Tunes Du Jour Presents ANOHNI

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To listen to ANOHNI is, first and foremost, to experience a voice of unmistakable character. It’s a voice that can convey profound fragility and immense power, often within the same breath. A glance at a playlist of her work reveals a career of evolution, an artistic journey that moves from the deeply personal to the unflinchingly political, all while maintaining a core of radical vulnerability.

The early material, released as Antony & the Johnsons, established a unique musical world. Songs like “Hope There’s Someone” and “You Are My Sister” are built around lush arrangements of piano and strings, creating a sound that feels both classic and entirely new. This was the setting for songs of intense personal disclosure, exploring themes of gender identity in “For Today I Am A Boy,” longing for connection in “Cripple And The Starfish,” and the complex nature of love in “Fistful Of Love.” The music is intimate, as if you’re hearing confessions shared in confidence, yet the emotional scale feels grand and operatic.

Later came a jarring, brilliant shift with the 2016 album Hopelessness, released under the name ANOHNI. Here, she traded the orchestral arrangements for stark, powerful electronic production. This sonic change mirrored a thematic one: the focus turned outward. The intense vulnerability that characterized her earlier work was now directed at global crises. On “Drone Bomb Me,” she sings from the perspective of a girl wishing for death from the sky, and on “4 Degrees,” she confronts her own complicity in climate change. It was a confrontational and necessary evolution, proving that her emotional honesty could be a potent tool for political commentary.

This ability to inhabit different sonic and emotional spaces is also clear in her many collaborations and interpretations. On the playlist, we hear her voice providing the soaring, soulful center of Hercules & Love Affair’s house anthem “Blind,” and intertwining with Björk’s on the elemental duet “The Dull Flame Of Desire.” She can also take a well-known song, like Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” or Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love,” and imbue it with a gravity that makes it feel entirely her own, stripping it down to its most sorrowful and honest core.

The recent return to the name ANOHNI and the Johnsons suggests a blending of these threads. Tracks like “It Must Change” and “Sliver of Ice” bring back the soulful, organic instrumentation of the Johnsons, but the perspective feels informed by the clear-eyed global awareness of the ANOHNI material. What remains constant across all of these projects is a profound empathy and a refusal to look away from difficult truths, whether they are found within the self or in the wider world. Her body of work isn’t just a collection of songs, but a continuous, courageous act of testimony.

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Tunes Du Jour Celebrates Pride 2025

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Every June, Pride Month invites us to honor the LGBTQ+ community—not just its triumphs and ongoing struggles, but its wildly varied voices. This playlist, drawn from over six decades of music, is less a neat collection than a vibrant mix of statements, emotions, and identities. From Sylvester’s ecstatic disco classic “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” to Billie Eilish’s “LUNCH,” the selections aren’t organized by genre, time period, or even theme. That’s fitting. The LGBTQ+ experience is too broad and multifaceted to be summed up by any single sound.

Some tracks speak directly to queerness, like Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” which namechecks drag queens and trans women, or Bronski Beat’s spiritual descendants, the Scissor Sisters, with their cheeky, loving anthem “Take Your Mama.” Others, like “Rocket Man” or “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” resonated with queer audiences before the artists behind them publicly came out—or even if they never did. There’s a history of coded expression here, of lyrics that offered solace to those reading between the lines.

Then there are the songs that became anthems of empowerment by sheer force of feeling: Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” offered a lifeline to LGBTQ+ youth when it first aired on MTV, while Madonna’s “Vogue” gave a global spotlight to a ballroom culture that had long gone ignored by the mainstream. Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” might seem quaint next to Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!,” but both songs capture longing, whether for love, acceptance, or the audacity to want more.

What unites these artists isn’t a single identity but a shared defiance—sometimes quiet, sometimes flamboyant—against what’s expected. Whether it’s the punkish ache of Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)” or the glossy Pet Shop Boys cover of “Go West,” the throughline is the refusal to shrink. Pride, in this sense, isn’t about perfection or performance. It’s about visibility, honesty, and a community that keeps evolving, note by note.

So, while this playlist won’t tell a single story, that’s exactly the point. Pride has never been about uniformity. It’s about claiming your truth, however it sounds—and blasting it through the speakers so someone else knows they’re not alone.

Hear last year’s Pride playlist here.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 10-24-22

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Today’s playlist celebrates the October 24 birthdays of The Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman, Drake, ANOHNI (nee Antony), Madlib, Lipps Inc.’s Steven Greenberg, The Big Bopper, Sanford Clark, Barry Ryan, Monica, Brenda & the Tabulations’ Brenda Payton, Neon Philharmonic’s Don Gant, and V.V. Brown; and the October 25 birthdays of Yes’s Jon Anderson, Bat For Lashes, Arrested Development’s Speech, Ciara, Art Brut’s Eddie Argos, Katy Perry, Trio’s Stephan Remmler, Helen Reddy, Kings of Convenience’s Eirik Glambek Bøe, Divinyls’ Christina Amphlett, Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson, Starland Vocal Band’s Taffy Danoff, Smokie’s Chris Norman, The Simpsons’ Nancy Cartwright, and Pablo Picasso.

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Pride 50

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On June 28, 1969, what was supposed to be a routine raid on a gay bar by the New York City police turned violent when patrons at the Stonewall Inn fought back, thus setting off the gay liberation movement. That pivotal moment was recognized one year later with a gathering in New York’s Greenwich Village, where the Stonewall Inn is located, and Gay Pride marches in Los Angeles and Chicago. The following year, Gay Pride marches sprang up in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin and Stockholm. The Pride movement grew with each passing year, and it continues to expand to this day.

