Antony and the Johnsons

Biography

Anohni and the Johnsons (formerly Antony and the Johnsons) is an American psychedelic folk group from New York. Anohni's voice, the group's leader, is sometimes perceived as a fusion between those of Nina Simone and Bryan Ferry. Among Anohni's declared admirers are Dido, Philip Glass, Marc Almond, CocoRosie, Nomi Ruiz, Lou Reed and Björk (who became a regular collaborator) as well as Boy George, Rufus Wainwright and Devendra Banhart, who all three sang on I Am a Bird Now. The group is organized around transgender singer Anohni, born Antony Hegarty, an identity she used when creating the group in 1998 until 2015. Born in 1971 in Chichester (a town in Sussex, in South England), Anohni settled with her family in California in 1981, after spending eighteen months in Amsterdam (in 1977 and 1978).