timeline

Björk

An Icelandic singer, songwriter and producer who went from punk bands in Reykjavík to a run of solo albums that kept changing what pop could use as raw material, from club beats to choirs to apps.

Origin
Reykjavík, Iceland
Years active
1977-present
Genres
art pop, avant-garde, electronica, experimental, alternative rock
Labels
Fálkinn, One Little Independent, Polydor, Elektra, Atlantic, Nonesuch, Megaforce, RED
Also known as
Björk Guðmundsdóttir

Reykjavík

Björk Guðmundsdóttir was born in Reykjavík on 21 November 1965. Her mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, was an activist, and her father, Guðmundur Gunnarsson, was an electrician and union leader. She was eleven when a self-titled record of Icelandic children's songs came out in 1977, and in 1984 she made a hand-coloured poetry book, Um Úrnat frá Björk.

She spent her teens in bands. Early groups included Spit and Snot, Exodus and Medusa, the last with the poet Sjón. Tappi Tíkarrass formed in 1981 with the bassist Jakob Magnússon and made an EP and the album Miranda. Kukl began as a one-off radio performance in 1983 and became the first Icelandic band to play Roskilde. She married Þór Eldon in 1986 and they divorced in 1987. The Sugarcubes followed from 1986 to 1992: their first album, Life's Too Good, sold over a million copies in 1988, and Stick Around for Joy in 1992 was their last. In 1990 she also made Gling-Gló with a jazz trio, which was still the best-selling album in Iceland in 2011.

Debut and Post

In 1990 808 State invited her to Manchester, and she changed her flight to record two tracks for their album ex:el. Debut arrived in July 1993, made with the producer Nellee Hooper and Björk herself. Its lead single, Human Behaviour, and Venus as a Boy were its early singles, and the album reached number three in the UK. She won two BRITs in 1994.

Post followed in June 1995 with a larger cast of producers, including Graham Massey, Tricky and Howie B, and went to number two in the UK. Its singles included Army of Me, Hyperballad and her cover of It's Oh So Quiet, her biggest hit. Homogenic in 1997 was recorded in London and at El Cortijo in Spain, with strings by Eumir Deodato and the Icelandic String Octet, and its singles included Jóga, Bachelorette and All Is Full of Love. She won Best Actress at Cannes in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark. The soundtrack, Selmasongs, came out in September 2000, and her song "I've Seen It All" later earned an Oscar nomination.

Vespertine and Medúlla

Vespertine (2001) was begun during the filming of Dancer in the Dark and worked on for three years. It turned toward the small and intimate: music boxes, harp, a Greenlandic women's choir on tour and microbeats made with Matmos from shuffled cards and cracked ice. Singles included Hidden Place and Pagan Poetry, and the album reached number nineteen in the US.

Medúlla (2004) went the opposite way, building almost entirely from voices: the throat singer Tanya Tagaq, the beatboxer Rahzel, Mike Patton, Robert Wyatt and Icelandic and London choirs. She sang "Oceania" at the opening of the Athens Olympics. Its single Who Is It carried the same idea into a pop song.

Projects and Vulnicura

Volta followed in 2007 and Biophilia in 2011, whose apps entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in 2014. Vulnicura was released in January 2015 after a leak, an album about the end of her relationship with Matthew Barney, made with Arca and The Haxan Cloak, with string arrangements she wrote herself. Black Lake became its centrepiece, and MoMA gave her a retrospective that spring.

Her partner for much of this period was the artist Matthew Barney, from 2000 to 2013, and they have a daughter, Isadora, born in 2002. Utopia came in 2017, a Cornucopia stage show opened at The Shed in New York in 2019, the Björk Orkestral concerts ran from 2021 to 2023, and Fossora arrived in 2022. She has five BRIT Awards, sixteen Grammy nominations, an Oscar nomination for "I've Seen It All" and the Polar Music Prize for 2010, and Rolling Stone ranked her 64th among the greatest singers in 2023. In 2025 and 2026 came Cornucopia Live and a recording of Björk Orkestral with the Hamrahlíð Choir.

Records

Songs

The Sugarcubes, Matmos, Arca, Nellee Hooper, 808 State

Where to go next

Official

  • Björk The official site, with the shop and pages for recent releases.

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Fan sites and communities

  • bjork.fr A French fan site online since 2002, with a news archive, discography, videography and tours by year.

Sources

  1. Björk, Wikipedia
  2. Björk discography, Wikipedia
  3. Inside Track: Björk's Vulnicura, Sound On Sound (2015-04)
  4. Björk: Guided by Voices, Dazed (2004-09-30)
  5. Resident Advisor Rewind: Debut, Resident Advisor (2024-06-01)
  6. Björk setlists, setlist.fm
  7. Björk: Homogenic, Pitchfork (2017-02-05)