Bjork
Biography
Bjork was born and brought up in Reykjavik, Iceland. In childhood she attended a musical school, where one of her teachers sent her cover for Tina Charles' I Love To Love to the only Icelandic radio RUV. At the age of 11, the girl became the national star after recording her album Bjork in 1977. Being a teenager, Bjork got involved with punk rock and made her own all-girl punk command Spit And Snot. However, soon she got her interest on jazz and made a band Exodus in 1979. In 1981, along with bassist Jacob Magnusson she founded the Tappi Tikarrass collective. This band was changed for the Goth rock group KUKL, which managed to record two albums - The Eye (1984) and Holydays In Europe (1986) – before it was reformed into The Sugarcubes. In 1988, the band released their debut album Life's Too Good, which became an international smash hit. It did not stop the band from splitting due to interior tension in 1992. Bjork moved to London to start a solo career.
In London the artist was fascinated with house club music and started cooperating with Nellee Hooper, who produced her first solo hit Human Behaviour. Bjork's solo album entitled Debut was released in 1993, and brought her first BRIT prize. In 1994, Bjork wrote the song Bedtime Story for Madonna's album Bedtime Stories. In the summer of 1995, the artist released the disc Post, which explored her interest in dance music and techno. The trip-hop single Army Of Me became the primary decoration of the full-length. The same year Bjork issued the Homogenic album, which became the most experimental work of the singer during all her career. Songs Bachelorette and All Is Full Of Love were accompanied by amazing videos by directors Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham respectively. In 2000, Bjork played her first major part in the picture Dancer In The Dark, writing the soundtrack Selmasongs to it as well. In 2001, the artist released the album Vespertine. The main theme, elaborated on this tuneful work was personal relations. Vespertine was presented by three powerful hits - Hidden Place, Pagan Poetry and Cocoon.
In 2002, Bjork gave birth to her daughter Isadora from her long-time boyfriend Matthew Barney. The artist also has son Sindri, born in 1986, who works as a journalist and plays in several bands as a bassist. However, the singer herself is infamous for her aggression towards journalists and photographers, who follow her constantly. Bjork's suspiciousness about strangers grew since 1996, when one of her fans tried to kill the artist with an acid bomb in a letter. In 2004, Bjork released the disc Medulla, which was focused on vocals – both Bjork's and those of the guest artists. In August 2004, the artist performed at the Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. She sang the song Oceania, written specially for that solemn event. The same year, Bjork collected money for people, harmed by the tsunami in the Southern Asia, releasing a collection of covers and remixes for her hit Army Of Me. In May 2007, Bjork's long anticipated album Volta saw light. Timbaland is one of the album's producers, while the portentous lead-single Earth Intruders proved that the artist is still full of creative energy. After this successful release Bjork headed to the eighteen-month tour and promised to record a live album soon. Two years later, Bjork delighted her fans with the release of CD/DVD under the title Voltaic (2009). This two-hour compilation included the most famous compositions by the Icelandic artist, partially presented as remixes.