Anohni's debut album Hopelessness proves to be a politically-infused effort, addressing issues like drone wars and ecocide. As noted by Pitchfork, her track "Drone Bomb Me", released immediately after the US-Somali drone attack, turns the abstraction of drone warfare into something more intimate.
Seems like both the Democrats and the Republicans have yet to hear the last of Anohni's political tirades. The artist recently released this statement on Facebook and it has been earning various commentaries ever since:
AMERICANS, YOU ARE BEING USED
Did you all get the memo? This election cycle in the USA is not about ecocide, the dying oceans and the extermination of biodiversity, grotesque income disparity, corporate sovereignty and US warcrimes that have played a big part in the destabilization and radicalization of the Middle East! No, it is about transgendered bathroom access! Once again, both parties goad us into becoming smokescreens for their insidious initiatives. Transpeople, we are being used. I have watched it on every election cycle for the last 30 years. They used to wheel out the gays every election year to convince America to vote for Reagan and then the Bush dynasty, or else succumb to homosexual encroachment in schools and churches! Now they are trying to do it to trans people, taking advantage of our vulnerabilities to flood the media with titilating identity politics on an election year. The democrats masticate over the aura of fake liberalism that trans sympathy might bring them. The republicans glory in an opportunity to convince poor ignorant bigots to vote for banks and corporations because they are scared of seeing a trans person in the bathroom at Target. And idiotic reviewers from the Financial Times are desperate to quarantine any transgendered artist that dares to name this rot in her work. - Anohni
It's no surprise that Anohni finally made an explicit statement on social media regarding this year's kooky elections. In her introspective interview this month with FBi Radio, she described her album Hopelessness as:
"...a Trojan horse in a way: something that had a sense of jubilance to it and then imbedded in it was some heavy content. Also I just wanted to challenge the medium of pop music, and see what’s possible for us to talk about in the forum of pop."
Clearly the artist knew the reverberations her album and its content could be making in light of recent political events. When asked if it was indeed a protest album, she said yes after some consideration. The interview holds a lot of informed insights from the artist as she discussed media's role in romanticizing issues and the role of pop culture as a mode of intervention with local news.
Anohni continues her world tour this week through the USA, Australia and Europe:
May 19 | Park Avenue Armory New York, NY
May 27 | Sydney Opera House Sydney, Australia
May 28 | Sydney Opera House Sydney, Australia
May 30 | Sydney Opera House Sydney, Australia
May 31 | Sydney Opera House Sydney, Australia
Jun 24 | Ancienne Belgique Brussels, Belgium
Jun 28 | Tempodrom Berlin, Germany
Jun 29 | E-Werk Cologne, Germany
Jul 01 | Auditorium Stravinski Montreux, Switzerland
Jul 04 | Philharmonie de Paris Paris, France
Aug 17 | Rehearsal Studio, The Lyceum Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Aug 18 | Rehearsal Studio, The Lyceum Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Get tickets here.
Photo credit: FBi Radio