Tunes du Jour celebrates 50 years of Pride with today’s playlist. Be seen. Be heard. Be proud. Celebrate. Love.

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A Hint Of Mint – Volume 100: LGBTQ Music From 2008 To 2009

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This playlist consists of twenty songs, most performed by artists who fall somewhere under the LGBTQ umbrella, with a few straight allies whose songs have queer lyrical content or perhaps a passing reference. Artists include Hercules and Love Affair, Deerhunter and Sam Sparro.

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Meet Oscar Nominee Anohni

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In a moment I’ll introduce you to Anohni, who was nominated for an Oscar this year in the category of Best Original Song, but first I want to talk a little about Kesha, Grimes and Sam Smith.

You may have heard about Kesha’s much-publicized battle to get out of her recording agreement. She claims that Dr. Luke, the producer to whose company, Kemosabe Records, she is signed, drugged and sexually assaulted her on several occasions. As a courtroom proceeding about those allegations had not yet been tried, a New York Supreme Court justice denied Kesha’s motion for a preliminary inunction extraditing her from recording for Kemosabe.

This led to the proliferation of the hashtag #FreeKesha. A group of fans protested outside Sony Music’s headquarters, demanding that the music corporation free Kesha. Kesha isn’t signed to Sony Music, but no matter. Sony should cease distribution of Kemosabe Records, which would leave Kesha still signed to Kemosabe, but hey – it was a nice day for a good protest, and what else is there in the world to complain about? Ongoing wars? Poisoned public water supplies? Human rights violations? More important to get a pop star out of her recording agreement. #Priorities

Many public figures offered support to Kesha, among them Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Adele, Janelle Monáe, Fiona Apple, Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato, Tegan and Sara, HAIM, Alessia Cara, Lorde, Wale, Best Coast, George Takei, Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon, Lena Dunham, Mariska Hargitay, Troye Sivan, Halsey, Iggy Azalea, Sara Bareilles, JoJo, Adam Lambert, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Margaret Cho, Zedd, and Jack Antonoff. Taylor Swift donated $250,000 to Kesha to help with her financial needs.

Also supporting Kesha is Claire Elise Boucher, the Canadian singer-songwriter who records under the name Grimes. In response to a question from a Time Out reporter about Kesha’s legal situation, Grimes, whose “Kill v. Maim” is #3 this week in Glenn’s Ten, said the following about recording agreements: “You shouldn’t be allowed to sign a human being, regardless of what the allegations are or what anyone said or did. It’s basically like slavery.” Yes, making millions of dollars doing your dream job is basically the same as being forcibly taken from your home and forced to do a job you don’t want to do for no pay, much like Spaghetti Carbonara is basically the same thing as a nuclear missile, which is to say, both exist. (Grimes’ two most recent albums were released by the 4AD label, with whom, I assume, she is signed to a recording agreement.)

If Kesha’s allegations against Dr. Luke are true, then I hope at the very least she is let out of her agreement with Kemosabe, as being forced to aid your rapist make money is unconscionable, and that is where the slavery comparison applies.

British singer-songwriter Sam Smith may or may not know what slavery is, but he exhibited a lack of grasp on history last weekend at the Academy Awards. As he couldn’t pronounce Anohni or The Weeknd, Common announced as the winner of the Best Original Song award the easiest name to remember and pronounce, Sam Smith.

In his acceptance speech, Smith claimed to be the first openly gay person to win an Oscar, which is true, if you don’t count Dustin Lance Black, Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, John Schlesinger, Stephen Sondheim, Bill Condon, Alan Ball, Scott Rudin, Pedro Almodovar and the other openly gay people who have won. Maybe Smith meant to say he’s the first openly gay person to win an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2016. He says he got his information from actor Sir Ian McKellen via an interview Smith read, which is true, if you leave out the part where McKellen refers to no openly gay winners in the Acting categories.

It was pointed out to Smith that he is not the first openly gay person to win an Oscar, to which he responded “I think I’m the second openly gay person to win it,” which is true, if you don’t count Dustin Lance Black, Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, John Schlesinger, Stephen Sondheim, Bill Condon, Alan Ball, Scott Rudin and the other openly gay people who have won less one. In the real world, Smith is not even the first openly gay person in the category of Best Original Song. When told that openly gay Howard Ashman won that category twice, Smith replied “I should know him. We should date.” Ashman died of AIDS-related complications in 1991, the year for which his title song from Beauty and the Beast won, but sure, Sam, date him. You’ll be the first openly necrophiliac to win an Oscar. #Trailblazer. I do agree with one thing Smith said. He should know of Ashman.

Which brings us to Anohni. Along with her collaborator, J. Ralph, Anohni was nominated for Best Original Song for “Manta Ray” from the film Racing Extinction. Unlike Sam Smith, The Weeknd and Lady Gaga, Anohni, a transsexual woman, was not invited to perform her nominated song at the Oscar ceremony. In a year in which The Academy was taken to task for a lack of diversity among the nominees, the producers felt it was more important for the president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to give a speech on the show about the importance of diversity in Hollywood than it was to allow only the second transgender person to be nominated for an Oscar to perform (not a Sam Smith second person, but truly the second). Besides, The Danish Girl received nominations, including one for Best Actor for Eddie Redmayne as the titular character Lili Elbe, one of the first known recipients of gender correction surgery, and who better to represent trans women at the Oscars than a heterosexual cisgender man? Also, the award show needed time for clueless Clueless actress Stacey Dash insult the .04% of viewers who know who she is. #Priorities

Here’s your chance to get to know Anohni, who previously recorded under the name Antony. Her distinctive voice will grab you and her songs will move you. Check out twenty of her best, including guest appearances on other artists’ tracks:


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