Björk Guðmundsdóttir was born on the 21st of November 1965 in Reykjavík, Iceland, into a family that would soon fracture under the weight of political and personal turmoil. Her mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, was a fierce activist who would later protest the construction of the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant, while her father, Guðmundur Gunnarsson, was an electrician and union leader who left the family shortly after Björk's birth. The young girl was raised in a commune, a communal living arrangement that would become the fertile ground for her early artistic development. By the age of six, she was already enrolled at Reykjavík school, studying classical piano and flute, but it was a school recital of Tina Charles's 1976 hit "I Love to Love" that catapulted her into the public eye. Teachers sent a recording of her performance to RÚV, Iceland's only radio station at the time, and the broadcast led to a recording contract with the Fálkinn label. Her debut record, simply titled Björk, was released in December 1977 when she was just 11 years old, a collection of juvenilia that hinted at the extraordinary vocal range and eccentricity that would define her future. During her teens, the diffusion of punk rock in Iceland led her to form the all-girl punk band Spit and Snot, followed by a jazz fusion group called Exodus and another collaboration known as JAM80. In 1981, she formed Tappi Tíkarrass with bassist Jakob Magnússon, releasing the EP Bitið fast í vitið in August 1982 and the album Miranda in December 1983. The group was featured in the documentary Rokk í Reykjavík, with Björk appearing on the cover of the VHS release, and she met guitarist Þór Eldon and the surrealist group Medusa, which included poet Sjón, with whom she began a lifelong collaboration. She described her time with Medusa as "a gorgeous D.I.Y. organic university: extreme fertility!" and published a hand-coloured book of poems, Um Úrnat frá Björk, in 1984. Her early career was marked by a series of rapid transitions between genres and groups, from gothic rock with Kukl, which became the first Icelandic band to play at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, to her first acting role in The Juniper Tree, filmed in 1986 and released in 1990. By the time she was 21, she had already gained international recognition as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Sugarcubes, a group that would eventually disband in 1992, leaving her to pursue a solo career that would redefine the boundaries of popular music.
The London Exodus And The Birth Of A Pop Icon
Björk moved to London to pursue a solo career, where she began working with producer Nellee Hooper, who had produced Massive Attack, among others. Their partnership produced her first international solo hit, "Human Behaviour," a dance track based on a guitar rhythm sampled from Antônio Carlos Jobim. In most countries, the song was not widely played on radio, but its music video gained strong airtime on MTV, directed by Michel Gondry, who became a frequent collaborator for Björk. Her first solo album, Debut, was released in June 1993 to positive reviews, named album of the year by NME, and eventually went platinum in the United States. The album was a leap from being in numerous bands during her teens and early twenties to her solo career, with a mix of songs Björk had been writing since she was a teenager and more recent lyrical collaborations with Hooper. The dance-oriented album varied in instrumentation, with one single, "Venus as a Boy," featuring a Bollywood-influenced string arrangement, and the final track, "The Anchor Song," sung with only a saxophone ensemble for accompaniment. At the 1994 Brit Awards, Björk won the awards for Best International Female and Best International Newcomer. The success of Debut enabled her to collaborate with British and other artists on one-off tracks, including "Play Dead" with David Arnold for the 1993 film The Young Americans, and co-writing the song "Bedtime Story" for Madonna's 1994 album Bedtime Stories. Her second solo studio album, Post, was released in June 1995, produced in conjunction with Nellee Hooper, Tricky, Graham Massey of 808 State, and electronica producer Howie B. Building on the success of Debut, Björk continued to pursue different sounds, taking particular interest in dance and techno. Production by Tricky and Howie B also provided trip hop/electronica-like sounds on tracks like "Possibly Maybe" and "Enjoy." It was these producers' influence along with older friend Graham Massey that inspired Björk to create material like the storming industrial beats of "Army of Me." The album was ranked number 7 in Spin's "Top 90 Albums of the '90s" list and number 75 in its "100 Greatest Albums, 1985, 2005" list. Post and Homogenic were placed back to back on Pitchfork Media's "Top Albums of the '90s" list at numbers 21 and 20, respectively. In 2003, the album was ranked number 373 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. During this period, the press exalted Björk's eccentricity by creating a "pixie" persona around her, a descriptor she later confronted with her following albums. Although Björk continued to receive more mainstream attention for her videos than her singles, Post included several UK pop hits and was eventually certified platinum in the US. She also contributed to the 1995 Hector Zazou collaborative album Chansons des mers froides, singing the traditional Icelandic song "Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu." Her time in London was also marked by personal relationships, including engagements to DJ Goldie and brief romances with musician Tricky, which placed her at the center of the trip hop scene. The constant harassment from the paparazzi, particularly over a murder attempt by a stalker, Ricardo López, and her relationships with Tricky and Goldie, led her to move to Spain after receiving an offer to stay there from Trevor Morais, her tour drummer, who had a residential studio at Marbella, Andalusia, where she produced Homogenic (1997).
