Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known by her stage name Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, musician and producer, born 21 November 1965 in Reykjavík. Well known for her creative compositional style and distinct singing, Björk’s recording career began in 1977 at the age of 11, when she released her first album, while studying piano and flute at music school. Although the album became platinum, she refused to make another disco-folk follow-up and, at the age of 13, formed her first short-lived punk band, all-girl alliance Spit and Snot , where she played the drums. Later on she was involved in projects such as Exodus and Jam 80, all of which without known record releases. In 1982 she launched punk-pop , releasing an EP and a LP, before she turned into a “serious” rebel by joining forces of the political “existential jazz-punk” of , releasing three records. While Björk’s vocal expression had matured in , she attracted worldwide prominence for the first time as one of the lead vocalists of the avant-pop Icelandic sextet . In 1992 she emigrated to the UK, launched a solo career and quickly eclipsed her old band’s popularity. Rather than following the Sugarcubes’ artsy guitar rock, Björk immersed herself in dance and club culture, working with many of the biggest names in the genre, and receiving remix treatments from , , , , , , , , and others. Her first album Debut established her new artistic direction and became an international hit, making her one of the ’90s most unlikely stars. Although the album was recorded with producer in 1993, its songs were actually composed during the previous ten years while she was in bands. Björk quickly developed as a producer, moving from co-producer role on her early albums to full producer role in her later work, as her Music Producers Guild Award for Innovation in the category of production testifies. She is well recognized in both pop and experimental music worlds: her album Vespertine became album of the year by The in 2001 and she won more than 20 awards in Europe and received 15 nominations in the US. While Björk developed her unconventional song structures, she has worked with many renowned artists, mainly in the realm of electronic music. One of her long-time friends and main collaborators was of LFO who co-produced many of her songs and even co-wrote a number of pieces over the years. There are other artists who played important roles in the creative part of her work: , Icelandic poet who helped on lyrics for some of her key songs and video director . Acts such as , , , were at times part of her live band. Furthermore, she has shortly worked together with , , , , , , , and has sung duets with , , and Anthony Hegarty. When forming The Sugarcubes, Björk had a brief marriage with guitarist . They had a son, Sindri Eldon Þórsson, born 8 June 1986, the same day that the band was formed. They had divorced before the end of 1986, but continued to work together in the band. Björk was the partner of from 2000 to 2013; they have a daughter, Isadora Barney, born in 2002.
