title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: It took the energetic 1968 television special "Elvis", which the Singer Company sponsored, and a subsequent series of acclaimed recording sessions in Memphis, Tennessee, that included songs such as "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto", to restore Presley's musical reputation. However, the music scene had radically changed. It was producer Steve Binder who put forward the idea of Presley singing his old hits and even the staged section with his old band, Scotty Moore and D. J. Fontana, the latter inspired by a post-rehearsal informal jam in Presley's dressing room. Presley was never one to stand up against Parker, but he knew that this TV show was his one chance at a true comeback, and with Binder backing him, Presley told Parker he was doing it "Binder's way". Their instincts were proven right; the TV special proved an enormous hit, and the album that was released featuring performances from the special became a best-seller, but the comeback special was interrupted when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968. After the special, Parker managed Presley's return to live performance, including a set of brief U.S. tours and many engagements in Las Vegas. Following the success of Presley's Las Vegas return, Parker signed a contract with the International Hotel to guarantee Presley would play a month-long engagement for $125,000 a week (US$ in dollars), an unheard-of sum at the time. During this part of Presley's career, Parker and Presley agreed to a 50/50 "partnership", which, with Parker controlling merchandising and other non-music related items, resulted in Parker earning more than his client.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: After the success of Presley's return to live performing in Las Vegas, Parker decided it was time to take him back out on tour for the first time in 13 years. The tours were so popular and financially successful that they determined Presley's workload for the remainder of his life and career. Parker's main role during these tours was to plan the logistics and make sure tickets were sold. He would usually fly ahead to the venues and prepare the way for Presley's entourage to follow, so that he and Presley rarely saw each other, and as time progressed it became even more difficult for Parker to get in contact with Presley. These live performances, as well as being financially satisfying, also allowed Parker to fulfill Presley's recording contract with RCA Victor. Between 1969 and 1972 alone, RCA released three albums of live material.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: By 1972, Parker had managed to increase Presley's weekly wage in Las Vegas to $150,000 (US$ in dollars), and secured $50,000 a year (US$ in dollars) for himself as a "consultant to the hotel chain". Parker had also decided that it was time for Presley to return to New York, and had arranged for him to perform at Madison Square Garden in June. Originally planned as three performances, demand was so high that Parker decided to add a fourth performance, making Presley the first performer to sell out the venue four consecutive times. These four shows alone grossed $730,000 (US$ in dollars).


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: On July 8, 1972, inspired by the visit of President Richard Nixon to China a few months earlier, Parker announced that there would be a worldwide satellite broadcast from Hawaii to allow the whole world the chance to see a Presley concert, "since it is impossible for us to play in every major city". (During Presley's career, except for a few concerts in Canada in 1957, he never performed outside the United States.) Parker held another press conference on September 4, 1972, in Las Vegas to confirm that the concert, now titled "Aloha from Hawaii," would be broadcast on January 14, 1973. The press were told that an audience of one billion was expected to tune in to see the "first entertainment special to be broadcast live around the world", although Parker had not taken into account the fact that many countries, including parts of Europe and America, would not see the concert live due to the time of the broadcast. Two weeks after the Las Vegas press conference Parker received a letter from "Honolulu Advertiser" columnist Eddie Sherman. Sherman had read in news accounts that there was to be no charge for admittance to the concerts, a donation to charity being required instead. He suggested to Parker that, as Presley had recorded and was still performing the song "I'll Remember You" written by Kui Lee, the donations could go to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund that had been set up following the death of the songwriter in 1966. Seeing the chance to publicize Presley's charitable nature once again, Parker eagerly agreed. The album was released simultaneously around the world, and went to number 1 on the US charts, the first Presley album to do so since the "Roustabout" soundtrack, in 1964.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: "Aloha from Hawaii" proved to be the last great moment in Presley's career. In May 1973, in an attempt to deal with Presley's growing dependence on prescription drugs, Presley's father, Vernon, and Parker attempted to cut off his supply. They hired private detectives to find out where the drugs were coming from and were successful in stopping any more from reaching Presley. However, it wasn't long before Presley was able to find other doctors to meet his demands. In later years, several of Presley's inner circle would tell of how difficult it was to persuade Presley to quit the drugs. As well as being their employer and paying their wages, he was also their main source of access to drugs for themselves. Presley's main doctor, George C. Nichopoulos, would often replace Presley's medication with placebos in an attempt to wean him off the drugs. This would be successful for a short time, but when Presley discovered the trick, he simply found himself other doctors. Author Alanna Nash suggests that one of the reasons Parker didn't do more is because he may have just not known how to handle the situation. In her book, "The Colonel", she writes: "in the days before the Betty Ford Clinic, the Colonel didn't know where to take him for discreet, effective help and loathed risking the loss of work if the truth got out".


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: After the "Aloha" special, Parker made a deal that would later be used in court to prove that he had not acted in the best interests of Presley. He offered RCA Records the opportunity to buy Presley's entire back catalog for $5.4 million. At the time, Presley's back catalog was not considered very important and RCA initially calculated it at being worth much less, but in later years it would become one of the most valuable record catalogs in the music business. The sale of the back catalog to RCA meant that after his death, Presley's estate would not receive any royalties for any Presley recordings made prior to 1973. However, Presley had asked him to raise funds to pay for his upcoming divorce settlement, and Priscilla divorced Elvis in 1973.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: During a closing night performance on September 3, 1973, following news that a Hilton staff member who Presley was fond of had been fired, he attacked Barron Hilton in a verbal rage on stage. Parker was furious, and he stormed into Presley's dressing room after the show to confront him. After a heated argument between the two, Presley told Parker he was fired. Angered by this outburst, Parker declared: "You can't fire me. I quit!"