Björk left London for Spain in 1996, where she recorded the album Homogenic, released in 1997. Björk worked with producers Mark Bell of LFO and Howie B, as well as Eumir Deodato; numerous remixes followed. Homogenic is regarded as one of Björk's most experimental and extroverted works, with enormous beats that reflect the landscape of Iceland, most notably in the song "Jóga," which fuses lush strings with rocky electronic crunches. The album was certified gold in the US in 2001. The album was backed by a string of music videos, several of which received airplay on MTV. The video for "Bachelorette" was directed by frequent collaborator Michel Gondry, while "All Is Full of Love" was directed by Chris Cunningham. The single "All is Full of Love" was also the first DVD single to ever be released in the US, which paved the way for other artists to include DVD video and other multimedia features with their singles. Björk began to write more personally, saying "I realised that I'd come to the end of the extrovert thing. I had to go home and search for myself again." In 1999, Björk was asked to write and produce the musical score for the film Dancer in the Dark, a musical drama about an immigrant named Selma who is struggling to pay for an operation to prevent her son from going blind. Director Lars von Trier eventually asked her to consider playing the role of Selma, convincing her that the only true way to capture the character of Selma was to have the composer of the music play the character. Eventually, she accepted. Filming began in early 1999, and the film debuted in 2000 at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival. The film received the Palme d'Or, and Björk received the Best Actress Award for her role. It was reported that the shoot was so physically and emotionally tiring that she vowed never to act again. Björk later stated that she always wanted to do one musical in her life, and Dancer in the Dark was the one. The soundtrack Björk created for the film was released with the title Selmasongs. The album features a duet with Thom Yorke of Radiohead titled "I've Seen It All," which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song and was performed at the 2001 Oscars (without Yorke), while Björk was wearing her celebrated swan dress. The album Homogenic also marked a shift in her personal life, as she moved to New York in the late 1990s, where she met artist Matthew Barney in the art scene. The pair formed a relationship and started living together, moving to Brooklyn Heights in 2000. Their daughter was born in 2002. Barney and Björk initially kept their work separate, but then collaborated on Barney's art film Drawing Restraint 9, a long-term project released in 2005; Björk acted in the film and also contributed musical elements. The couple broke up in 2013, and at the time, she described the breakup as a significant emotional event that would influence her future work. The period was also marked by personal trauma, including a letter bomb attack attempt by Ricardo López, an obsessed American fan, on the 12th of September 1996. López mailed a letter bomb disguised as a book to Björk's London home, which was designed to spray sulphuric acid on her face to disfigure or kill her. He wanted to "punish" Björk for being in a relationship with Goldie. López then went back to his apartment, shaved his head, and painted his face and head red and green, and filmed his suicide in the final part of a video diary, which later became public after being released to journalists, causing a media sensation that temporarily halted the sessions in making Homogenic. The device failed to reach Björk because López's body, and his plans, were discovered before the package was delivered, and the device was defused by Scotland Yard. In her few public comments on this event, Björk said she was "very distressed" by the incident, and said, "I make music, but in other terms, you know, people shouldn't take me too literally and get involved in my personal life." She sent a card and flowers to López's family. She left for Spain, where she recorded the remainder of her third album, Homogenic, away from media attention. She also hired security for her son, Sindri, who was escorted to school with a minder. A year after López's death, Björk discussed the incident in an interview: "I was very upset that somebody had died. I couldn't sleep for a week. And I'd be lying if it didn't scare the fuck out of me that I could get hurt and, most of all, that my son could get hurt." The incident left a lasting impact on her, and she later said that it was one of the most terrifying experiences of her life.
