Bjork is an Icelandic born (Nov 21) singer, who came to prominence as lead singer of the Sugarcubes with hits such "Hit" and "Leash called love" (US Dance #1 in December 1992), before breaking out on her own. Arguably her biggest songs were "Big time sensuality" (2 weeks as US Dance #1 in February 1994), "Violently happy", "It's oh so quiet" (cover of the Betty Hutton classic, 1948), "Play Dead" (from the film "The Young Americans" soundtrack) and "Hyperballad" (1 week as US Dance #1 in April 1996). "I miss you" also spent 1 week at #1 on the US Dance chart. She recorded her first album at the age of 11. As she launched solo career, she moved to the UK and immersed herself in dance and club culture, working with many of the biggest names in the genre, and receiving remix treatments from Underworld, Dom T, Fluke, µ-Ziq, Goldie, Mika Vainio, