Bjork

Bjork biography

Björk Guí°mundsdóttir (; ; born 21 November 1965), known as Björk, is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her musical style is eclectic and she has achieved recognition in rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical, and folk.

Björk's 1990s singles "It's Oh So Quiet", "Army of Me" and "Hyperballad" charted in the UK Top 10. Her record label, One Little Indian, reported that by 2003 she had sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. She has acquired a high level of critical acclaim. She has won four BRIT Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, one MOJO Award, three UK Music Video Awards, and, in 2010, the Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, in recognition for her "deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice".

Björk has also been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards, one Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. She won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Dancer in the Dark. She was ranked thirty-sixth in VH1's "The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll", eighth in MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music", and sixtieth in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".

Early life

Björk was born and raised in Reykjaví­k, Iceland. Her father is Guí°mundur Gunnarsson, a union leader and electrician, and her mother is Hildur Ríºna Hauksdóttir, an activist who protested against Kárahnjíºkar, a controversial hydro-electric development in Iceland.

Her musical career began when she was eleven with her study of classical piano in elementary school. One of her instructors sent a recording of Björk singing Tina Charles' song "I Love to Love" to RíšV, then the only radio station in Iceland. The recording was broadcast on radio nationally; after hearing it, a representative of the record label Fálkinn contacted Björk to offer a record contract. An album, Björk, was recorded and released in 1977.

In her teens, Björk was influenced by punk; at 14 she formed the all-girl punk band Spit and Snot, shortly followed by the jazz fusion group Exodus in 1979. In 1980 she graduated from music school. In 1981 she and bassist Jakob Magníºsson formed another band called Jam-80, which later became Tappi Tí­karrass (which means "Cork the Bitch's Ass" in Icelandic), and released an extended single, "Bí­tií° Fast í­ Ví­tií°" in the same year. Their album, Miranda, was released in 1983.

Björk collaborated with Einar í–rn Benediktsson and Einar Melax from Purrkur Pillnikk, and Guí°laugur Óttarsson, Sigtryggur Baldursson, and Birgir Mogensen from ížeyr. After writing songs and rehearsing for two weeks, the new band, KUKL ("sorcery" in Icelandic), developed a sound described as Gothic rock. Björk began to show indications of her trademark singing style, which was punctuated by howls and shrieks.

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