Bjork

Bjork lives with her partner and artist Matthew Barney. They both had a daughter together in 2002, called Isadora Bjarkardottir Barney. She also has a son called Sindri Eldon Thorsson, with her former band mate Thor Eldon, who is 27 years old now.

Bjork was born on 21 November 1965 in Reykjavik, Iceland to Hildur Runa Hauksdottir and Guomundur Gunnarsson. Her father was a union leader and her mother was an activist who protested against a hydro-electric development in Iceland.

Her parents knew each other since they were 14 but their marriage fell apart when Bjork was born as her mother did not want to be a house-wife. She left with Bjork and became a part of a hippie group.

Her mother got married to a guitarist in Iceland, for the second time. He was considered at the time the ‘Jimi Hendrix’ of Iceland. This gave Bjork a musical environment to grow up and to learn music at a very young age.

She was only 11 years old when she first started studying classical music with piano in her elementary school. One of her recordings was sent to RUV, a radio station in Iceland. It was broadcasted on the radio.

In 1977, when she was only 12 years old, her first album ‘Bjork’ came out and she signed a contract with the Falkinn record label. It happened after a representative from the label heard her recording on the radio.

In 1981, Bjork formed a band called ‘Jam-80’ with the bassist Lakob Magnusson. The name of the band was changed to ‘Tappi Tikarrass’. The album released its single ‘Bitio Fast I Vitio’. And in two years time, ‘Miranda’ was released.

Bjork formed another band called ‘KUKL’, a gothic rock band, with Einar Orn Benediktsson, Einar Melax, Guolaugur Ottarsson, Sigtryggur Baldursson and Birgir Mogensen. The band toured Iceland and UK and came up with ‘The Eye’ and ‘Holidays in Europe’.

In 1986, she formed a band called ‘Sugarcubes’ and came out with their first hit single ‘Birthday’. This song was a big hit in the UK. The success of the song got them a contract by the label called ‘One Little Indian’.

‘Sugarcubes’ became a cult band immediately after its launch and started to get many offers from many record companies but they decided to stick to their initial label so that they could maintain creative control over it. In 1988 ‘Life’s Too Good’ was released.

In 1993, ‘Sugarcubes’ disbanded. Bjork shifted to London for her solo career and collaborated with the producer Nellee Hooper to produce hit solo ‘Human Behavior’. The video was publicized on MTV, directed by Michel Gondry.

Bjork has received 14 Grammys nominations and has been a winner of an Oscar for the Best song category, for the title song of the film ‘Selmasongs’, ‘I’ve Seen It All’.