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Parker accepted that their working relationship was over, Parker telling them over the phone that Dr. Nick's services are no longer required, and demanded that Presley pay him $2 million to end their contract; money Parker claimed he was owed. After nearly two weeks of trading insults back and forth, Parker and Presley decided to continue to work together.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Although many around Presley were worried about his worsening drug dependency, Parker appeared to ignore the problem. Several members of Presley's band later stated that Parker had no idea just how bad the situation was getting. However, other friends and members of Presley's entourage have stood by the suggestion that Parker didn't want to admit there was such a problem because he didn't know how to deal with it, and he was also worried about any negative publicity it would create. According to Parker himself, he did privately attempt to talk to his client a number of times about the matter, but allegedly every time Parker casually told Presley to quit or at least tone it down with the pill popping and binge eating, Presley would respond by telling Parker to stay out of his personal business.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: From 1974 onward, Presley's weight gain and prescription drug abuse became too much to be controlled. In Las Vegas, he was starting to appear drugged on stage, slurring his words and forgetting song lyrics.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: In February 1975, during his engagement in Las Vegas, Presley, along with Parker, met with Barbra Streisand and Jon Peters. They discussed the possibility of Presley's co-starring with Streisand in a remake of the film" A Star Is Born." Seeing it as a chance to finally be taken seriously as an actor, Presley agreed to take the role if the contracts could be worked out. According to Presley's friend, Jerry Schilling, Presley was excited about the opportunity to take on a new challenge. Streisand's production company, First Artists, offered Presley a salary of $500,000 (US$ in dollars) and 10% of the profits. Parker, who had always dealt with Presley's film contracts and viewed the offer as a starting bid to earning more money, instead asked for a salary $1 million (US$ in dollars), 50% of the profits, plus another $100,000 (US$ in dollars) for expenses, and spoke of needing to arrange details of a soundtrack deal. First Artists, not used to such huge demands, didn't put forward a counter-offer and decided instead to offer the role, along with the original salary offer, to Kris Kristofferson, who accepted. Parker later claimed that Presley had asked him to make the contract so demanding so that they would not offer him the part, although many of Presley's friends have contradicted Parker's statement because they had said Presley was furious at losing the role.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Later in 1975, the government of Saudi Arabia offered Parker $5 million for Presley to perform there. Parker turned the offer down, and Presley was overjoyed when they replied with another offer of $10 million. Yet, despite Presley's eagerness to do the shows, Parker again turned them down. Promoters in South America also made offers, as much as $2.5 million, and all of them were turned down by Parker; "Well, whenever I need $2.5 million I'll call you," he once said to them. Presley was beginning to consider new management, with "Concerts West" co-founder Tom Hulett being the clear favorite for the job. Hulett's company had managed tours for Presley, and he had worked with artists such as Led Zeppelin. According to several people who knew Presley at the time, the talks with Hulett got so far along that it seemed almost inevitable the deal would be done. The talks had included details about European tours, and buying out Presley's contract would not have been a problem for Hulett and his company. Despite this, however, the deal never materialized. According to Presley's biographer Peter Guralnick, Presley and Parker "were really like, in a sense, a married couple, who started out with great love, loyalty, respect that lasted for a considerable period of time, and went through a number of stages until, towards the end of Presley's life, they should have walked away. None of the rules of the relationship was operative any longer, yet neither had the courage to walk away, for a variety of reasons." In any case, Parker remained Presley's manager without a break until Presley's death in 1977.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: By this time, Parker was aware that Presley needed a rest from touring and the chance to deal with his prescription drug addictions. He phoned Presley's father once to suggest taking time off, but Vernon Presley told him they couldn't afford to stop touring due to Presley's constant and lavish spending of money. Vernon also threatened to find a new manager if Parker wouldn't continue to tour Presley.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: In July 1976, three of Presley's personal bodyguards and members of the "Memphis Mafia", Robert Gene "Red" West, his cousin Sonny West and David Hebler, were fired by Vernon Presley and decided to write a tell-all book about their life in his inner circle, titled "" Worried about the impact such details might have on his career, Presley, through his father, asked Parker to stop the publication of the book. Parker made several attempts to have it stopped, but failed to do so. According to Presley's friend, Larry Geller, Parker secretly wanted the book to be published, hoping that it would open Presley's eyes to how bad he had gotten and persuade him to do something about it. The book would eventually be published one year later on July 12, 1977, one month before Presley's death.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: For the remainder of Presley's life, Parker would see very little of him. The two had become almost strangers to each other, and false reports in the media suggested that Presley's contract was up for sale. Although Parker publicly denied these claims, he had been in talks with Peter Grant, manager of Led Zeppelin, about the possibility of him overseeing a European tour for Presley. As with all the talk about Presley touring overseas, Parker never followed through with the deal.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Presley performed only a few early shows outside the United States (Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver in Canada, in 1957), failing to undertake the highly lucrative prospect of touring other countries and continents. Some have speculated that the reason for this may have been that Parker was worried that he would not have been able to acquire a U.S. passport and might even have been deported upon filing his application. Although Parker was a U.S. Army veteran and the spouse of an American citizen, one of the basic tenets of U.S. immigration law is that unless an application is made as part of an amnesty program, there are few paths to citizenship or even legal residency for those who entered the country illegally. As Parker had not availed himself of the 1940 Alien Registration Act, and there was no amnesty program available to him afterwards, he was reportedly ineligible for US citizenship.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Throughout his entire career, Presley performed in only four venues outside the continental United States – the three first in Canada: Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, during brief tours there in 1957, still at the beginning of his career (in addition to the successfull 1973 tour Aloha from Hawaii). At the time of those concerts, crossing the US-Canada border did not require a passport. Red Robinson, Vancouver radio icon and MC of the Presley concert in that city, said Parker did not accompany Presley to that show, but instead stayed in Washington. However, it is well-established that Parker did not accompany Presley on every tour and every performance date, even in the US, suggesting this may not have been the only rationale for Presley not performing abroad.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Rumors that Presley finally would play overseas for the first time were fueled in 1974 by a million-dollar bid for an Australian tour. Parker was uncharacteristically reluctant, prompting those close to Presley to speculate about the manager's past and the reasons for his apparent unwillingness to apply for a passport. Parker ultimately quashed any notions Presley had of working abroad, although Presley did not push the issue either.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Many theories for Parker's failure (or ill will) to organize a foreign tour for Presley have surfaced, including the following:


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Parker's refusal to allow Presley to tour abroad opened up opportunities for other American rock-and-roll musicians, such as Neil Sedaka, to gain footholds there before Presley did. It may also contributed to for a little fall of Elvis's popularity in the rest of the world, and the rise of the Punk rock (as part of the Punk subculture) mainly in the United Kingdom and of Disco music in the Western Europe and on other continents.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: The very last time that Parker saw Elvis Presley was on June 21, 1977 at one of Presley's final concerts in Rapid City, South Dakota, witnessing him singing the closing song "Unchained Melody". Parker briefly spoke with Presley and his entourage backstage over Presley agreeing to take two months of rest at Graceland before going back out on tour in August.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: When Presley died on August 16, 1977, one day before he was due to go out on tour, some accounts suggest Parker acted as if nothing had happened. Other accounts suggest he slumped in his chair at his office, muttered, "Oh, dear God", and then quickly phoned Vernon Presley where Parker advised Presley's father that his son's image needed to be protected.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Parker set out to protect his future income. Asked by a journalist what he would do now, Parker responded: "Why, I'll just go right on managing him!" Almost immediately, before even visiting Graceland, Parker traveled to New York City to meet with merchandising associates and executives with RCA Records, instructing them to prepare for a huge demand in Presley products. Shortly afterward, he traveled to Memphis for Presley's funeral. Mourners recall being surprised at his wearing a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap, smoking his trademark cigar, and purposely avoiding the casket. At the funeral, he persuaded Presley's father to sign over control of Presley's career in death to him.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: In September 1978, shortly after the first anniversary of Presley's death, Parker arranged a fan festival, "Always Elvis", where he, Vernon, and Presley's ex-wife Priscilla, dedicated a bronze statue of him in the lobby of the Las Vegas Hilton.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Following Presley's death, Parker set up a licensing operation with Factors Etc. Inc, to control Presley merchandise and keep a steady income supporting his estate. It was later revealed that Presley owned 22% of the company, Parker owned 56%, and the final 22% was made up of various business associates. Due to an ill-advised agreement between Parker and Presley that gave RCA sole ownership of all his recording royalties prior to 1973, the estate was relying heavily on the income from Factors Etc. Inc. However, because Parker was still entitled to 50% of all Presley's income, and after taxes were taken off, the overall amount going towards the upkeep of the estate was less than $1 million a year.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: In January 1979, it was discovered that Presley had lost out on royalties for songs on which he had been listed as an author or composer because Parker had unwisely advised him not to sign up to ASCAP or its younger competitor, BMI. Experts in the field at the time estimated that it had potentially cost Presley millions of dollars and worse for Parker, it had also potentially cost him those millions of dollars. Parker had unknowingly backed himself into a financial corner.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: By 1980, the cost of running the estate was estimated to be as much as $500,000 a year. Priscilla and the Trust were prepared to let Parker continue to handle Presley's business affairs, and petitioned the court to that end. However, Judge Joseph Evans, aware that Lisa Marie Presley was still a minor, appointed attorney Blanchard E. Tual to investigate Parker's management. Tual, once appointed as Lisa Marie's "guardian ad litem", chose to investigate the entire period of Parker's management of Presley; his preliminary finding was that Parker's management deal of 50% was extortionate compared to the industry average of 15–20%. He also noted that Parker's handling of Presley's business affairs during his lifetime, including the decision to sell off past royalties to RCA for $5.4 million in 1973, was "unethical" and poorly handled. During a second, more detailed investigation, Tual discovered that all earnings were paid directly to the Trust instead of Parker. By this time, with the IRS demanding almost $15 million in taxes, the estate was facing bankruptcy.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: On August 14, 1981, Judge Evans ordered Elvis Presley Enterprises to sue Parker for mismanagement. In response to this, Parker countersued. The case against Parker was settled out of court in 1983, with the estate paying him $2 million (US$ in dollars) in exchange for all Presley audio recordings or visual images that he owned and the termination of his involvement in any Presley related earnings for five years.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Parker had worked as a "consultant" for Hilton Hotels since Presley's death, with some believing he was working to pay off debts owed to the casino from his gambling during Presley's performances there. Part of this role resulted in Parker keeping the same fourth-floor suite he occupied when Presley was alive, but by 1984, with his gambling debts reportedly rising again, he was evicted. On the surface, however, relations between the two were as good as ever, with Parker helping the Hilton to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Presley's death.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: The disputes with the Presley estate did not terminate his association with his most high-profile client. Parker appeared at posthumous events honoring Presley, such as the 1993 issuing of the United States Postal Service stamp honoring the King of Rock and Roll. He also became friendly with the estate again, attending special ceremonies and events in Memphis, invited by Priscilla. However, he did occasionally step on their toes by commenting negatively on some of their decisions. In 1994, following the marriage of Lisa Marie and Michael Jackson, Parker stated that Presley would not have approved, and in 1993, interest in Presley's enduring legend, interest that is sometimes notable for its obsessiveness, provoked Parker to remark: "I don't think I exploited Elvis as much as he's being exploited today."