The Intimacy Of Vespertine And The Vocal Odyssey
In 2001, Björk released the album Vespertine. It featured chamber orchestras, choirs, hushed vocals, microbeats made from household sounds, and personal, vulnerable themes. For the album, she collaborated with experimental musicians such as Matmos, Denmark-based DJ Thomas Knak, and harpist Zeena Parkins. Lyrical sources included the works of American poet E. E. Cummings, the American independent filmmaker Harmony Korine, and English playwright Sarah Kane's penultimate play, Crave. To coincide with the album's release, an eponymous coffee table book of loose prose and photographs was published. Björk embarked on the Vespertine world tour. The shows were held in theatres and opera houses in order to have "the best acoustics possible." She was accompanied by Matmos, Parkins and an Inuit choir, which she had held auditions for on a trip to Greenland prior to the tour. At the time, Vespertine was Björk's fastest selling album to date, having sold two million copies by the end of 2001. Vespertine spawned three singles: "Hidden Place," "Pagan Poetry," and "Cocoon." MTV2 played the album's first video, "Hidden Place," which was subsequently released as a DVD single. The next video, for "Pagan Poetry," brought Björk to an even higher level of controversy with the channel. The video features graphic piercings, Björk's exposed nipples, and simulated fellatio. As a result, the clip was banned from MTV. In 2002, it was aired unedited as part of a late night special on MTV2 titled, "Most Controversial Music Videos." The video for "Cocoon" also featured a seemingly naked Björk (actually wearing a close fitting bodysuit), this time with her nipples secreting a red thread that eventually enveloped her in a cocoon. The video was directed by Japanese artist Eiko Ishioka and was not aired by MTV. She was invited to record "Gollum's Song" for the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers but declined the invitation, as she was then pregnant; the song was instead recorded by another Icelander, Emilíana Torrini. In 2002, the CD box set Family Tree was issued. It comprised selected rarities as well as previously unreleased versions of her compositions, including her work with the Brodsky Quartet. Also released alongside Family Tree was the album Greatest Hits, a retrospective of the previous 10 years of her solo career as deemed by the public. The songs on the album were chosen by Björk's fans through a poll on her website. A DVD edition of the CD was also released. It contained all of Björk's solo music videos up to that point. The new single from the set, "It's in Our Hands" charted in the UK at number 37. The video, directed by Spike Jonze, features a heavily pregnant Björk. She gave birth to daughter Isadora Bjarkardottir Barney on the 3rd of October 2002. Björk and the Brodsky Quartet recorded "Prayer of the Heart," a composition written for her by composer John Tavener in 2001, and it was played then for a slide show presentation in 2003 for the American photographer, Nan Goldin. In 2003, Björk released a box set, Live Box, consisting of four CDs containing live recordings of her previous albums and a DVD featuring a video of one track from each CD. Each of the four CDs was later released separately at a reduced price. In August 2004, Björk released Medúlla. During production, Björk decided the album would work best as an entirely vocal-based album. This initial plan was modified, as the majority of the sounds on the album are indeed created by vocalists but several feature prominent basic electronic programming, as well as the occasional musical instrument. Björk used the vocal skills of throat singer Tanya Tagaq, hip hop beatboxer Rahzel, Japanese beatboxer Dokaka, avant-rocker Mike Patton, Soft Machine drummer/singer Robert Wyatt, and several choirs. She again appropriated text from E. E. Cummings for the song "Sonnets/Unrealities XI." At the time, Medúlla became her highest-charting album in the US, debuting at number 14. In August 2004, Björk performed the song "Oceania" at the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. As she sang, her