Björk biography
Björk Guí°mundsdóttir (born 21 November 1965) is an Icelandic avant-garde singer-songwriter, composer, actress and music producer, whose work includes seven solo albums and two film soundtracks.
She is best known for her expressive vocals, broad soprano vocal range, and a diverse and eclectic musical style, which incorporates influences from many different genres, including pop, alternative rock, jazz, ambient, electronic, classical, folk and trip hop, as well as her eccentric costumes and music videos. Her singles "It's Oh So Quiet", "Army of Me" and "Hyperballad" all charted in the UK Top 10.
Her record label, One Little Indian, reported in 2003 that she had sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. She has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards (including one for acting). For her performance in Dancer in the Dark, Björk won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. She was ranked #36 on VH1's "The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll" and #8 on MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music". Her most recent album, Volta, was released worldwide on 8 May 2007.
Björk was born and raised in Reykjavík, 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 Arse" in Icelandic), and released an extended single, "Bítií° Fast í Vítií°" in the same year. Their next album, Miranda, was released in 1983.
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