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: As Presley's fame grew, people became interested in Parker as well. For a time, Parker lied about his childhood, claiming to have been born in Huntington, West Virginia, in the early 1900s to explain his Dutch accent as being a Southern accent, and to have run away from home at an early age to join a circus owned by an uncle before serving in the U.S. Army prior to his involvement with being a music manager. The truth about his early years was revealed in 1960 when one of Parker's sisters, Nel Dankers-van Kuijk, living in the Netherlands, recognized him in photographs standing next to Presley.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: One of Parker's brothers, Adam "Ad" van Kuijk, visited Parker once in Los Angeles in April 1961. Parker privately acknowledged his brother and even introduced him to Presley. During the week-long visit, Parker was informed by Adam van Kuijk that their mother had died three years earlier in 1958, never knowing what happened to her son after he left the Netherlands for good in 1929. Adam van Kuijk died from emphysema in 1992, never seeing or visiting Parker again.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: The claim of Parker's Dutch heritage was publicly confirmed when Parker unsuccessfully tried to avert a lawsuit brought against him in 1982 by asserting in open court that he was a Dutch citizen. The opposing counsel responded by presenting into evidence a copy of Parker's U.S. Army enlistment form which stated, through a legal loophole, that because Parker signed his enlistment papers under his alias "Thomas Andrew Parker" and once he took the oath by swearing allegiance to the United States of America, he unofficially renounced his Dutch citizenship, although it is claimed that he died a Dutch citizen. In 1993, in one of his last media appearances, Parker appeared in a television interview with Dutch TV director Jorrit van der Kooi where they spoke to each other in Dutch about the Netherlands and about Elvis Presley's life and career. During the interview, Parker said that he was not aware that another one of his sisters, Adriana van Kuijk, had died in the Netherlands a few years before.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: In 1935, while travelling with a circus, Parker met and married 27-year-old Marie Francis Mott. Marie was one of six children, had been married twice before, and had a son from her first marriage. Unbeknown to Parker at the time, she had a second son from her first marriage, but had given him up for adoption at birth due to his disability (a club foot). Some suggested that Parker married Marie to disguise his illegal status in the United States; a marriage to a U.S. citizen with a child could help him bury his past in a "ready-made family". However, there is no definite proof that anything other than romance led to their marriage.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Others, however, had doubts about whether they were legally married at all. According to interviews given by Parker to the Associated Press many years later, he and Marie were married in Tampa, Florida, during the winter of 1932, but the Florida Office of Vital Statistics had no record of such a marriage any time between 1927 and 1946. It is also recorded that Marie did not divorce her second husband until 1936, and her brother, Bitsy, recalled no ceremony of marriage between Parker and Marie. Author Alanna Nash has suggested that the couple may have simply placed their hands on a Bible and given themselves a "carny wedding".


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: In the early days of their marriage, Marie and Parker worked together in the carnivals. As Parker's management career began to take off, Marie became more of a housewife, although she would occasionally travel with him to various parts of the country. During the 1960s, after many years of ill health, Marie began to display signs of dementia. Parker began to distance himself emotionally from her, heartbroken by her slow mental deterioration from the woman he once knew. Marie died on November 25, 1986, of a chronic brain syndrome at age 78. In October 1990, Parker married Loanne Miller, his secretary since 1972. From then on, he continued living in Las Vegas, mostly avoiding contact with the press.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Many Parker biographers, including Dirk Vellenga and Alanna Nash, have stated that Parker's gambling habit began to get out of control in the mid-1960s. During the 1960s, with his wife's health deteriorating, and Presley's career struggling, Parker found an escape with gambling at Las Vegas casinos. Fans and biographers alike believe that one of the main reasons Parker signed Presley to a Vegas hotel in 1969 for his live comeback was to help cover losses he experienced in their casino. He would often spend 12–14 hours at a time gambling in the casinos, betting large sums. It is believed that Parker lost at least $1 million a year from gambling. At the time of Presley's death in 1977, it was suspected that Parker owed the Las Vegas Hilton over $30 million (US$ in dollars) in gambling losses. After a lifetime that saw him earn in excess of $100 million, Parker's estate was worth barely $1 million when he died.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: "Colonel Tom Parker rubbed my head in Vegas", Eddie Murphy stated in 1989. "A couple times he set me up in the Elvis Presley suite on top of the Hilton, and I would go play Elvis for a week… One night we were at the crap table together and he rubbed my head for luck. I wanted to punch him in the face. But this guy is like eighty years old – too old to be taught the limits of racism… He probably doesn't realize how horrible a thing that was to do."


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Songwriter Mac Davis recounted a similar experience where Parker rubbed his head and declared "You're going to be a star. You tell everybody the Colonel touched your head." Later, Davis says "He remembered me, and he said 'I told you you were going to be a star.' I said, 'Yeah, you rubbed my head.' He said 'Did I really?' I said 'Yeah'. He said 'Well then there ain't no doubt about it. You're going to be a star.'"


