Soon after Björk was born her parents realized they weren't meant to be together and so they divorced. Björk lived with her mother but she also spent time with her father and her grandparents. Björk's mom has told Björk could sing before she learnt to speak. At the age of five Björk went to a music school where she learnt to play the flute (her parents couldn't afford to buy the oboe). Björk has said her childhood home was a hippie commune but her mother says Björk exaggerates as she exaggerates many other things. Because Björk spent her childhood in several homes she was able to listen to all kinds of music, for example she heard Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin at her home and jazz at her grandparent's house and classical music in the music school and pop music from NATO's radio station.
At the age of eleven Björk made her first album with her mom's musician friends. The album included mostly popular Icelandic songs but also some cover songs such as the Beatles' Fool On The Hill and Stevie Wonder's Your Kiss Is Sweet. Björk wrote one song for the album. Jóhannes Kjarval was a tribute to famous Icelandic painter Jóhannes Kjarval. Björk's first album sold gold in Iceland and after that all Icelanders knew Björk but Björk didn't like it at all and so she refused to do another album.
Sex Pistols and punk culture were the hottest thing in England in the 70's and soon in Iceland too. In no time there were more punk bands per inhabitants than in any other country in the world. Björk and her friends were also keen on punk and Björk was involved in many short-lived punk influenced bands like Exodus, Tappi Tíkarrass and Kukl. Kukl was the first serious band and maybe too serious because according to the band it split because the whole thing was getting too serious. Kukl made two albums and toured around Europe.
On the 8th of June 1986 Björk gave birth to a boy named Sindri. It's said that a group of young artists and musicians founded a company called Bad Taste (Smekkleysa) in the same day. Bad Taste was founded to fight against "good taste" which is the main enemy of creativity. Bad Taste planned to start a radio station and a club and release books and albums etc. The first release of Bad Taste was a postcard of Reagan and Gorbachev in peace summit in Reykjavik. The postcard was so popular that Bad Taste got enough money to release the first single of recently formed band called The Sugarcubes (Sykurmolarnir).
Behind Bad Taste and Sugarcubes were mostly the same people: Björk Guðmundsdóttir (singer), Einar Örn Benediktsson (singer, trumpet), Thor Eldon (guitars), Bragi Ólafsson (bass guitar), Sigtryggur Baldursson (drums, percussion) and Margrét Örnólfsdóttir (keyboards). Sugarcubes wasn't meant to be a serious band and its main aim was to have fun and travel all around the world. Sugarcubes' first single wasn't very popular in Iceland but as soon as the reviewer of the English music paper Melody Maker praised the single and chose it "The Single Of The Week", Sugarcubes was the hottest thing in pop. All major record companies went to Iceland and offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to Sugarcubes but the band chose a small independent British record label One Little Indian because they wanted to kept the control themselves.
Sugarcubes' first album Life's Too Good got good reviews and it sold over a million copies. The second album Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! got much colder reception than its predecessor and didn't sold as much even Sugarcubes toured all over the world. The end was in sight and the members of the band concentrated on their own projects. Björk e.g. recorded a jazz influenced album Gling-Gló with trio Guðmundar Ingólfssonar and wrote and sang two songs for 808 State's album ex:el. To fulfil their contracts Sugarcubes made yet one album Stick Around For Joy which was released in 1992. On their last tour Sugarcubes supported U2 and played in big stadiums for tens of thousands of people.
Björk had already began to make her own songs before Sugarcubes split and after the band was gone Björk had to make the decision of her life, now or never. Björk had prepared the songs for many years in her head and at last she would be able to record them. Björk moved to London with her son and started to make an album with people like Nellee Hooper and Graham Massey. The album was named Debut because it was the first real album Björk had made herself. After Debut was released it was quite clear it was one of the most important albums of the 90's. Debut got great reviews and it sold almost three million copies although One Little Indian had expected it would sell 30 000 copies.
World tour and huge success followed the album. The most popular female artist of all time also heard that Björk had conquered the world and she asked if Björk would sing on her next album. Björk said no to Madonna's offer but she wrote a song called Bedtime Story for her friend Nellee Hooper which ended up on Madonna's Bedtime Stories album.
