Antony and the Johnsons

US-based pop music band. The band is based around singer and pianist Antony (stage name of Antony Hegarty) (1971– ), known for his androgynous looks and voice and collaborations with rock and pop icons including Lou Reed and Boy George. Antony's second full length album, I Am a Bird Now, was a surprise winner of the 2005 Mercury Music Prize for best album of the year.

A self-titled debut album (1998) was followed by the EPs I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy (2001) and The Lake (2004). I Am a Bird Now, featuring stark and haunting ballads about sexual identity and the confines of gender, also features guest vocalists Rufus Wainwright (1973– ) and Devendra Banhart (1981– ).

Antony was born in Chichester, England, where he was a choir boy, but grew up in California from 1978. Inspired by British synth pop from the 1980s, he moved to New York in 1990 and formed the avant garde cabaret act Blacklips. He regularly appeared in drag performances in East Village clubs. He later appeared in Steve Buscemi's indie drama Animal Factory(2000) and Sébastien Lifshitz's (1968– ) drama Wild Side (2004; the title refers to Lou Reed's ‘Take a Walk on the Wild Side’). He toured internationally with Reed in 2003.