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: Parker made his last public appearances in 1994. By this point, he was a very sick man stricken with diabetes, gout, and other health problems such that he could barely leave his own house.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: On January 20, 1997, Parker's wife heard a crashing sound from the living room, and when she heard no response to her calls, she went in to find him slumped over in his chair after suffering a stroke, which he died of complications from the following morning at a hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, at age 87. His death certificate lists his birth name as Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, his country of birth as the Netherlands, and his citizenship as American.


title: Colonel Tom Parker

text: His funeral was held at the Hilton Hotel and was attended by a handful of friends and former associates, including Eddy Arnold and Sam Phillips. Priscilla Presley attended the funeral to represent the Elvis Presley Estate and gave a eulogy that, to many in the room, summed up Parker: "Elvis and the Colonel made history together, and the world is richer, better and far more interesting because of their collaboration. And now I need to locate my wallet, because I noticed there was no ticket booth on the way in here, but I'm sure that the Colonel must have arranged for some toll on the way out." She reiterated her positive opinion to Tom Hanks when the actor prepared to play Parker for "Elvis" (2022). Hanks said, "I was anticipating hearing horror stories about this venal, cheap crook. Just the opposite. Both Priscilla and Jerry said he was a lovely man". According to Presley, Elvis was happy to pay 50% to Parker to manage him.


title: Björk

text: Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has developed an eclectic musical style over her four-decade career that has drawn on electronic, pop, experimental, trip hop, classical, and avant-garde music.


title: Björk

text: Born and raised in Reykjavík, Björk began her music career at the age of 11 and gained international recognition as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Sugarcubes, by the age of 21. After the band's breakup in 1992, Björk embarked on a solo career, coming to prominence with albums such as "Debut" (1993), "Post" (1995), and "Homogenic" (1997), while collaborating with a range of artists and exploring a variety of multimedia projects. Her other albums include "Vespertine" (2001), "Medúlla" (2004), "Volta" (2007), "Biophilia" (2011), "Vulnicura" (2015), "Utopia" (2017) and "Fossora" (2022).


title: Björk

text: Several of Björk's albums have reached the top 20 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart. , she had sold more than 20 million records worldwide. 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 15 Grammy nominations. In 2015, "Time" named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. "Rolling Stone" named her the 60th greatest singer and the 81st greatest songwriter.


title: Björk

text: Björk starred in the 2000 Lars von Trier film "Dancer in the Dark", for which she won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I've Seen It All". "Biophilia" was marketed as an interactive app album with its own education program. Björk has also been an advocate for environmental causes in Iceland. A retrospective exhibition dedicated to Björk was held at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2015.


title: Björk

text: Björk was born on 21 November 1965 in Reykjavík, where she grew up. Her mother was activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir (7 October 1946 – 25 October 2018), who protested against the development of Iceland's Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant. Her father is Guðmundur Gunnarsson, a union leader and electrician. They divorced when Björk was born and she moved with her mother to a commune. Her stepfather is Sævar Árnason, a former guitarist in the band Pops. At six, Björk enrolled at Reykjavík school Barnamúsíkskóli, where she studied classical piano and flute. After a school recital in which Björk sang Tina Charles's 1976 hit "I Love to Love", her teachers sent a recording of her singing the song to the RÚV radio station, which was then Iceland's only radio station. The recording was nationally broadcast and, after hearing it, a representative of the Fálkinn record label offered Björk a recording contract. Her début, "Björk", was recorded when she was 11 years old and was released in Iceland in December 1977.


title: Björk

text: During her teens, after the diffusion of punk rock music in Iceland, Björk formed the all-girl punk band Spit and Snot. In 1980, she formed a jazz fusion group, Exodus, collaborated in another group, JAM80, and graduated from music school. In 1982, she and bassist Jakob Magnússon formed another group, Tappi Tíkarrass ("Cork the Bitch's Ass" in Icelandic), and released EP "Bitið fast í vitið" ("Bite Hard Into Hell" in Icelandic), in August 1982. Their album "Miranda" was released in December 1983. The group was featured in the documentary "Rokk í Reykjavík", with Björk being featured on the cover of the VHS release. Around this time, Björk met guitarist Þór Eldon and surrealist group Medusa, which also included poet Sjón, with whom she started a lifelong collaboration and formed a group, Rokka Rokka Drum. She described her time as part of Medusa as "a gorgeous D.I.Y. organic university: extreme fertility!"


title: Björk

text: Björk appeared as a featured artist on "Afi", a track from the Björgvin Gíslason 1983 record "Örugglega".


title: Björk

text: Due to the imminent discontinuance of radio show "Áfangar", two radio personalities, Ásmundur Jónsson and Guðni Rúnar, requested musicians to play on a last live radio show. Björk joined with Einar Melax (from the group Fan Houtens Kókó), Einar Örn Benediktsson (from Purrkur Pillnikk), Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson and Sigtryggur Baldursson (from Þeyr), and Birgir Mogensen (from Spilafífl) to perform in the concert. The group developed a gothic rock sound. During this experience, Björk began to develop her vocalisation – punctuated by howls and shrieks. The project performed as Gott kvöld during the concert. When they later decided to keep playing together as a group, they used the name ("Sorcery" in Icelandic). Björk's acquaintance gave the group their studio to record in and released their first single in 1983. Their first big performance at a festival in Iceland was headlined by English anarchist punk band Crass, whose record label, Crass Records offered the band a record deal. "The Eye" was released in 1984, followed by a two-month tour in Europe, which also included a performance at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. This made Kukl the first Icelandic band to play at the festival. During this period Björk published a hand-coloured book of poems. "Um Úrnat frá Björk" was distributed in 1984.


title: Björk

text: Kukl's second album, "Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought)", came out in 1986. The band split up due to personal conflict, with Björk keeping a collaboration with Guðlaugur, which was named the Elgar Sisters. Some of the songs they recorded ended up as B-sides to Björk solo singles.


title: Björk

text: Björk had her first acting role on "The Juniper Tree" (filmed in 1986, released in 1990), a tale of witchcraft based on the Brothers Grimm story, directed by Nietzchka Keene. Björk played the role of Margit, a girl whose mother has been killed for practising witchcraft. That summer, former band member Einar Örn and Eldon formed the arts collective "Smekkleysa" ("Bad Taste" in Icelandic), created with the intention of being both a record label and book publishing company. Various friends, namely Melax and Sigtryggur from Kukl, along with Bragi Ólafsson and Friðrik Erlingson from Purrkur Pillnikk, joined the group and a band coalesced in the collective solely to make money. They were initially called Þukl, but they were advertised as Kukl (the name of the previous band). At a later concert supporting Icelandic band Stuðmenn, they referred to themselves as "Sykurmolarnir" ("Sugarcubes" in Icelandic). Their first double A-side single "Einn mol'á mann", which contained the songs "Ammæli" ("Birthday") and "Köttur" ("Cat"), was released on 21 November 1986, Björk's 21st birthday. At the end of that year, the band was signed by One Little Indian. Their first English single, "Birthday", was released in the United Kingdom on 17 August 1987; a week later, it was declared single of the week by "Melody Maker". The Sugarcubes also signed a distribution deal with Elektra Records in the United States and recorded their first album, "Life's Too Good", which was released in 1988. After the release of the album, Eldon and Björk divorced soon after the birth of their child despite being in the same group. The album went on to sell more than one million copies worldwide. Björk contributed as a background vocalist on 1987 album "Loftmynd" by Megas, for whom she provided background vocals also on his subsequent album "Höfuðlausnir" (1988) and "Hættuleg hljómsveit & glæpakvendið Stella" (1990).


