Bjork - Biography

Last Editor: carlos_j				Bjork Biography -   Name : Bjork Profession : Musician, songwriter, producer, actress, fashion model Birth Details : born November 21, 1965 in Reykjavík, Iceland Genre(s) : Electronica Alternative IDM Trip Hop Instrument(s) : Vocals, keyboards, piano, flute Voice type(s) : Soprano Label(s) : One Little Indian, Elektra, Atlantic, Polydor, Mother, Smekkleysa Associated acts : The Sugarcubes, Thom Yorke, Tappi Tíkarrass, KUKL

Bjork Trivia -

Singer / songwriter. Has one son, Sindri Eldon Thorsson (in 1986), with her ex-husband Þór Eldon. His birthday marked the creation of their (with others) band the Sugarcubes. Was stalked by a man who suffered from severe mental problems. He attempted to kill her by mailing her a book that had been hollowed out and filled with an explosive device. The police intercepted it before she received it. The stalker committed suicide. Has gone on record saying she will never make another movie, due to the difficulties she faced making Dancer in the Dark (2000). As of September 2002, MTV has ranked Björk's music video Pagan Poetry (2001) (V) as one of the channel's most controversial videos ever as it depicts several shots of not only Björk's breasts, but also multiple body piercings on her arms and back. Daughter, Isadora (b. October 3, 2002), with Matthew Barney. In recognition of her contribution to promoting Iceland abroad, the government gave her the island of Ellidaey, off the coast of Iceland. Wrote the song "Bedtime Story" for Madonna's album Bedtime Stories. Madonna had asked Bjork to sing the song with her, but she declined. Received much criticism at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards when she arrived on the red carpet with her now famous "swan dress" which "laid an egg" literally -- a large ostrich-sized egg dropped from under it! Ranked #36 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll Her favorite housework around the house is washing clothes because that's when a tune usually comes into her head. A short scene of Bjork's video 'Big Time Sensuality' can be seen in the movie Vanilla Sky (2001) in a vision sequence Tom Cruise has. In 2002, her mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, went on a short-lived hunger strike to protest the development of an aluminum smelter at Reyðarfjörður, on the Icelandic coast. Reyðarfjörður was the setting of one of her music videos. Before she was famous, she worked odd jobs at an antiques shop, a bookstore, a Coca-Cola bottling plant where her job was to check for cleanliness, and a fish factory during the easter break in 1984. Some of her favorite movies include Tampopo (1985), An Angel at My Table (1990), Sweetie (1989), and Die Blechtrommel (1979). Is good friends with artists Madonna, P.J. Harvey and Tori Amos. Former boyfriend Stephane Sednaoui directed some of her music videos and live performances. Director Harmony Korine wrote the lyrics for the song 'Harm of Will' from her album 'Vespertine'. Has been quoted as saying that Story of the Eye by surrealist writer Georges Bataille was her main inspiration and reason behind the broken eggs featured in her Venus as a Boy music video. Shares a birthday with Jena Malone, Goldie Hawn, Rachel Rogers, Nicollette Sheridan, & Juliet Mills She was named the world's most eccentric star in a poll by the BBC in January 2006. In February 2006, Bjork visited Banda Aceh in Indonesia for two days as a goodwill ambassador to the victims of the 2004 tsunami. Mad TV character Miss Swan (played by Alex Borstein) is partially based on her. Winner of the 1994 Brit Award for International Female. Winner of the 2005 Q Inspiration Award. Music video "It's Oh So Quiet" was ranked #50 on VH1's 100 Greatest Videos. She said her first name is pronounced "Byerk" (rhymes with jerk), and not the commonly mispronounced "Byork".

