Hayden Silas Anhedönia (born March 24, 1998), known professionally as Ethel Cain, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and model. She became known for her ambient and southern gothic-style music and lyrics. She began releasing recordings under various aliases, before releasing multiple extended plays including Inbred (2021) which garnered various singles including "Crush".
Anhedönia released her debut studio album, Preacher's Daughter (2022) to acclaim from critics and garnered a cult following. After a vinyl release in 2025, the album debuted at number ten on the US Billboard 200 chart making Anhedönia the first transgender artist to reach top ten. She released a standalone recording Perverts (2025) which saw her experimenting with drone music. Later that year, she released her second studio album, Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You (2025) which served as a lyrical prequel to her debut album.
Hayden Silas Anhedönia was born on March 24, 1998, in Tallahassee, Florida, and raised in Perry. She is the eldest of four children in a Southern Baptist family. Her father was a deacon, and she was involved in the church choir from a young age, like her mother. At age 8, Anhedönia began studying classical piano, with musical influences from a variety of Christian music. The church was Anhedönia's first exposure to music: "My whole life was always singing, always, always music all the time", she said. She left the church at the age of 16. Anhedönia was homeschooled.
Reflecting on how being autistic has impacted her artistry, she has stated:
I'm autistic, and so that definitely heightens sensory everything. [...] I think that's why I have so much crossover between media, because it's like, there's never just one sense. Music is not just something you listen to. Film is not just something you watch. You get all these senses from all these things. When I'm producing music, I literally feel sometimes I can see it. I have to close my eyes, and I imagine the bass is the earth. I imagine the synths are rising up next to you, and I imagine the vocals are high in the sky, right in the center. I close my eyes and picture the sound around me – that's how I mix.
Reflecting on her religious upbringing in a 2021 interview, Anhedönia said that she still considered herself a Southern Baptist: "Whether I like it or not, God always has and always will be a huge part of my life. Whether he's being used as a comforting figure or a threat, I've always been surrounded by it. It's not really something you can walk away from. And I'd rather just sit with it than be like 'Fuck the church!'"
In an interview for Rolling Stone in August 2023, she revealed that all of her family have since left the church, though she clarified they are still religious in some ways. She elaborated in a Tumblr post in 2022 that she does not consider herself a Christian, nor as someone who cares about religion. However, she "still abides by the values [she] was raised on", such as kindness, graciousness, and loving her neighbor.
The lyrics of Anhedönia's song "American Teenager" express anti-war sentiment, political and religious disillusionment, and criticisms of US gun culture. It was included by former President of the United States Barack Obama in his list of favorite songs of 2022, which prompted surprise from Anhedönia that a former president had included her "anti-war, anti-patriotism fake pop song" in his end-of-year list.
On February 14, 2024, she released a song on SoundCloud titled "من النهر" ("Min al-Nahr"; Arabic for 'From the River'), a reference to the pro-Palestinian phrase "from the river to the sea". She has expressed disapproval of United States presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Additionally, she expressed support for Luigi Mangione, suspected of killing the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