title: Björk

text: In the last quarter of 1988, the Sugarcubes toured North America to positive reception. On 15 October, the band appeared on "Saturday Night Live". Björk alone contributed a rendition of the Christmas song "Jólakötturinn" ("The Christmas Cat") on the compilation "Hvít Er Borg Og Bær". The band went on hiatus following the lack of reception of "Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!" (1989) and a lengthy international tour. During this time, Björk started working on her solo projects. In 1990 she provided background vocals on "Gums" by Bless. In the same year, she recorded "Gling-Gló", a collection of popular jazz and original work, with the jazz group Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, which was still her best-selling album in her home country. Björk also contributed vocals to 808 State's album "", with whom she cultivated her interest in house music. She contributed vocals on the songs "Qmart" and on "Ooops", which was released as a single in the UK in 1991. She also contributed vocals to the song "Falling", on the album "Island" by Current 93 and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. In the same year she met harpist Corky Hale, with whom she had a recording session that ended up as a track on her future album "Debut".


title: Björk

text: At this point, Björk had decided to leave the band to pursue her solo career, but their contract included the making of one last album, "Stick Around for Joy" (1992), with a subsequent promotional tour, which she agreed to do. Björk was featured on two tracks of the soundtrack for the 1992 film "Remote Control" (known as "Sódóma Reykjavík" in Iceland). The Sugarcubes split up after they played one last show in Reykjavík. "Rolling Stone" has called them "the biggest rock band to emerge from Iceland".


title: Björk

text: Björk moved to London to pursue a solo career; she began working with producer Nellee Hooper (who had produced Massive Attack, among others). Their partnership produced Björk's first international solo hit, "Human Behaviour", a clattering 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. It was directed by Michel Gondry, who became a frequent collaborator for Björk. Her first adult solo album, "Debut", was released in June 1993 to positive reviews; it was named album of the year by "NME" and eventually went platinum in the United States. "Debut" was the leap Björk made from being in numerous bands during her teens and early twenties to her solo career. She named the album "Debut" to signify a start of something new. "Debut" had a mix of songs Björk had been writing since she was a teenager, as well as more recent lyrical collaborations with Hooper. The dance-oriented album varied in instrumentation. One single from the album, "Venus as a Boy", featured a Bollywood-influenced string arrangement. Björk covered the jazz standard "Like Someone in Love" to the accompaniment of a harp, and the final track, "The Anchor Song", was sung with only a saxophone ensemble for accompaniment.


title: Björk

text: 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. She worked with David Arnold on "Play Dead", the theme to the 1993 film "The Young Americans" (which appeared as a bonus track on a re-release of "Debut"), collaborated on two songs for Tricky's "Nearly God" project, appeared on the track "Lilith" for the album "Not for Threes" by Plaid, and co-wrote the song "Bedtime Story" for Madonna's 1994 album "Bedtime Stories". Björk also had an uncredited role as a runway model in the 1994 film "Prêt-à-Porter".


title: Björk

text: "Post" was Björk's second solo studio album. Released in June 1995, the album was 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" "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.


title: Björk

text: 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. Björk also contributed to the 1995 Hector Zazou collaborative album "Chansons des mers froides", singing the traditional Icelandic song "Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu".


title: Björk

text: On 12 September 1996, disturbed fan Ricardo López mailed a letter bomb loaded with sulphuric acid to Björk's London home before filming his suicide. The package was intercepted by the Metropolitan Police Service. In her few public comments on this event, Björk said she was "very distressed" by the incident and "I make music, but in other terms, you know, people shouldn't take me too literally and get involved in my personal life."


title: Björk

text: Björk left London for Spain, 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 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."


title: Björk

text: 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.


title: Björk

text: 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, whom 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.


title: Björk

text: "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 "" but declined the invitation, as she was then pregnant; the song was instead recorded by another Icelander, Emilíana Torrini.


title: Björk

text: 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 3 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.


title: Björk

text: 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.


title: Björk

text: 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 m) map of the world, which she let flow over all of 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.


title: Björk

text: 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 27 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 17 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".


title: Björk

text: Björk contributed a cover of Joni Mitchell's song "The Boho Dance" to the album "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell" (2007). Director and previous collaborator Michel Gondry asked Björk to star in his film "The Science of Sleep", but she declined. The role was played by Charlotte Gainsbourg instead. Björk starred in Gunar Karlsson's 2007 animated film "Anna and the Moods", along with Terry Jones and Damon Albarn.


title: Björk

text: Björk's sixth full-length studio album, "Volta", was released on 7 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 9 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 23 July 2007, with an accompanying music video chosen from a contest conducted through her official website. "Declare Independence" was released on 1 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.


title: Björk

text: Björk then completed the 18-month 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.


title: Björk

text: 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 27 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 20 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 Reykjavik; the third disc contains "The Volta Videos" and the video competition, while the fourth is "The Volta Mixes" CD.


title: Björk

text: 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 30 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 20 September 2010, Björk performed her version of "Gloomy Sunday" at designer Alexander McQueen's memorial in St. Paul's cathedral in London. On 7 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.


title: Björk

text: Björk appeared on "Átta Raddir", one of Jónas Sen's TV shows. The episode aired on 27 February 2011. The shows are produced by the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. In the show Björk performed eight songs, including "Sun in My Mouth", which had not previously been performed live.


title: Björk

text: "Biophilia" was released in 2011. The album project 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 30 June. This was the first part of the Biophilia Tour, that toured the world for two years.


title: Björk

text: 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 19 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 Reykjavik City Board of Education brought the programme to all schools in the city over the next three years.


title: Björk

text: 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, "", was released worldwide, including in more than 400 cinemas.


title: Björk

text: Björk worked with producers Arca and the Haxan Cloak on her ninth studio album, titled "Vulnicura". On 18 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 20 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 8 March – 7 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 "", 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.


title: Björk

text: On 2 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 6 November 2015 on CD and digital and 4 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 13 November 2015 with the picture disc vinyls released a week later. On 7 December 2015, "Vulnicura" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. On 15 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 23 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.


title: Björk

text: 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 29 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.


title: Björk

text: On 2 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 "Dazed"s autumn 2017 cover issue in which Björk talked about the new album. The lead single, "The Gate" was released on 15 September 2017. Its accompanying video was directed by visual artist Andrew Thomas Huang. The same day of the single's release, Björk announced the album's title, "Utopia", during an interview with Nowness.


title: Björk

text: "Utopia" was released on 24 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.


title: Björk

text: On 22 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 12 November 2018, Björk announced a new concert production centered around her "Utopia" album, entitled Cornucopia. Björk described the show as one "where the acoustic and digital will shake hands". 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 16 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 6 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".