Bjork Detailed Biography -

Björk Guðmundsdóttir IPA: /'pjÅ“rÌ¥k 'kvÊ?ðmÊ?nstoÊŠhtɪr/, (born November 21, 1965 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Icelandic singer/songwriter and composer, (formerly the lead singer with The Sugarcubes) with a great expressive range and an interest in many kinds of music including popular, trip-hop, alternative rock, jazz, ambient music, electronica, folk, and classical music. Björk's musical career began at the age of eleven, when she began studying classical piano in elementary school. One of her instructors submitted a recording of Björk singing Tina Charles' song "I Love to Love" to Radio One, an Iceland radio station. The recording was aired nationally; upon hearing it, a representative of the record label Fálkinn contacted Björk with a record contract offer. With the help of her stepfather, who played guitar, she recorded her eponymous debut in 1977. This album featured several Icelandic children's songs, and covers of popular songs such as the Beatles' The Fool on the Hill, sung in Icelandic. It became a smash hit in Iceland, though it was virtually unknown elsewhere. Punk music began to have an influence on Björk; at the age of fourteen, she formed the all-girl punk band Spit and Snot, shortly followed by a jazz fusion group called Exodus in 1979. In 1980, she graduated from music school at the age of fifteen, and in 1981, she and Exodus bassist Jakob Magnússon formed another band, Tappi Tíkarrass (which means "Cork the Bitch's Ass" in Icelandic), and released an extended single, Bítið Fast í Vítið in the same year. Their album Miranda was released in 1983. Björk next collaborated with Einar Örn Benediktsson and Einar Melax from Purrkur Pillnikk, and Guðlaugur Óttarsson, Sigtryggur Baldursson and Birgir Mogensen from Þeyr. After writing songs and rehearsing for two weeks, they (under the name KUKL which means "sorcery" in Icelandic) found they worked well together, and decided to continue, developing a sound that some have described as resembling Goth music. Björk began to show indications of what would become her trademark singing style, punctuated with howls and shrieks. KUKL toured Iceland with UK anarchist band Crass, and later visited the UK in a series of performances with Flux of Pink Indians. The band produced two albums as a result of these collaborations: The Eye in 1984, and Holidays in Europe in 1986, both on Crass Records. In the summer of 1986, several members of KUKL went on to form a band called Pukl but soon changed the name to The Sugarcubes. The Sugarcubes The Sugarcubes' first single, "Ammæli" (or "Birthday" in English), became a huge hit in the UK. They gained a significant cult following in the US and UK, and calls from record companies began coming in. Eventually the band signed with One Little Indian in the UK and with Elektra Records in the United States, and recorded their first album, Life's Too Good, in 1988. The album propelled them into international stardom — the first Icelandic rock band to achieve such popularity. While with the Sugarcubes, Björk participated in a number of side projects. She recorded Gling-Gló, a collection of popular jazz and original work, with the bebop group Trio Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, released in Iceland. Björk also contributed vocals to 808 State's album Ex:El, a collaboration which cultivated her interest in house music. Solo career/Debut Tensions steadily mounted between Björk and Einar Örn, however, and by 1992 the Sugarcubes dissolved. Björk moved to London and began thinking about a solo career; to this end, she began working with producer Nellee Hooper, who had produced for Massive Attack, among others. Their partnership produced Björk's first international solo hit, "Human Behaviour". Her solo debut album, simply entitled Debut, was released in June of 1993 to positive reviews; it was named album of the year by NME, and eventually went platinum in the United States. Debut was a mix of songs Björk had written since she was a teenager as well as newer lyrical collaborations with Hooper. The success of Debut enabled her to collaborate with other artists on one-off tracks; she worked with David Arnold on "Play Dead", the theme to the 1993 film The Young Americans (which appeared as a bonus track on a re-release of Debut), two songs on Tricky's Nearly God project, also appeared on a track on the 1997 album Not For Threes by Plaid, which was released on the cult Warp Records label, and even wrote the song, "Bedtime Story", for Madonna. Post Björk returned to the studio during 1994 to work on her next solo album with Nellee Hooper, Tricky, Graham Massey of 808 State, and electronic music producer Howie B. The album, Post, contained songs based on Björk's relationships and songs about love (one of her favorite subjects), as well as some angry and confrontational material. Like "Debut," it was a collection partly made up of songs she had written in past years. Music Samples "Crying" from Debut (Image:Crying.ogg) "Isobel" from Post (Image:Isobel.ogg) "Hunter" from Homogenic (Image:Hunter.ogg) "Unison" from Vespertine (Image:Unison.ogg) She wrote the song "Bedtime Story" for Madonna's 1994 album Bedtime Stories (parts of which Björk reused in her song "Sweet Intuition"), and performed on MTV Unplugged during this time. By 1995, the new album Post was ready; it was released in June, reaching number two on the UK's album charts, and also went platinum in the United States. January of 1997 saw the release of Telegram, an album of uncharacteristic remixes of songs from Post. Homogenic Later that year, the chaotic, electronic album Homogenic was released and marked a dramatic shift from her earlier "pixie" image cultivated on the "Debut" and "Post" albums. Björk worked with producers Mark Bell of LFO and Howie B on the album, as well as Eumir Deodato; numerous remixes followed. Homogenic was her first conceptually self-contained album and is regarded as one of Björk's most experimental and extroverted works to date, with enormous beats that reflect the landscape of Iceland, most notably in the song "Jóga", which fuses lush strings with rocky electronic crunches. The emotionally-charged album contains a string of memorable music videos, several of which received airplay on American MTV, especially the epic "Bachelorette" and "All is Full of Love", which became an alt-rock hit in 1999. The album eventually reached gold status in the States in 2001. Vespertine In 2001 the album Vespertine was released. This album saw Björk creating an introverted, internal, personal