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Björk Guðmundsdóttir was born on November 21, 1965 in
Reykjavik, Iceland. Being born to a musical family, she always had a musical atmosphere. Björk has always loved music, but
never expected to be the most well known Icelandic artist worldwide. Björk studied the flute and piano at
school. One day, one of her music instuctors submitted a recording of her singing Tina Charles' "I Love To Love" to Radio1
(an icelandic radio station). The recording aired nationally, and after hearing it, a reperesentitive of the record label
"Fálkinn" (which is gone today) contacted Björk with a record deal. Björk accepted the contract
and began recording. With the help of her step father who played the guitar, her self - titled album was
released in 1977 in Iceland only when she was only 11 years old. The album consisted of icelandic covers of
popular songs such as The Beatles' "Fool On The Hill", Icelandic childrens tales, and instrumentals such as "Johannes
Kjarval" (an icelandic painter known for capturing the beauty in the icelandic landscape) which Björk composed
all by herself . Björk's album became a smash hit in Iceland but was unknown anywhere else. Björk
says that all the people at school hated her and her album and where always making fun of her, like If she sat at the
front of the bus they would say "Oh shes better than all of us so shes going to sit at the front of the bus" same thing if
she sat in the back. Björk was not very proud of her first album, because she said that she felt wierd to have an
album out that said "Björk" on the top, but it really wasn't her work. So Björk made a promise to herself that
she would only release and album that she really felt was her album. When Björk was asked to do another album, she refused,
and instead bought herself a piano with all the money she earned from the success of her album, and wrote her own songs.
When Björk got older, she really started
getting into punk music, and formed her own all-girl punk band called "Spit And Snot" followed
by "Exodus" a jazz fusion group. In 1980 Björk graduated from music school when she was 15 years old,
and a year later teamed up with Jakob Magnússon (drummer off of Exodus) and formed a new band called "Tappi Tikarass" (Cork
the Bi*ches a** in icelandic) and released there first single "Bitið fast í vitid" the same year. They released there
first album "Miranda" 2 years later in 1983. Tappi Tikkarass is also featured in " Rokk Í Reyjkavík" ( the compilation
album to a TV documentary based on the Icelandic Punk/New Wave scene, filmed during winter 1981/82.The documentary was
also released on video and Björk made the cover shot).
Soon after, Björk got got together with Einar Örn
Benediktsson and Einar Melax from Purrkur Pillnikk, Guðlaugur Óttarsson, Sigtryggur Baldursson and
Birgir Morgensen from Þeyr and formed a new band called "KUKL" (witchcraft in icelandic). The band made what is considered
"goth" music together and toured throughout Iceland and the UK. They released two albums together entitled "The
Eye" and "Holidays In Europe".
Many members of KUKL continued on and formed a new band called "The Sugarcubes". They released
there first single "Ammæli" (birthday in icelandic) and it became a huge success in England. The band signed with "One Little
Indian" and released there first album "Lifes Too Good" in 1988. Björk also
did other things while working with The Sugarcubes. She released an album entitled "Gling Glo" a jazz album where Björk sang
a bunch of Icelandic tunes from the 50's with "Trio Guðmundar Ingólfssonar". It was released in Iceland only at first, but today it
is available in the US as well. Björk also contributed
vocals to 808 states song "Ooops". The Sugarcubes had many happy years together, and through it all, they released 2
more albums: "Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!" and "Stick Around For Joy" as well as a remix album "Its - It" and a greatest
hits "The Great Crossover Potential", but soon Björk and Einar started having difficulties with eachother and The
Sugarcubes broke up.
After The Sugarcubes, Björk moved to London and thought about maybe persuing a solo career. She began working
with Nellee Hooper and through it, she released her first single "Human Behavior". She then released her first solo album
entitled "Debut" in June of 1993. The success of the album was amazing and really gave people a new variety of music
to listen to. She also recorded a track with David Arnold for the film "The Young Americans". Debut
reached platinum in the US.
After Debut, Björk returned to the studio in hopes of making a new album. She collaborated
with Nellee Hooper, Tricky, Graham Massey of 808 State, and electronic music producer Howie B. While making Post, Björk
wrote the song "Bedtime Story" for Madonna which became the title of Madonna's 1994 album. Björk's second album
was titled "Post" and was released in June of 1995. Post contained songs about love and anger and one of them: "Army
Of Me" was included in the "Tank Girl" soundtrack. Post reached number 2 on UK charts, and reached gold
in the US. It had better success than Debut did which was a big surprise. In January of 1997 Björk released "Telegram",
a remix album with all the songs from Post except "The Modern Things". The album aslo contauned an unreleased song
called "My Spine" Björk did with Evelyn Glennie.
Later that year Björk got together with producers Mark Bell of LFO, Howie B, and Eumir
Deodato, and recorded her 3rd album "Homogenic". Homogenic is considered one of Björk's most experimental and wierd
albums, but is also one of her greatest masterpieces. Björk spent alot of time working on Homogenic. She didn't make Homogenic
to impress everyone, the album was mostly just about her. The album is a refelction of her emotions and she tries to give
you the clearest image of what shes feeling in each song and takes you to the landscapes of Iceland in the beats. Homogenic
reached Gold in the U.S.
Björk later teamed up with Matmos, Thomas Knack, and Zeena Parkins and released her 4th album "Vespertine".
Vespertine is ever so soft and delicate, and contains tiny beats and melodies. The videos for Vespertine where incredibly
risky and were almost never aired. The first single "Hidden Place" was released first and had average airplay, but the next
single "Pagan Poetry" was a big risk for Björk. In the video, it includes Graphic piercing, blurred sex scenes,
and exposes Björk's nipples. The video recieved almost no airplay except on an MTV2 program that would show previously unreleased
videos due to innapropriate scenes. The show aired from 1-5 am but isn't on anymore. Her 3rd video "Cocoon" had Björk
naked with red threads spinning out of her nipples wrapping her into a cocoon. This video recieved no US airplay.
Vespertine reached number 19 on the billboard charts.
Shortly after Vespertine's release, Björk released a series of DVD's containing her music
videos as well as live performances. She also released a greatest hits cd spanning over the past 8 years of her
career. The cd was also released on DVD. Along with Greatest hits, in which the fans chose the tracklisting, she released
"Family Tree" a box set with 6 different cds in which Björk chose the tracks.
Last August Björk released her brand new album Medúlla. Björk collaborated with Rahzel, Mike
Patton, and Dokaka to create her all-voices album.The album itself is doing well and a new single has just been released
off of it called "Who Is It". Björk will not be doing a tour for this album, because she said she would like to do 2 albums
back to back so she will have more songs too sing on her tours, keep your eyes peeled for another album is on its way!
For
additional information about each of the albums be sure to check out the Explore The Albums page
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