Anohni has never shyed away from speaking her mind and defending what she believes in, and her stunning eco-activist anthem "4 Degrees" is no exception. She has always been a fighter for the environment, a critic of big business, and, as a transgender woman born in a boy's body, a champion of LGBT rights. Born Antony Hegarty, Anohni's family moved from England to San Francisco when she was 10 years old. She has described her rise to musical success as incredibly lucky, because despite her talents, she was told that no one "like her" would ever be able to make it in popular music. She cites legend Lou Reed as her guardian angel, as he "advocated for her so intensely", and with his support and the support of other artists, she was able to overcome the naysayers.
Having only recently taken the name Anohni, she is best known as simply Antony, the founding member and leader of the highly influential and award-winning New York group Antony and the Johnsons. With her incredibly unique and beautiful voice, along with her achingly emotive lyrics, she carved out a space in music all her own. She received further exposure by collaborating with Björk on 2007's Volta, which featured a duet with the Icelandic superstar, "Dull Flame of Desire".
Anohni's 2016 album Hopelessness, her first ever solo record, features music by two producers renowned in the electronic music scene, and holds the banner of social change high. "4 Degrees" is a thrashing of herself and all of us for our complicity in the annual 4 degrees of average heat that the earth is enduring. Relentlessly intoning the easy excuse "it's only 4 Degrees", she looks deep into her heart and recognizes that we all don't want to face that by continuing to be complicit in climate change we want "to hear the dogs crying for water / see the fish go belly-up in the sea / And all those lemurs and all those tiny creatures / (we) wanna see them burn, it's only 4 degrees". Powerful words, and with the anthemic and massive pounding drum track behind them, the song is spine-tingling in intensity and impossible to ignore
Her continuing fight for what she believes in led her to boycott the 2017 Academy Awards, despite being the first ever openly transgender person to be nominated for an award (soundtrack), citing in a poignant letter that she felt that the awards were a distraction from the intense money interests in the US and its hypocritical relationship with transgender artists. She also admitted her hurt at being snubbed for a performance slot in favor of artists who weren't even nominated.
Anohni continues to put her heart out there, as she just recently released her second solo record, the Paradise EP, which offers an extra song for any fans who email her “and share with me in a sentence or two what you care most about, or your hopes for the future.” In addition, she has collaborated on an anti-Trump single recorded with the sister-duo CocoRosie, where they compare the Trump administration and its supporters to a mother who kicks her children out - "She said no more to free load / This is the end of the freak show". With the world in its current state, it feels good to know that artists like Anohni are out there, letting their voices be heard.