title: Björk

text: On 27 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 June 26, 2020. Björk is currently set to embark on her eleventh concert tour, called Björk Orkestral, in which she will perform orchestral arrangements of songs from her career so far. As part of the tour, Björk was scheduled to perform at the Bluedot Festival in July 2020; however, the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and she is now scheduled to headline in 2022. Following the rescheduling, Björk announced a series of concerts to be live streamed online for charity, with each concert featuring a different set of musicians and instruments and a unique set list.


title: Björk

text: 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 April 22, 2022, in the United States.


title: Björk

text: In an interview with "The Mercury News" published on 19 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 19 August 2022, that the new album is called "Fossora", a Latin word for "digging". "Fossora" was released on 30 September 2022. It was supported by four singles: "Atopos" on 6 September 2022, "Ovule" on 14 September, "Ancestress" on 22 September and the album's title track on 27 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; the first three episodes of the podcast, covering "Debut", "Post" and "Homogenic", premiered on 1 September.


title: Björk

text: Over her three-decade solo career, Björk has developed an eclectic and avant-garde musical style that incorporates aspects of electronic, dance, alternative dance, trip hop, experimental, glitch, jazz, alternative rock, instrumental, and contemporary classical music. Her music has since been subject to critical analysis and scrutiny, as she consistently defies categorization in a musical genre. Although she often calls herself a pop artist, she is considered a "restlessly experimental creative force." According to "The New Yorker"s Taylor Ho Bynum, "no contemporary artist so gracefully bridges the divide [between music experimentalist and pop celebrity] as Björk." Her album "Debut", which incorporated electronic, house, jazz, and trip hop, has been credited as one of the first albums to introduce electronic music into mainstream pop. Her work has been described as "frequently explor[ing] the relationship between nature and technology." Broadly summarizing her wide-ranging integration of art and popular music, Joshua Ostroff suggested that "there is no better descriptor for what Björk does than artpop." The "NME" also called her output a "consistently progressive pop agenda."


title: Björk

text: Björk's work is idiosyncratically collaborative, having worked with various producers, photographers, fashion designers and music video directors. She however believes that her male collaborators have received more credit than her, which Björk attributes to her being a female artist.


title: Björk

text: During her career beginnings, Björk performed in bands from various musical genres: punk rock in Spit and Snot, jazz fusion in Exodus, post-punk in Tappi Tíkarrass and gothic rock in Kukl. When working with Tappi Tíkarrass, she was heavily influenced by British new wave bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wire, the Passions, the Slits, Joy Division, and Killing Joke. The studio album "Gling-Gló" (1990) was recorded with Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar and featured jazz and popular standards sung "very much in the classic Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan mould." The Sugarcubes' style has been described as avant-pop and alternative rock. Although Björk was in various post-punk and alternative rock bands during the late 1980s, her contact with London's underground club culture helped her find her own musical identity.


title: Björk

text: "Debut", released in 1993, has been credited as one of the first albums to introduce electronic music into mainstream pop. Being a fan of dance music since the early days of acid house, Björk used dance music as the framework for her songs in "Debut", stating in 1993 that it was the only "pop music that is truly modern" and "place where anything creative is happening today." However, in a "Rolling Stone" interview she also stated that she was more influenced the sensual and groundbreaking ambient music formerly found in Chicago and Detroit. The music of "Debut" reflects the contemporary musical environment of London, where [Björk] lived in the early 1990s, especially the burgeoning trip-hop scene of bands like Portishead and Massive Attack. Michael Cragg of "The Guardian" has described it as an "indefinable conflation of electronic pop, trip-hop, world music and otherworldly lyrics"; while "The Face"s Mandi James said it was "a delightful fusion of thrash metal, jazz, funk and opera, with the odd dash of exotica thrown in for good measure."


title: Björk

text: The 1995 album "Post", known for its eclecticism, is considered to be the "quintessential Björk" release, due to its protean form – more than any of her albums – and its "wide emotional palette". The entirety of the album was written after Björk's move to England, and intended to reflect the faster pace of her new urban life. "The Guardian" wrote that ""Post" tapped into the vortex of multicultural energy that was mid-90s London, where she had relocated and where strange hybrids such as jungle and trip-hop were bubbling." "Post" built on the dance-pop blueprint of "Debut", but pushed its production and beats to the fore, with influences from all over the world. While the "distant echoes" of IDM and trip-hop were present in "Debut", "Post" is characterised by Björk's fuller incorporation of these styles. Referred to as a "genre roulette" by the "San Francisco Chronicle", it touches on various musical styles, including industrial music, big-band jazz, trip-hop, chillout, and experimental music. The balance between synthetic and organic elements in the album – generated through the combination of electronic and "real" instruments – is a recurring characteristic in Björk's output.


title: Björk

text: With her 1997 album "Homogenic", Björk intended to make a simple, one-flavoured record, in contrast with her previous releases. Conceptually focused on her native Iceland, the album is a "fusion of chilly strings (courtesy of the Icelandic String Octet), stuttering, abstract beats, and unique touches like accordion and glass harmonica". Björk incorporated a traditional singing method used by Icelandic choir men, a combination of speaking and singing as illustrated in the song "Unravel". While "Homogenic" still showed Björk's inclination towards electronic dance-music and techno-futurism, Neva Chonin of "Rolling Stone" reflected on how the album was has steered away from the "sweet melodies and peppy dance collages of her earlier releases."


title: Björk

text: On the 2001 album "Vespertine", Björk continued with her idiosyncratic general meshing of organic and synthetic textures, once again via the combination of electronic sounds and string arrangements. However, "Vespertine" differed from "Homogenic" in its greater interest in intimacy and sexuality (the result of her new relationship with artist Matthew Barney), with sharper melodies, minimalistic production and explicit lyrics inspired by poetry of E.E. Cummings and Sarah Kane's play "Crave". "Vespertine" is also characterised by a newfound obsession with the auditory of analog technology, with a prevalent usage of loops, static and white noise, paradoxically contrasting the advancement of digital technology occurring in the 21st century; thus, elements of glitch music have been identified. Unlike previous albums like "Debut" and "Post", electronic sounds has gained more prevalence, while the acoustic sounds are used as interjections. Björk also stepped away from her signature shrieking singing style; her vocals often appear to be recorded close to the microphone and with little treatment, and sung in a sometimes "unstable whisper", conveying a sense of close proximity and reduced space suitable for the lyrics that have grown to be more intimate.


title: Björk

text: Björk's 2004 studio album, "Medúlla", is almost entirely constructed with human vocals, with a vast scope of influences ranging from elements of folk to medieval music. "Wondering Sound" wrote that despite "its comparative starkness, ["Medúlla" is] every bit as sensual as ["Vespertine"]." The publication also added: "The electronic treatments range from industrial distortion to percussive glitches and dreamy layering, rarely descending into novelty." The album combines beatboxing, classical choirs that suggest composers like Penderecki or Arvo Pärt, and "mews, moans, counterpoint and guttural grunts" provided by Björk and guests like Mike Patton, Robert Wyatt and Tanya Tagaq. "Medúlla" includes "vocal fantasias" that lean toward chamber music, alongside tracks that "are obviously but distantly connected to hip-hop." Glimpses of Bulgarian women's choirs, the polyphony of central African pygmies, and the "primal vocalisms" of Meredith Monk were also noted.


