This article is about the Japanese multimedia artist and peace activist. For the Japanese judoka, see Yoko Ono (judoka). For the song, see Yoko Ono (song).
The native form of this personal name is Ono Yoko. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Yoko Ono
小野 洋子 オノ・ヨーコ
Ono in 2011
Born
(1933-02-18) February 18, 1933 (age 91)
Tokyo, Japan
Other names
Yoko Ono Lennon
Education
Gakushuin University (attended)
Sarah Lawrence College (attended)
Occupations
Artist
singer
songwriter
peace activist
Spouses
Toshi Ichiyanagi
(m. 1956; div. 1962)
Anthony Cox
(m. 1962; ann. 1963)
(m. 1963; div. 1969)
John Lennon
(m. 1969; died 1980)
Children
2, including Sean Ono Lennon
Musical career
Genres
Avant-garde
Neo-Dada
downtown
performance art
experimental
rock
pop
electronic
noise
abstract
Instrument(s)
Vocals
percussion
piano
keyboards
Discography
Yoko Ono discography
Years active
1961–2021
Labels
Apple
Geffen
Polydor
Rykodisc
Manimal Vinyl
Astralwerks
Chimeras
Secretly Canadian
Formerly of
Plastic Ono Band
Website
imaginepeace.com
Musical artist
Signature
Yoko Ono (Japanese: 小野 洋子, romanized: Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana オノ・ヨーコ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.[1]
Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York City in 1952 to join her family. She became involved with New York City's downtown artists scene in the early 1960s, which included the Fluxus group, and became well known in 1969 when she married English musician John Lennon of the Beatles, with whom she would subsequently record as a duo in the Plastic Ono Band. The couple used their honeymoon as a stage for public protests against the Vietnam War. She and Lennon remained married until he was murdered in front of the couple's apartment building, the Dakota, on December 8, 1980. Together they had one son, Sean, who later also became a musician.
Ono began a career in popular music in 1969, forming the Plastic Ono Band with Lennon and producing a number of avant-garde music albums in the 1970s. She achieved commercial and critical success in 1980 with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, a collaboration with Lennon that was released three weeks before his murder, winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. To date, she has had twelve number one singles on the US Dance charts, and in 2016 was named the 11th most successful dance club artist of all time by Billboard magazine.[2] Many musicians have paid tribute to Ono as an artist in her own right and as a muse and icon, including Elvis Costello,[3][failed verification] the B-52's,[4] Sonic Youth[5] and Meredith Monk.[6]
As Lennon's widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy. She funded the Strawberry Fields memorial in Manhattan's Central Park,[7] the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland,[8] and the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan (which closed in 2010).[9] She has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, disaster relief in Japan and the Philippines,[10][11] and other such causes. In 2002, she inaugurated a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace.[12] In 2012, she received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award[13] and co-founded the group Artists Against Fracking.[14]
^"Yoko Ono retrospective opens in Frankfurt". Yahoo Malaysia. February 16, 2013. Archived from the original on September 12, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
^"Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists : Page 1". Billboard. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017.
^"Elvis Costello-Walking on Thin Ice". last.fm. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
^Cite error: The named reference allmusic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"SYR4 – Goodbye 20th Century". NME. December 1, 1999. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014.
^"Meredith Monk: Songs That Defy Time and Country | New Sounds | Hand-picked music, genre free". newsounds. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^"Strawberry Fields". www.centralpark.com. May 6, 2021. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^Ono, Yoko. "IMAGINE PEACE TOWER". IMAGINE PEACE TOWER. Archived from the original on October 3, 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^"John Lennon Museum". JapanVisitor Japan Travel Guide. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Vozick-Levinson, Simon (March 18, 2011). "Yoko Ono Talks Japan Disaster and Relief Concert". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^"¥5 Million New Year's Gift from Yoko Ono to Ondoy Victims | Philippine Embassy – Tokyo, Japan". Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^"Lennon Ono peace grants awarded". October 9, 2006. Archived from the original on May 29, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^"Yoko Ono Awarded Germany's Highest Human Rights Medal". Artlyst. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^Waxman, Olivia B. (August 31, 2012). "The Celebrity Campaign Against Fracking: How Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon Rallied an Outcry". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
YokoOno (Japanese: 小野 洋子, romanized: OnoYōko, usually spelled in katakana オノ・ヨーコ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter...
of the 1960s. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, multimedia artist YokoOno, held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration...
Japanese multimedia artist, singer and songwriter YokoOno has released 14 studio albums, eight collaborative albums, and 40 singles as a lead artist....
The Plastic Ono Band were a rock band formed by John Lennon and YokoOno in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects based on their 1968 Fluxus conceptual...
producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the son of John Lennon and YokoOno, and half-brother to Julian Lennon. Over the course of his career, he has...
Double Fantasy is the fifth studio album by John Lennon and YokoOno, and the final one to feature Lennon before his death. Released in November 1980 on...
partnership, and chronicles the events surrounding the wedding of Lennon and YokoOno. The song was the Beatles' 17th UK number-one single and their last for...
experimental albums with wife YokoOno, as well as a live album and two singles, "Give Peace a Chance" and "Cold Turkey", with the Plastic Ono Band. His debut single...
City is a part-studio, part-live double album by John Lennon and YokoOno as Plastic Ono Band that included backing by the American rock band Elephant's...
final in a succession of three experimental albums by John Lennon and YokoOno. It followed Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins and Unfinished Music No...
"Be My YokoOno" is the debut single by Canadian band Barenaked Ladies. The song was written by Steven Page and Ed Robertson and first appeared on their...
Feeling the Space is the fourth solo album by YokoOno, released in 1973. It was her last one to be released on Apple Records. The entire album adopts...
DJ and host. In the 1970s he became a spokesperson for John Lennon and YokoOno, and took on other musicians and actors as clients as a publicist, including...
release of 2011 was a 12" EP collaboration, The Flaming Lips with YokoOno/Plastic Ono Band, sold only at the band's annual New Years shows in Oklahoma...
Street loft concerts, in New York, curated by YokoOno and La Monte Young in 1961, featuring pieces by Ono, Jackson Mac Low, Joseph Byrd, and Henry Flynt;...
guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, YokoOno and Robert Smith. He has also worked with other artists including John...
artist Yayoi Kusama, met her flat mate YokoOno in the 1960s on one of his regular visits to their apartment. After Ono married John Lennon in 1969, from 1974...
John Lennon and YokoOno with Elephant's Memory from their 1972 album Some Time in New York City. The song was produced by Lennon, Ono and Phil Spector...