Venus as a Boy

Björk wrote it alone and Nellee Hooper produced it, recording at Olympic in London and Beats in Mumbai. Talvin Singh supplied tablas and a Bombay film orchestra, and the track samples Music for Shō by Mayumi Miyata from 1986. She said it was inspired by a particular person she never named, who sees life from a beauty point of view.

Released on 23 August 1993, it reached number one in Iceland and number twenty-nine in the UK. Sophie Muller's video shows eggs being cooked, after Bataille's Story of the Eye.

Live and covers

She performed it on The Beat, Top of the Pops, 120 Minutes, Later... with Jools Holland and MTV Unplugged, and on nearly every tour since, with Indian instruments, accordion on the Post tour and harpsichord on Volta and Biophilia. Nils Landgren, Sneaker Pimps, Corinne Bailey Rae and Kali Uchis have covered it, and Andy McKee recorded an instrumental titled Venus as a Girl.