William "Holly" Johnson[1] (born 9 February 1960) is an English artist, musician, and writer, best known as the lead vocalist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who achieved huge commercial success in the mid-1980s.

Johnson played bass with the local band Big in Japan[6] and also released two solo singles on the Eric's label.

Kuhle, Johnson's personal manager, became a successful art dealer and collected paintings by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

He left Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the other members of the band were eventually let go by the label after the court case ZTT and Perfect Songs v Holly Johnson.

[7] After gaining some measure of local celebrity from being a member of Big in Japan, Johnson became involved with a group of younger musicians who together would become the nucleus of Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

It was during this period that guitarist Brian Nash and backing vocalist Paul Rutherford completed the band's established lineup.

[9] Johnson became exposed to the general public via the phenomenal success of their debut single "Relax", which was a huge, and controversial, hit in 1984.

Frankie's debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome, released in October 1984, sold around a quarter of a million copies in its first week, peaked at No.

After such success during 1984, when the band spent nearly four months at the top of the singles chart, Johnson was firmly established as a household name.

During a reunion on the TV show Bands Reunited many years later, when the five members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood were invited to play together using equipment that had been set up for them, he (and guitarist Brian Nash) declined to take part, but he did not rule out the possibility in the future.

"[11] In 1989, Johnson finally made his first solo debut with the album Blast, for MCA Records, which was a major success and reached UK No.

Singles "Love Train", "Americanos" and "Atomic City" met with warm reception, the former two both charting in the UK's top 5.

Johnson took part in a charity project for the Hillsborough disaster fund and recorded a popular single "Ferry Cross the Mersey" with Paul McCartney, the Christians and others.

[11] In March 1994, Johnson's critically acclaimed autobiography A Bone in My Flute was published, in which he discusses his struggle with, and acceptance of, his homosexuality.

[16][17][18] The same year, he recorded a new single, "Legendary Children (All of Them Queer)", whose lyrics referred to famous LGBT people throughout history.

[19] The same month Johnson featured on and co-wrote the single "Love and Hate" by Ryuichi Sakamoto for his album Sweet Revenge.

[20] In April 1998, he performed "The Power of Love" live at the Easter Gay Happening in Krefeld, Germany at Club Königsburg.

[21] In August 2009, Johnson presented an hour-long show "In the Beginning" on BBC Radio 2 about the Beatles, while he also appeared in the new video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" as the DJ.

In August 2011, he performed a full set live at the Rewind Festival, using a mix of Frankie Goes to Hollywood songs together with some of his solo hits "Americanos", "Heaven's Here" and "Love Train".

In May 2023, Johnson and the other members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood reunited for a one-off performance at the opening night of Eurovision, in their hometown of Liverpool.

[14] Johnson remained creative working as a painter and printmaker and writing songs until 1994 when he returned to performing music occasionally.