Transgender singer, Anohni has been nominated for the Best British Female award at the 2017 BRIT Awards.
Anohni has been nominated for the album, ‘Hopelessness’, which received critical acclaim and was also nominated for a Mercury Music Prize.
The singer’s nod comes 11 years after being nominated for Best British Male at the awards. She also becomes the first artist to be nominated for both the female and male categories, having previously been nominated when she was a man called Antony Hegarty, part of the band, Antony and the Johnsons.
Born in Chichester, Anohni has previously told how she identified as transgender from an early age, but “shame” stopped her from publically declaring it.
Speaking to The Guardian last year, she said, “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.”
On the night, Anohni will be competing against Ellie Goulding, Emeli Sande, Lianne La Havas and Nao for the award.
The BRIT Awards will take place on 22 February.