dress slowly unfurled to reveal a 10,000 square foot (900 m2) map of the world, which she let flow over all the Olympic athletes. The song "Oceania" was written especially for the occasion and features the talents of Shlomo, a Leeds-based beatboxer, and a London choir. An alternative version of the song began circulating on the Internet with additional vocals by Kelis. It originally appeared on the promotional "Oceania" single released to radio stations and later became available to the public as a B-side of the "Who Is It" single, which charted at number 26 in the UK. This was followed in early 2005 by "Triumph of a Heart," charting at number 31. A video for the potential next single, "Where Is the Line," was filmed in collaboration with the Icelandic artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir in late 2004. This was initially a sequence from an art installation movie of the artists but was released exclusively on the Medúlla Videos DVD as an official promo for the track. In 2005, Björk collaborated with partner Matthew Barney on the experimental art film Drawing Restraint 9, a dialogueless exploration of Japanese culture. Björk and Barney both appear in the film, playing two occidental guests on a Japanese factory whaling vessel who ultimately transform into two whales. She is also responsible for the film's soundtrack, her second after Selmasongs. Björk also appeared in the 2005 documentary Screaming Masterpiece, which delves into the Icelandic music scene. The movie features archive footage of the Sugarcubes and Tappi Tíkarrass and an ongoing conversation with Björk herself. During this era, Björk earned another BRIT Awards nomination for Best International Female Solo Artist. She was also awarded the Inspiration Award at the Annual Q Magazine Awards in October 2005, accepting the prize from Robert Wyatt, with whom she collaborated on Medúlla. In 2006, Björk remastered her first three solo studio albums (Debut, Post, Homogenic) and her two soundtrack albums (Selmasongs and Drawing Restraint 9) in 5.1 surround sound for a re-issue in a new box-set titled Surrounded, released on the 27th of June. Vespertine and Medúlla were already available in 5.1 as either DVD-A or SACD but are also included in the box set in repackaged format. The DualDiscs were also released separately. Björk's former band, the Sugarcubes, reunited for a one-night-only concert in Reykjavík on the 17th of November 2006. Profits from the concert were donated to the Sugarcubes' former label, Smekkleysa, who according to Björk's press statement, "continue to work on a non-profit basis for the future betterment of Icelandic music." Her voice, a soprano with a range spanning from E3 to D6, has been described as both "elastic" and "somersaulting" in quality, and she has been praised for her scatting ability, unique vocal stylings and delivery. In late 2012, it was reported that Björk had undergone surgery for a polyp on her vocal cords. Commenting on the success of the procedure after years of maintaining a strict diet and using vocal exercises to prevent vocal injury, she "stayed quiet for three weeks and then started singing and definitely feel like my cords are as good as pre-nodule." However, in a review for Biophilia, Kitty Empire of The Guardian stated that pre-surgery Björk still sounded strong, commenting that her voice was "spectacular and swooping," particularly on the song "Thunderbolt." In a similar vein, Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine adds that her voice has been "preserved quite well"; however also noting that her voice has become too hoarse and shouty, adding "it's only where her most dramatic vocal pyrotechnics are concerned that there's any question of physical ability." NPR counted Björk among its list of "50 Great Voices" and MTV placed her at number 8 on its countdown "22 Greatest Voices in Music." She has been ranked 60th as one of the 100 greatest singers ever, and 81st as one of the 100 greatest songwriters ever by Rolling Stone, who praised her voice as being unique, fresh and extremely versatile, fitting and being influenced by a wide range of influences and genres.