world of microbeats and tiny rhythms. The album featured chamber orchestras, choirs, very hushed vocals and personal, vulnerable themes. She collaborated with experimental sound manipulators Matmos, a DJ from Denmark Thomas Knak, and the experimental harpist Zeena Parkins for the album. Lyrical sources included the American poet E. E. Cummings and the American independent filmmaker Harmony Korine. Vespertine spawned three singles: "Hidden Place", "Pagan Poetry", and "Cocoon". America's then-more independent and artistic music video channel, MTV2, played the album's first video, "Hidden Place", pretty heavily, despite its somewhat controversial lyrics and imagery. However, the next video, for "Pagan Poetry", brought Björk to an even higher level of controversy with the channel. The song's video features graphic piercings, blurred sex scenes, and Björk's exposed nipples. As a result, the clip was initially rarely shown by MTV, and certain parts (for example, Björk's breasts) were censored out during the rare occasions when it was played. In 2002, the clip finally enjoyed unedited American airing as part of a late night special on MTV2 entitled Most Controversial Music Videos. Previously banned or censored videos were shown in their entirety during the TV-MA-rated special which aired on MTV2 regularly on weekends between 1 and 5 AM, until the infamous Janet Jackson incident at the 2004 Super Bowl. The video for "Cocoon" also featured a naked Björk, this time with her nipples secreting a red thread that eventually enveloped the singer herself in a cocoon. The video was also not aired by MTV. Family Tree/Greatest Hits 2002 saw the appearance of the CD box set Family Tree containing a "these-are-my-roots" retrospective of Björk's career, comprising many previously unreleased versions of her compositions, including some very quiet work with a string quartet, the Brodsky Quartet. Also released that year was the album Greatest Hits, a retrospective of the previous 10 years of her solo career as deemed by the public: The songs on the album were chosen by Björk's fans through a poll on Björk's website. A DVD edition of the CD was also released; it contained all of Björk's solo music videos up to that point. The new single from the set, "It's In Our Hands", charted in the UK at No. 37. In 2003 Björk released a series of low-priced DVDs and CD box set called Live Box containing live recordings of her previous albums. Medúlla 2004 saw the release of Björk's Medúlla, in late August. Medúlla had been more of an impromptu piece of work after the two concept albums, but in the midst of production Björk decided the album would work best as an entirely vocal-based album. The majority of the sounds on the album are created by vocalists (although these sounds are often electronically distorted). Björk used the vocal skills of Hip hop Beatboxer Rahzel, Japanese beatboxer Dokaka, avant-rocker Mike Patton, Soft Machine drummer/singer Robert Wyatt, and several choirs; she again appropriated text from poet E. E. Cummings for the song "Sonnets/Unrealities XI." Medúlla has a raw, gutteral, and ancestral feel. In August 2004 Björk performed the song "Oceania" (from her Medúlla album) at the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. In typical Björk style, her performance was one of the more unusual ones of the event. As she sang, her dress slowly unravelled to reveal a 10,000 square foot (900 m²) map of the world, which she let flow over all of the Olympic atheletes. The song "Oceania" was written especially for the occasion and features the vocals of Shlomo, a Leeds based beatboxer, and a London choir. An alternate version of the song began circulating on the internet with additional vocals by Kelis. Though some were confused as to the authenticity of this collaboration, Björk's camp confirmed its legitimacy. The follow-up of "Oceania" was "Who is it" which charted at No. 26 in the UK followed by "Triumph of a Heart" in 2005 charting at No. 31. A video for the potential next single, "Where is the Line?", was filmed in collaboration with the Icelandic artist Gabríela Fridriksdóttir in late 2004. Army of Mixes After the disastrous tsunami which struck Southeast Asia in late 2004, Björk began working on a new project, Army of Mixes. This new project recruited fans and musicians from around the world as Björk posted on her website the need for the covering and remixing of the 1995 hit, "Army of Me". Björk was overwhelmed with the 600 responses which came flooding in. Out of these Björk as well as co-writer Graham Massey, picked the best 20 to appear on the album. The album was released in April in the UK and in late May 2005 the US. It peaked at No.14 on the dance albums chart in the UK. As of January 2006, the album had raised around £250,000 to help UNICEF's work in the south east Asian region. Drawing Restraint 9 On July 25, 2005 in the UK and on August 23 in the US, Björk released the album Drawing Restraint 9. It is a soundtrack to her partner Matthew Barney's movie of the same title; Björk explores traditional Japanese music styles to complement the experimental film, where the two lovers find themselves on a whaling ship and cut off each other's feet. Signifying her status as one of pop music's true originals and one of the most daring, innovative, and idiosyncratic artists of the last two decades, Björk was awarded the prestigious Inspiration Award at the Annual Q Magazine Awards in October 2005, accepting the prize from Robert Wyatt, with whom she collaborated on 2004's Medúlla album. Currently At the recent Q Magazine Awards, Björk said in an interview that she is living in Reykjavík again and is starting work on a new album. Nothing has been said of the content or theme of the album, although Björk has said that she plans to record some of it using the latest computer technology on a round-the-world boat trip with partner Matthew Barney and their daughter Isadora in 2006. She is currently training for the trip. Björk also performed with Zeena Parkins recently at the Zenkel Hall in Carnegie Hall for Meredith Monk's "Making Music" concert. They performed Meredith's "Gotham Lullaby", a song Björk had also performed while she was touring. Reviews of the concert can be seen at the Björk 4um. Björk is also currently involved in the remixing of her five solo studio albums (Debut, Post, Homogenic, Vespertine & Medúlla) in a 5.1 surround sound re-issue set for a March 2006 release. On January 10, 2006, Björk earned another BRIT Awards nomination for Best International Female Solo Artist.