she created a multimedia exhibition for Copenhagen’s Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center that gathered artifacts from her New York experimental theater period, archival footage of her 1996 production Miracle Now, paintings, and sculptures; to mark the occasion she issued the song “Miracle Now” on YouTube. Another exhibition, LOVE, opened at New York City’s The Kitchen in 2019 and was accompanied by a book of photographs by Erika Yasuda, wife of Anohni’s late collaborator and friend Julia Yasuda. Also in 2019 Anohni staged the play She Saw Beautiful Things, featuring Atlas, Anderson, and Fleming among the performers. In 2020 she released covers of Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband,” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”
Early-2020s projects included scoring Fragile Future, a 2021 sculpture installation by the collective Drift, and co-writing and performing on six tracks of Hercules & Love Affair’s 2022 album In Amber. She then reconvened with her band as Anohni and the Johnsons, issuing the soulful protest single “It Must Change” in May 2023 as the first preview of July’s full-length My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross. Co-produced by pop/soul songwriter Jimmy Hogarth and shaped by the loss of several close friends, intensifying climate impacts, and touchstones such as Jimmy Scott and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, the album carried an image of Marsha P. Johnson on its cover and layered American soul foundations with British folk and experimental elements.
Albums
Turning
2014
Cut The World
2012
Swanlights
2011
Thank You for Your Love
2010
The Crying Light
2009
Another World
2008
You Are My Sister
2005
I Am A Bird Now
2005
The Lake
2004
Singles