The Technological Frontier And The Heartbreak Album
Björk's sixth full-length studio album, Volta, was released on the 1st of May 2007. It features 10 tracks. The album features input from hip hop producer Timbaland, singer Anohni, poet Sjón, electronic beat programmer Mark Bell, kora master Toumani Diabaté, Congolese thumb piano band Konono No 1, pipa player Min Xiaofen, and, on several songs, an all-female ensemble from Iceland performing brass compositions. It also uses the Reactable, a novel "tangible-interface" synthesizer from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, which on Volta is played by Damian Taylor. The first single from the album, "Earth Intruders," was released digitally on the 9th of April 2007 and became her second-ever Billboard Hot 100 entry in the United States. Volta debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart, becoming her first top 10 album in the US, netting week-one sales of 43,000. The album also reached number three on the French albums chart with sales of 20,600 albums sold in its first week, and number seven in the UK Albums Chart with 20,456 units sold. The second single from the album, "Innocence," was digitally released on the 23rd of July 2007, with an accompanying music video chosen from a contest conducted through her official website. "Declare Independence" was released on the 1st of January 2008 in a super deluxe package including two 12" vinyls, a CD, and a DVD featuring Gondry's "Declare Independence" video. "Wanderlust" was subsequently released in a similar format, featuring Encyclopedia Pictura's short film directed for the track, shot in stereoscopic 3D. The fifth single released from the album was "The Dull Flame of Desire," featuring vocals by Anohni. Björk then completed the 18-month The Volta tour, having performed at many festivals and returning to Latin America after nine years, playing in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba, Guadalajara, Bogotá, Lima, Santiago de Chile, and Buenos Aires, as part of different events. She also returned to Australia and New Zealand for the first time in 12 years in January 2008, touring the nations with the Big Day Out Festival. She played a one-off show at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Sydney Festival. Her music was featured in the 2008 documentary Horizons: The Art of Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir directed by Frank Cantor. Announced via an eBay auction, a new Björk track was revealed under the title "Náttúra." Björk commented the song was intended "to encourage active support for a more environmental approach to Iceland's natural resources." The song was initially labelled as a new single by Björk, with backing vocals from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. Björk's official website later stated that the single would be released on the 27th of October 2008 through iTunes, but the track was eventually made available at nattura.grapewire.net, exclusively. In a statement released by bjork.com, a limited edition box set titled Voltaïc from One Little Indian Records was announced, with a release date in North America of the 20th of April 2009 (later delayed to mid-June). The release consists of various live recordings of performances in Paris and Reykjavík. The live set was also recorded at the Olympic Studio in London. The first disc is audio of songs from the Volta tour performed live at Olympic Studios; the second disc contains video of the Volta tour live in Paris and live in Reykjavík; the third disc contains "The Volta Videos" and the video competition, while the fourth is The Volta Mixes CD. In May 2010, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music announced that Björk was to receive the Polar Music Prize alongside Ennio Morricone. A month later, Björk, along with Dirty Projectors, announced that they would be collaborating on a joint EP, titled Mount Wittenberg Orca, which was released on the 30th of June, to raise money for marine conservation. In September 2010, Björk released "The Comet Song" as part of the soundtrack for the movie Moomins and the Comet Chase. Also in 2010, she dueted with fellow Icelander (and One Little Indian labelmate) Ólöf Arnalds on a track called "Surrender" from Arnalds's new album, Innundir skinni, and performed a duet with Anohni on the Antony and the Johnsons album Swanlights. The song is titled "Flétta." On the 20th of September 2010, Björk performed her version of "Gloomy Sunday" at designer Alexander McQueen's memorial in St. Paul's cathedral in London. On the 7th of December 2010, a previously unreleased song, called "Trance," was released by Björk as the backing track of a short film made by Nick Knight, titled "To Lee, with Love," as a tribute to McQueen, with whom Björk collaborated on multiple