Their second album, 2005's I Am a Bird Now, was certified Gold in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Switzerland; it also was awarded that year's UK Mercury Prize.

[7] As a performer, The Guardian has described Anohni as being "gifted with a vibrato voice – think Nina Simone, Billie Holiday – that sighs with sincerity and the lyrical prowess to make the profoundly personal both accessible and ambiguous.

British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Anohni's music through his Durtro label.

Now gaining more attention, Anohni signed to U.S.-based record label Secretly Canadian, and released another EP, The Lake, with Lou Reed guest-performing on one of the tracks.

As one of the artists selected for that year's Whitney Biennial, Anohni presented Turning, a series of concerts as Antony and the Johnsons in tandem with live video portraits of 13 femme underground NYC figures including Connie Flemming, Honey Dijon, Kembra Pfahler, Joey Gabriel and Nomi Ruiz, in collaboration with film-maker Charles Atlas.

The album featured guest appearances by Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, Boy George, and Devendra Banhart, and circled themes of duality and transformation.

Rival Mercury nominees, and favorites for the prize, the Kaiser Chiefs suggested that Anohni got in on a technicality; despite the fact she was born in the United Kingdom she spent much of her time in the U.S.—although they conceded that it was "a good album".

Ann Powers wrote of The Crying Light for the LA Times online, "it's the most personal environmentalist statement possible, making an unforeseen connection between queer culture's identity politics and the green movement.

The concert hall was transformed into a crystal cave filled with laser effects created by installation artist Chris Levine.

After two sold-out concerts at the Sydney Opera House, Antony and the Johnsons ended their recent touring in February 2010 in Tokyo.

Antony and the Johnsons performed "Thank You For Your Love" on both the Late Show with David Letterman and Later... with Jools Holland in support of the album's release.

In October 2010 Anohni was invited to "takeover" The Guardian's music and arts page that ran for weeks leading up to the release of Swanlights, the band's 4th album.

In 2010–2011, the song "Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground" from the album The Crying Light was chosen as one of the five stimuli that the International Baccalaureate Organization chose for the IB Theatre Arts PPP.

On January 26, 2012, the Museum of Modern Art in New York produced a sold-out performance by Antony and the Johnsons, entitled "Swanlights" after their fourth studio album, at Radio City Music Hall, a collaboration with laser artist Chris Levine and set designer Carl Robertshaw.

[29] Antony and the Johnsons released a live symphonic album in August 2012 entitled Cut the World; it features a track called "Future Feminism", which consists of a speech in which Anohni disparages patriarchal religions and advocates for a shift towards feminine systems of governance as part of an effort to avert global ecological disaster.

In 2019, following the passing of Johnsons collaborator Julia Yasuda, Anohni staged a surrealist play "Love" at The Kitchen in NYC, in part a tribute to the work they had performed together in the mid 90s.

Performing their first local show in more than 15 years, the transgender singer and her group delivered nothing but sheer emotion during one of the most courageous, vital and provocative concerts to grace a Chicago stage in recent memory.

The Guardian described the event as " a uniquely gifted interpreter pay[ing] homage to mentor Lou Reed... she's evidently in her element, taking risks with the song's melody and phrasing that justify the gig's appearance as part of the London jazz festival: you're very aware of an artist pushing at the boundaries and structure of a song on the spot...And sometimes, her reinterpretations seem faintly miraculous.