Trans artist Anohni nominated for Best British Female Brit Award
Transgender artist Anohni has been nominated for a Best British Female at the BRIT Awards for the album ‘Hopelessness’.
The nomination comes 11 years after the artist was nominated for the 2006 Best British Male for her work prior transitioning as Antony Hegarty in Antony and the Johnsons.
The 45-year-old said that she had recognised her female gender identity since childhood but “cowardice and shame” prevented her from making the jump.
She said to the Guardian: “‘She’ used to make my skin crawl. Within a gay context it can be used very snidely: to contain trans people and to denigrate other men.
“But working and socialising with women, and doing [campaign group] Future Feminism, empowered me in the feminine, and I could accept that it was OK to be the way I am. But I don’t feel emphatically female, it’s more subtle than that.
“I was never going to become a beautiful, passable woman, and I was never going to be a man. It’s a quandary. But the trans condition is a beautiful mystery; it’s one of nature’s best ideas.”
Anohni is running against Ellie Goulding, Emeli Sande, Lianne La Havas and Nao in the awards which are set to take place next month.
The artist described the album as a new chapter in her life.
“I haven’t spent a lot of time expressing anger in my life, so this record is a new chapter. Anger is energising: it’s quite an empowering feeling,” she said.
Anohni was nominated for an Oscar last year for the song Manta Ray which was written for the ecology documentary Racing Extinction. However she boycotted the ceremony when she was not asked to perform.