After Björk had toured all around the world she began to record a new album. This time she worked with Tricky, Howie Bernstein and Graham Massey, just to name a few people. The album was named Post and it was recorded mostly on the beaches of Bahamas. World tour followed the album again. Björk won her third BRIT Award in February 1996. The award was handed to Björk by Goldie, who was her boyfriend of that time, in Hong Kong. The tour continued and just a couple days later Björk showed in Bangkok how to handle too eager reporters and attacked a reporter in front of TV crews. Björk explained that she had protected her son with whom she had just arrived at the airport. Later Björk apologized and sent flowers to the unlucky reporter.
Just when Björk had started to record her third solo album in September 1996 American man sent a letter bomb to Björk's London home. The maker of the bomb shot himself after mailing the bomb. British police located the bomb at a post office in London and the incident was safely over. Björk was naturally very upset about the whole incident but continued to record her next album in Spain.
A year after the bomb incident Björk's third solo album Homogenic was released. Homogenic was mostly produced by Björk but e.g. Mark Bell of LFO and Eumir Deodato had worked with her. As the name implies Homogenic is homogeneous. Three essential elements on Homogenic are strings (Icelandic String Octet), beats (Mark Bell) and of course Björk. These three elements form an album which is darker and braver than Björk's previous albums. The influence of the year 1996 can be clearly heard on Homogenic. After releasing Homogenic Björk was supposed to tour North America but she got kidney infection in November and the tour was postponed till spring.
Björk continued to tour after Homogenic till January 1999. After the tour Björk didn't began to record a new album but film a movie. Danish writer and director Lars von Trier had seen one of Björk's music videos and he liked it so much that he wanted Björk to act in his next movie. The movie would be a musical and the last film in his A Heart of Gold trilogy. The first two movies in the trilogy were Breaking the Waves and The Idiots. Björk didn't want to act but she agreed to write music for the movie. Lars was at least as stubborn as Björk and finally she agreed to act too. The cast also included Catherine Deneuve and Peter Stormare.
Dancer in the Dark premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May 2000. It got mixed reviews but won the Golden Palm which is given to the best movie and Björk was also named best actress. The movie divided audiences around the world and it was nominated for numerous awards (e.g. Oscar and Golden Globe) and it also won many (e.g. best film and best actress by European Film Academy).
Björk said that she liked her character Selma so much that one of the reasons to agree to act was the opportunity to defend her. Björk also said that she didn't really act but that she became Selma. Music from the movie was released on album called Selmasongs. Lars co-wrote the lyrics with Björk's long-time friend Sjón and Björk recorder the music mostly with Mark Bell, Vincent Mendoza and Guy Sigsworth. Sounds recorded on location were used heavily on many songs on the album. Björk didn't want the CD to pretend that it's a film and some songs on the album differ from those heard in the movie. For example, Thom Yorke from Radiohead sings one song with Björk on Selmasongs.
Björk's affair with movies didn't last long. Her fourth solo album Vespertine was mainly recorded in New York and it was released in August 2001. In many ways it continues where Homegenic's last song left off. Vespertine feels tender and intimate. It's more intuitive and open for interpretation than Björk's earlier albums. Vespertine can be heard as a reaction to the harshness of the filming of Dancer in the Dark but even more influential is Björk's new boyfriend Matthew Barney who is an acclaimed American artist. Sonically important elements on Vespertine include Matmos, harpist Zeena Parkins, laptops and the Internet. After releasing the album Björk toured in the greatest opera houses and concert halls around the world till the end of the year.
Nine months after the tour, on the 3rd of October 2002 Björk gave birth to a daughter named Ísadóra. Two compilations were released in November. Greatest Hits was compiled based on an Internet vote and Family Tree was compiled by Björk herself. Björk toured the next summer performing mostly at festivals. Live Box containing four discs and covering Björk's solo career was released in August 2003.
Coming as it happens...
You can mail corrections and comments to me at panu.ranta@iki.fi.
Last updated 2004-09-16.
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