occasions. In 2011, Björk released Biophilia, which combined music with technological innovation and themes of science and nature, including an "app album," educational collaborations with children and specialised live performance, debuting in Manchester, United Kingdom at the Manchester International Festival on the 30th of June. This was the first part of the Biophilia tour, that toured the world for two years. In June 2011, the first single from Biophilia, "Crystalline," was released. The song was composed using one of the several instruments custom built for the project, the "gameleste," a celesta modified with elements of gamelan. A central part of Biophilia was a series of interactive iPad apps made by programmers and designers, one app for each of the 10 songs on the new album. The second single, "Cosmogony," which served as the "mother app" for all the others, was released on the 19th of July 2011, followed by "Virus" and "Moon." Biophilia was the first album to be released, in October 2011, as a series of interactive apps. Also in part of the project was Björk's Biophilia education programme, which consisted of workshops for school-children aged 10, 12, that explore the intersection of music and science. The Reykjavík City Board of Education brought the programme to all schools in the city over the next three years. She released the 2012 remix album Bastards. It featured remixes by Death Grips and Syrian musician Omar Souleyman. In 2013, Björk featured in a Channel 4 documentary along with Sir David Attenborough called When Björk Met Attenborough, as part of their Mad4Music season of programmes. Björk and Attenborough discussed the human relationship with music, focusing around Biophilia, and also featuring scientist Oliver Sacks. In 2014, the apps were the first ever to be inducted into the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. In June, Björk recorded original vocal samples for Death Grips, which they used on all 8 songs of Niggas on the Moon, the first part of their double LP, The Powers That B. In late 2014, a concert film, Björk: Biophilia Live, was released worldwide, including in more than 400 cinemas. Björk worked with producers Arca and the Haxan Cloak on her eight studio album, titled Vulnicura. On the 18th of January 2015, just days after being publicly announced, and two months ahead of its scheduled release, a supposed full version of the album leaked online. In an effort to salvage potential losses in sales due to the leak and to allow fans to hear the album in superior quality, it was made available worldwide on the 20th of January 2015 on iTunes. Vulnicura is a portrayal of her breakup with former partner, Matthew Barney, with lyrics that are emotionally raw in comparison to the abstract concerns of her previous album. Its surprise release was positively compared to recent album releases from Madonna and Beyoncé, the former of whom also released her album to iTunes after being leaked, and the latter of whom wanted to revolutionize how albums were released and consumed. Björk began her world tour in March 2015 at Carnegie Hall performing "Black Lake" and other tracks from Vulnicura as well as several from her back catalog with accompaniment from the ensemble Alarm Will Sound, Arca on electronics (on festival dates the Haxan Cloak took over) and percussionist Manu Delago. After completing its New York residency, the tour travelled to Europe before ending in August 2015. New York's MoMA hosted a retrospective exhibition from the 8th of March to the 7th of June 2015 that chronicled Björk's career from Debut to Biophilia; however, aspects of Vulnicura were included as well but not previously announced. The retrospective consisted of 4 parts: the Biophilia instruments (Tesla coil, MIDI controlled organ, the newly created Gameleste, and gravity harp) were on display in the lobby of the museum and played automatically throughout the day, the MoMA commissioned video installation, "Black Lake," directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, which consisted of 2 complementary edits of the "Black Lake" video screened in a small room with 49 speakers hidden in the walls and ceiling, a Cinema room showcasing most of Björk's music videos, newly transferred in high definition, and the Songlines walking exhibit which showcased Björk's notebooks, costumes and props from throughout her career. A book entitled Björk: Archives, documenting the content of the exhibition, was published in March. In addition to the "Black Lake" video, videos for "Lionsong" (which played in the Cinema room of the MoMA exhibit), "Stonemilker" (a 360-degree VR video) "Family," and "Mouth Mantra" were also produced for the album, as well as a three part remix series available digitally and on limited edition vinyls. No traditional singles were