title: Björk

text: "Volta", released in 2007, received coverage after the inclusion of R&B producer Timbaland; however, "NME" wrote that "this is not Björk 'going hip-hop' or having a late-breaking pop reinvention." It has been said that the album achieves the perfect balance between her vibrant, poppier works in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s. Björk wanted the album's beats to be "effortless, primitive, lo-fi style", in contrast with "Vespertine". It combines a large brass ensemble with live and programmed drums and "ethnic instruments" like likembé, pipa and kora. "Volta" alternates between potent, joyful songs, and moodier, more contemplative tracks, "all of which are tied together by found-sound and brass-driven interludes that give the impression that the album was recorded in a harbor".


title: Björk

text: "Biophilia", of 2011, showcases Björk's more avant-garde tendencies, drawing comparisons to Stockhausen and Nico's 1969 album, "The Marble Index". The track "Moon" mesmerisingly encapsulates the comprehensive progress made across her previous works with metaphorical lyrics of natural phenomena and their impact on humans.


title: Björk

text: The music in "Vulnicura", her 2015 album, is centered on Björk's voice, orchestral strings and electronic beats. This combination was already present in "Homogenic", certainly the consequence of the common topics treated by both albums: "heartbreak and perseverance".


title: Björk

text: In 2017, Björk released "Utopia", which harkened back to previous works such as "Vespertine" and "Homogenic", combining organic and electronic elements. It has been referred to as Björk's flute album, akin to the heavy prevalence of "Vespertine's" celeste, "Volta's" brass, "Medulla's" voices and "Biophilia's" choir. Arca and Björk closely collaborated in the album's production, and more consistently than her work with the late Mark Bell. The Venezuelan producer also takes a lead role in production.


title: Björk

text: In September 2022 Björk premiered the podcast "Björk: Sonic Symbolism" where she reviewed her sound experiences. Accompanied by some of her collaborators in a conversation about the moods, timbers and tempos through each of her 10 albums.


title: Björk

text: While Björk said that she was influenced by "Everything", she has name-dropped Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and Mark Bell as some of the people who influenced her the most. Some "confessional singer-songwriters" Björk commends include Abida Parveen, Chaka Khan, Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush; with the latter being a definitive influence in her career. Mitchell also inspired her to write her own songs, saying that Mitchell "created her own [female musical universe]", and found it "very liberating." According to "Pulse": "a lot of Björk's early influences were books (George Bataille's "Story of the Eye", Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita") and films ("Tampopo", "Star Wars", "The Tin Drum") available internationally. [...] But talk about Iceland and you're getting to the heart of the matter, the source of her spirited outlook on life."


title: Björk

text: During her formative years at music school, Björk became interested in avant-garde, classical, and minimalistic music; also becoming a "jazz freak". Although her music is more consistently tonal and has more crossover appeal, she is considered indebted to avant-garde composers Karlheinz Stockhausen, Meredith Monk, Sun Ra and Philip Glass. In a 2008 article for "The Guardian", Björk considered Stockhausen as the root of electronic music, writing "he sparked off a sun that is still burning and will glow for a long time." Early in her career, Björk cited Sir David Attenborough as her biggest musical influence, saying "she identified with his thirst for exploring new and wild territories." She also stated that she "[likes] to discover sounds I had never heard before."


title: Björk

text: Björk is a soprano, with a range spanning from E to D. Her singing voice has been described as both "elastic" and "somersaulting" in quality as well as being praised for her scatting ability, unique vocal stylings and delivery. In a review for her live performance at the 2011 Manchester International Festival, Bernadette McNulty of "The Daily Telegraph" commented, "the 45-year-old still uses electronic dance beats with a full-blooded raver's passion and the elemental timbre of her voice has grown more powerful with age".


title: Björk

text: 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".


title: Björk

text: 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". National Public Radio 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.


title: Björk

text: When forming the Sugarcubes, Björk had a brief marriage with guitarist Þór Eldon. They had a son, Sindri Eldon Þórsson, born 8 June 1986, the same day that the band was formed. They had divorced before the end of 1986, but continued to work together in the band.


title: Björk

text: Following the breakup of the Sugarcubes, Björk moved to London, where she was immediately offered a record deal. She became engaged to London-based DJ Goldie, but broke up with him in 1996. She also had a brief relationship with musician Tricky in the 1990s. During this period, she became involved with the trip hop scene with which Goldie and Tricky were associated. Björk also began her work with fashion designer Alexander McQueen. As a result of her time spent in London, Björk developed a cockney accent, evident in her interviews given in English at the time.


title: Björk

text: In London, Björk grew tired of public life and the constant harassment from the paparazzi, in particular over a murder attempt by a stalker, Ricardo López, and her relationships with Tricky and Goldie. She moved 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).


title: Björk

text: In February 1996, Björk arrived at Bangkok International Airport with her son Sindri after a long-haul flight. Reporters were present, despite Björk's early request that the press leave her and her son alone until a press conference. As Björk attempted to walk away from the paparazzi, television reporter Julie Kaufman approached Sindri and said, "Welcome to Bangkok!" In response, Björk lunged at Kaufman, knocking her to the ground and banging her head against the concrete floor until security intervened. Björk later apologised to Kaufman, who declined to press charges.


title: Björk

text: On 13 January 2008, Björk attacked a photographer who had photographed her arrival at Auckland International Airport for her scheduled performance at the Big Day Out festival. Björk allegedly tore the photographer's shirt down the back, and in the process she fell to the ground. Neither the photographer nor his employer, "The New Zealand Herald", lodged a formal complaint, and Auckland police did not investigate further.


title: Björk

text: On 12 September 1996, Ricardo López, a mentally ill, obsessed American fan of Björk, mailed a letter bomb loaded with sulfuric acid to Björk's London home, before returning home and filming his suicide in the final part of a disturbing video diary.


title: Björk

text: 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 I said it didn't scare the fuck out of me. That I could get hurt and, most of all, that my son could get hurt." López subsequently became known in the press as the "Björk Stalker".


title: Björk

text: In the late 1990s, Björk lived in New York, 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 Isadora Barney 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. At the time, she described it as "the most painful thing" that she had ever experienced. The album "Vulnicura", and in particular the track "Black Lake", were written about the breakup. Björk began to reside half of each year in Brooklyn Heights and the other half in two residences in Iceland with her daughter.


title: Björk

text: After the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia in late 2004, Björk began work on a new project titled "" to help raise money for a relief fund. This project recruited fans and musicians from around the world to either cover or remix the 1995 track "Army of Me." From over 600 responses, Björk and her co-writer Graham Massey picked the best 20 versions to appear on the album. The album was released in April in the UK and in late May 2005 in the US. By January 2006, the album had raised about £250,000 to help UNICEF's work in the southeast Asian region. Björk visited Banda Aceh in February 2006 to view some of UNICEF's work with the children who were affected by the tsunami.


title: Björk

text: On 2 July 2005, Björk took part in the Live 8 series of concerts, headlining the Japan show with Do As Infinity, Good Charlotte and McFly. She performed eight songs with Matmos, a Japanese string octet, and Zeena Parkins.


title: Björk

text: Björk's years in Kukl aligned her with the anarchist Crass Collective. While she has since been hesitant to be seen as an overtly political figure, and has said so on her website, she is supportive of numerous liberation movements, including independence for Kosovo.


