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Karen Cheung

Just months after releasing an experimental album titled Perverts, Ethel Cain is back with new music. Her cult-favourite debut album, Preacher’s Daughter, earned her a dedicated fan base and made several best-of-the-year lists in 2022. This week, she’s putting out a prequel to the album, titled Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You.

The lyrics to song Preacher’s Daughter touch on intense themes including sexual violence and cannibalism, and the narrative ultimately culminates in Ethel Cain’s “death”.
Ahead of the release of Willoughby Tucker, the 27-year-old dropped lead single “Nettles” and wrote on Instagram in June: “I didn’t even realise what story I was writing yet but I think subconsciously, because I knew how Preacher’s Daughter was going to end, I wanted to go back in time to a moment of sweetness. I hope you enjoy the greenery; I love this song with all my heart.”
Pitchfork has described the singer-songwriter as an “American gothic Lana Del Rey”, and she made the Forbes list of 30 under 30 in music last year. She’s also a fashion model and was recently seen on the red carpet at the Dior Summer 2026 show in Paris.
Here’s what you need to know about the model and musician.
Ethel Cain is not her real name

Ethel Cain’s real name is Hayden Silas Anhedönia. The songwriter first put out music under the alias White Silas before adopting the moniker Ethel Cain around 2019, when she released the EP Golden Age. She told Nylon in 2021 that the story of Cain and Abel was her “favourite Bible story growing up”, and she was drawn to “Ethel” because she wanted a name that was “very 50s old lady”.
“I realised my heart was pulled the strongest to my roots, which is the intersection between my experiences in the heavily religious American South and my dreams of the wild and free American West,” she said of her alter ego in a 2020 Underground Underdogs interview. She says it’s also influenced her own life in positive ways: “I see Ethel Cain as a piece of me that I separate from myself and discard, so that I can make good decisions in life,” she told The Guardian recently.
There are strong religious themes in her music

Cain grew up in a conservative Southern Baptist community in Florida, where her father was a deacon and her mother sang in the church choir, per Pitchfork. She was home-schooled and began taking piano lessons at the age of eight.
When she was 12, she told her mother she was gay, and was considered by those around her to be the “spawn of Satan”, she told the publication. She wasn’t allowed to use the internet or listen to music that wasn’t Christian even in her early teens. Four years after she came out, she left the church, disillusioned. “It’s one of those things where it’s fun until you realise how scary it was,” she says of her religious childhood.

Religion still serves as a major source of inspiration for her art. Preacher’s Daughter is a concept album with strong horror undertones, and the lyrics have drawn comparisons to the Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor. The narrative describes the fictional life of Ethel Cain, who suffers abuse at the hands of her father, runs away from home, and then becomes a “freezer bride” after a man she meets in Texas kills and cannibalises her.
Cain’s disillusionment with religion often shows up in her lyrics: in “American Teenager”, she sings, “Jesus, if you’re listening let me handle my liquor / And Jesus, if you’re there / Why do I feel alone in this room with you?” A few songs later, in “Sun Bleached Flies”, she continues, “God loves you, but not enough to save you.”
She’s the first trans woman with a Billboard top 10 album

When Cain was 20, she came out as trans on Facebook. This year, she became the first trans woman to land a top 10 album on the Billboard charts for Preacher’s Daughter – even though the record came out three years ago.
“Trans women have something so beautiful to offer, and I love working with other trans artists. Their art just hits in a way that nobody else’s really does,” she told Pitchfork in 2021. “I don’t really think that being trans is one of the most interesting things about me, but it’s definitely a unique quality that adds to the pile, and I love it.”
She’s modelled for Givenchy and Miu Miu

In addition to crushing it on musical stages from Coachella to the Reading Festival, Cain is also a model who has appeared in several fashion campaigns and shows. She was the face of Givenchy’s autumn/winter 2022 campaign by Matthew M. Williams, and also walked the New York Fashion Week runways for Eckhaus Latta and Miu Miu. She’s also worked with Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein, and as of February, is represented by IMG.
Former president Obama is a fan of her music

The third single of Preacher’s Daughter, “American Teenager” – which has been streamed over 100 million times on Spotify as of this writing ­­– was included in former US President Barack Obama’s list of favourite tracks in 2022. The singer cheekily responded in a tweet that went viral: “Did not have a former president including my anti-war, anti-patriotism fake pop song on his end of year list on my 2022 bingo.” She is outspoken about politics on social media, and in 2024, wrote, “If you voted for Trump, I hope that peace never finds you.”
She’s apologised for offensive comments she made at 19

Last month, Cain released a four-page statement on Google Docs, addressing a controversy over screenshots about her that were shared on Reddit. The post revealed that she had made offensive statements when she was 19, including saying the N-word, fat-shaming, and wearing a “Legalise incest” shirt. In her statement, shared on July 9, Cain said that she was “entirely aware” of what she was saying at that age and that she had “intended to be as inflammatory and controversial as possible”.
“This was a chapter of my life I look back at shamefully. I am not proud of my actions, and I have done my best to bury it as I feel strongly that no good can come from it. As I move forward through my life, I aim to use my platform for good, for change, and for progress,” she wrote.
Cain addressed the issue further in an interview on The New York Times’ Popcast podcast last week, saying, “[When it comes to] the things that are so deeply ingrained in you, you’re constantly having to work on yourself – as everybody does – but especially when you come from somewhere like where I come from, there are things you’re constantly having to unlearn every day.”


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Meet Ethel Cain, the trans singer and model dubbed the ‘American gothic Lana Del Rey’

Meet model and songstress Ethel Cain, who’s been dubbed the ‘American gothic Lana Del Rey’. Photo: Dollie Kyarn

Ethel Cain opening for Mitski on September 12, 2024. Photo: @ethelcaindaily/Instagram

Ethel Cain is the stage name of Hayden Silas Anhedönia. Photo: @ethelcaindaily/Instagram

Ethel Cain was raised Southern Baptist, which influenced her music. Photo: @dauntlesspromo/Instagram

Ethel Cain left the church at 16 after being ostracised and growing disillusioned. Photo: @ethelcaindaily/Instagram

Ethel Cain has been described as an “American gothic Lana Del Rey”. Photo: @ethelcaindaily/Instagram

Ethel Cain’s look for the Dior summer 2026 event in Paris in June. Photo: @ethelcaindaily/Instagram

Album artwork for Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter, released in 2022. Photo: Handout

Ethel Cain grew up in a tight-knit Southern Baptist community Photo: @ethelcaindaily/Instagram

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She’s the first trans woman with a Billboard Top 10 album, and she’s also modelled for Miu Miu and Givenchy – even Barack Obama is a fan


She’s the first trans woman with a Billboard Top 10 album, and she’s also modelled for Miu Miu and Givenchy – even Barack Obama is a fan.


Meet Ethel Cain, the trans singer and model dubbed the ‘American gothic Lana Del Rey’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}She’s the first trans woman with a Billboard Top 10 album, and she’s also modelled for Miu Miu and Givenchy – even Barack Obama is a fan

She’s the first trans woman with a Billboard Top 10 album, and she’s also modelled for Miu Miu and Givenchy – even Barack Obama is a fan