released for Vulnicura. In December, the "Stonemilker VR App" was released for iOS devices, featuring an exclusive strings mix of the song. It is the same version on display at MoMA earlier that year. On the 2nd of October 2015, Vulnicura Strings was announced. The album serves as a purely acoustic companion to Vulnicura, and features additional string arrangements plus the viola organista, a unique string instrument played on a keyboard designed by Leonardo da Vinci. It was released on the 6th of November 2015 on CD and digital and the 4th of December 2015 on vinyl. A week later, Vulnicura Live was announced on double CD / double LP sets sold exclusively through Rough Trade record shops. The set sold out online five days after being announced but limited quantities were made available in store in London and Brooklyn. Each format is limited to 1000 copies each, making it one of the rarest physical releases of Björk's recent career. The CD was released on the 13th of November 2015 with the picture disc vinyls released a week later. On the 7th of December 2015, Vulnicura was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. On the 15th of July 2016, a standard "commercial" edition of Vulnicura Live was released, featuring the same performances but newly mixed and with different artwork. A luxury version of Vulnicura Live was released on the 23rd of September. The performance of "Come to Me" from the album was also included in the box set 7-inches for Planned Parenthood in support of the women's health organization. Björk launched Björk Digital in June 2016, a virtual reality exhibit showcasing all the VR videos completed for Vulnicura thus far, including the world premiere of "Notget," directed by Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones, at Carriageworks for Vivid Sydney 2016 in Sydney, Australia. She DJ'd the opening night party and did the same when the show traveled to Tokyo, Japan on the 29th of June, showing at Miraikan. During the Miraikan residency, Björk made history by featuring in the world's first ever virtual reality live stream broadcast on YouTube. She gave a live performance of Vulnicura's final song "Quicksand," and the footage was incorporated into the "Quicksand" VR experience. Björk Digital has travelled the world with stops in London, Montreal, Houston, Los Angeles and Barcelona. The death of her longtime co-producer Mark Bell in 2014 marked a turning point, leading her to collaborate with Venezuelan artist Arca on her albums Vulnicura (2015) and Utopia (2017), while Fossora (2022) marked her first venture as a sole producer.
The Utopia Cycle And The Return To Nature
On the 2nd of August 2017, Björk announced with a handwritten note on her social media the imminent release of a new album. The announcement coincided with an interview for Dazeds autumn 2017 cover issue in which Björk talked about the new album. The lead single, "The Gate," was released on the 15th of September 2017. Its video was directed by Andrew Thomas Huang. The same day of the single's release, Björk announced the album title, Utopia, during an interview with Nowness. Utopia was released on the 24th of November 2017. She described it as her "Tinder album" and stated that "it's about that search (for utopia) , and about being in love. Spending time with a person you enjoy is when the dream becomes real." Björk added that her previous album was "hell" , it was like divorce!", stating, "So we [were] doing paradise [...] We have done hell, we have earned some points." She produced the album with Arca, whom she collaborated with on Vulnicura. Björk has described her collaborative journey with Arca as "the strongest musical relationship [she's] had", likening it to that of Joni Mitchell and Jaco Pastorius during the albums Hejira and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter ("It's that synergy when two people lose their ego"), which have both been praised by Björk. Three additional music videos were released in 2017: "Blissing Me," "Utopia" and "Arisen My Senses" with the former and latter also receiving limited edition remix EPs. Utopia was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, making Björk's fifteenth nomination at the Grammys. On the 22nd of May 2018, Björk appeared as the headlining musical guest on Later... with Jools Holland, her first time on the BBC series since 2011. She sang a set of four songs, including a flute rendition of "The Anchor Song" from 1993's Debut before embarking on the brief Utopia tour, playing in several European music festivals during the summer. On the 12th of November 2018, Björk announced a new concert production centered around her Utopia album, entitled Cornucopia. Cornucopia opened in May 2019 at the newly built The Shed in New York and was described as Björk's "most elaborate staged