title: Björk

text: She dedicated her song "Declare Independence" to Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which caused a minor controversy in the Faroes. After Björk twice dedicated "Declare Independence" to the people of Kosovo during a concert in Japan, her upcoming performance at Serbia's Exit Festival was cancelled, reportedly for safety concerns. In 2008, Björk created international controversy after she dedicated "Declare Independence" to the International Tibet Independence Movement during a Shanghai concert, chanting "Tibet! Tibet!" during the song. China's Ministry of Culture issued a denunciation through state news agency Xinhua, stating that Björk "broke Chinese law" and "hurt Chinese people's feelings" and pledged to further tighten control over foreign artists performing in China. A later statement accused Björk of "whipping up ethnic hatred." In 2014, Björk created a Facebook post dedicating the song to the people of Scotland as they neared the referendum on their independence. In October 2017, she posted a tweet dedicating the song to Catalonia on the occasion of the Catalan independence referendum.


title: Björk

text: Björk has also taken an interest in environmental issues in Iceland. In 2004, she took part in the Hætta concert in Reykjavík, organised in protest against the building of Alcoa aluminium smelters in the country, which would make Iceland the biggest smelter in Europe. She founded the organisation Náttúra, which aims to promote Icelandic nature and grassroots industries. In October 2008, Björk wrote an article for "the Times" about the Icelandic economy and provided her opinion on the proposed use of natural resources to rescue the country from debt. In collaboration with Audur Capital, she set up a venture capital fund titled BJÖRK to support the creation of sustainable industries in Iceland.


title: Björk

text: Björk wrote the foreword to the English translation of the Icelandic bestseller by Andri Snær Magnason titled "Dreamland."


title: Björk

text: On 21 May 2010, Björk wrote an open letter in "The Reykjavík Grapevine" calling on the Icelandic government to "do everything in its power to revoke the contracts with Magma Energy," the Canadian company that owns Icelandic geothermal company HS Orka.


title: Björk

text: In 2014, Björk helped to organise Stopp, Let's Protect the Park, an event organised to raise money and awareness for the preservation of Icelandic nature. This included a show at Harpa Concert Hall, at which she performed three songs. The concert initially raised $310,000 and went on to raise £3 million overall, with plans to use the money to establish a national park.


title: Björk

text: Over her extensive career, Björk has frequently used her position and influence to help launch new acts or mentor them as they establish themselves as recording artists.


title: Björk

text: The first example was the Iranian-born electronica producer Leila Arab, who was initially recruited to play keyboards and provide backing vocals on Björk's first international solo tour in 1993 in support of "Debut". In 1995, Björk recalled Arab for her second touring band for tour in support of "Post". This time, Arab was given her first opportunity to experiment with live output mixing from the stage rather than playing keyboards. This would later form the basis of Arab's own solo music career, in which she has integrated live mixing into her own compositions and live shows. Arab went on to release three international solo albums throughout the 1990s and appears on the influential electronica labels Rephlex Records, XL Recordings and Warp Records.


title: Björk

text: In 1998, Björk established her own short-lived record label, Ear Records, which operated under the One Little Indian Records umbrella. Her only signee that received a release was her longtime friend Magga Stína, who recorded her debut solo album under the production of Björk's longtime collaborator Graham Massey (of the British electronica act 808 State). The album was simply titled "An Album" and featured just one single release, "Naturally." In 1998, Björk invited Magga to perform as her support act on the Homogenic Tour, and in 2004 Magga contributed to the production of "Medúlla". Magga still performs and records in Iceland.


title: Björk

text: In 2001, Björk became aware of Canadian Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq and invited her to perform on several dates of Björk's Vespertine World Tour as a special guest. In 2004, Tagaq was invited to collaborate on the a cappella album "Medúlla", in which the duet "Ancestors" was recorded. "Ancestors" was later featured on Tagaq's first solo album, "Sinaa", in 2005.


title: Björk

text: In 2004, Arab discovered the work of Finnish multimedia artist Heidi Kilpeläinen, who had taken her combination of lo-fi, homemade electro pop with her own self-produced music videos and combined them under the alter ego character HK119. Leila soon referred HK119's work to Björk, who started mentioning HK119 in various press and interviews. In 2004, Arab announced HK119 as her favourite act of 2004. HK119 was soon signed to Björk's parent label One Little Indian Records, which released her debut album in 2006. HK119 and Björk appeared in a joint interview in "Dazed & Confused" magazine in 2006, in which Björk stated about HK119's work: "It's unique. Even if I gave you $3 million, you couldn't improve on it... [Its] simplicity is [its] strength." HK119 later released her albums "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" in 2008 and "Imaginature" in 2013, both on One Little Indian Records.


title: Björk

text: In 2009, Björk used her website and various radio interviews to promote two more new acts. The first was fellow Icelandic musician Ólöf Arnalds, who is also a member of the Icelandic folktronica band múm. In 2006, Arnalds released her debut solo album "Við Og Við" in Iceland. Björk mentioned Arnalds among her favourite recent new acts during a radio interview, and encouraged One Little Indian Records to reissue the album in the UK and Europe in 2009. Björk also praised the works of English artist Micachu and Syrian vocalist Omar Souleyman. She later used her website to host the premiere of Micachu's debut video for Rough Trade Records, "Turn Me Well".


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy headed by the prince of Liechtenstein.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein is bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and Austria to the east and north. It is Europe's fourth-smallest country, with an area of just over and a population of 38,749 (). Divided into 11 municipalities, its capital is Vaduz, and its largest municipality is Schaan. It is also the smallest country to border two countries. Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked country between Switzerland and Austria.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Economically, Liechtenstein has one of the highest gross domestic products per person in the world when adjusted for purchasing power parity. The country has a strong financial sector centred in Vaduz. It was once known as a billionaire tax haven, but is no longer on any official blacklists of uncooperative tax haven countries. An Alpine country, Liechtenstein is mountainous, making it a winter sport destination.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein is a member of the United Nations, the European Free Trade Association, and the Council of Europe. Although not a member of the European Union because it was not designed with microstates in mind, it participates in both the Schengen Area and the European Economic Area. It has a customs union and a monetary union with Switzerland.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The oldest traces of human existence in the area of present-day Liechtenstein date back to the Middle Paleolithic era. Neolithic farming settlements appeared in the valleys around 5300 BC.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The Hallstatt and La Tène cultures flourished during the late Iron Age, from around 450 BC—possibly under some influence of both the Greek and Etruscan civilisations. One of the most important tribal groups in the Alpine region were the Helvetii. In 58 BC, at the Battle of Bibracte, Julius Caesar defeated the Alpine tribes, thereby bringing the region under close control of the Roman Republic. By 15 BC, Tiberius—later the second Roman emperor—with his brother, Drusus, conquered the entire Alpine area. Liechtenstein then became integrated into the Roman province of Raetia. The area was garrisoned by the Roman army, which maintained large legionary camps at Brigantium (Austria), near Lake Constance, and at Magia (Swiss). The Romans built and maintained a road which ran through the territory. Around AD 260 Brigantium was destroyed by the Alemanni, a Germanic people who later settled in the area around AD 450.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In the Early Middle Ages, the Alemanni settled the eastern Swiss plateau by the 5th century and the valleys of the Alps by the end of the 8th century, with Liechtenstein located at the eastern edge of Alemannia. In the 6th century the entire region became part of the Frankish Empire following Clovis I's victory over the Alemanni at Tolbiac in AD 504.