concert to date." The residency show then traveled to Mexico and Europe for further dates in 2019. Following the performances, Björk released music videos for "Tabula Rasa" and "Losss," both directed by Tobias Gremmler and used as backdrop during the shows. On the 16th of August 2019, Björk announced the Utopia Bird Call Boxset, a box set meant to celebrate the end of the album cycle which 14 wooden flutes that imitate various bird calls and a USB stick featuring the digital albums, music videos and remixes, alongside an unreleased instrumental track, "Arpegggio." On the 6th of September 2019, two remixes of "Features Creatures" were released as digital singles, one by Fever Ray and the other by the Knife. Both remixes, as well as Björk's own remix of Fever Ray's 2017 song, "This Country," were collected on Country Creatures. On the 27th of September 2019, Björk made a surprise appearance during Mutant;Faith, Arca's performance-art piece at the Shed, to debut "Afterwards," a new collaboration which Björk performed in a combination of Spanish and gibberish. The song is included on Arca's fourth studio album, KiCk i, which was released on the 26th of June 2020. Björk then embarked on her eleventh concert tour, called Björk Orkestral, in which she performed orchestral arrangements of songs from her career. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed several times before taking place from 2021 to 2023. In August 2020, Björk joined the cast of The Northman, the third feature film by Robert Eggers, co-written with Sjón, alongside her daughter Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, in her debut film role. It was released on the 22nd of April 2022 in the United States. In an interview with The Mercury News published on the 19th of January 2022, Björk mentioned that she was wrapping up work on her upcoming tenth studio album. She revealed in an interview with The Guardian, published on the 19th of August 2022, that the new album is called Fossora, a Latin word for "digging." Fossora was released on the 30th of September 2022. It was supported by four singles: "Atopos" on the 6th of September 2022, "Ovule" on the 14th of September, "Ancestress" on the 22nd of September and the album's title track on the 27th of September. Also in September 2022 Björk ventured into podcasting, hosting Björk: Sonic Symbolism which, according to a press release, features her "discussing the textures, timbres and emotional landscapes of each of her albums" with friends writer Oddný Eir and musicologist Ásmundur Jónsson. Björk released the single "Oral," featuring Rosalía with production from Sega Bodega, on the 21st of November 2023. A reworked demo written between Homogenic and Vespertine, the song is intended to support the inhabitants of Seyðisfjörður in the campaign against Norwegian-owned fish farming operations that threaten to degrade local ecosystems. The proceeds from this song were donated to Aegis, an environmental organization Björk founded with other Icelandic activists to stop the intensive fish farming that is destroying the fjords. In 2024, Björk appeared on the April/May cover of Vogue Scandinavia, her first ever Vogue cover, photographed by Viðar Logi wearing Maison Margiela. In October, a newly discovered large butterfly species was named Pterourus bjorkae in honour of Björk. In 2025 Cornucopia, a concert film chronicling a performance in Lisbon during the last leg of the Cornucopia tour, directed by Ísold Uggadóttir, premiered on Apple TV+ as part of the Apple Music Live series, with a full-length version receiving a theatrical release. In 2025, Björk was featured on Rosalía's "Berghain" alongside Yves Tumor. For Björk, "Berghain" marked her second number-one single on the Spanish Singles Chart after "Hidden Place" in 2001. With sales of over 40 million records worldwide, Björk is one of the best-selling alternative artists of all time. Several of her albums have reached the top 20 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Thirty-one of her singles have reached the top 40 on pop charts around the world, with 22 top 40 hits in the UK, including the top-10 singles "It's Oh So Quiet," "Army of Me," and "Hyperballad" and the top-20 singles "Play Dead," "Big Time Sensuality," and "Violently Happy." Her accolades and awards include the Order of the Falcon, five BRIT Awards, and 16 Grammy nominations (including nine in the Best Alternative Music Album category, the most of any artist). In 2015, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Rolling Stone named her the 64th-greatest singer and the 81st-greatest songwriter of all time in 2023. Björk has also been an advocate for environmental causes in Iceland. A retrospective exhibition dedicated to Björk was held at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2015.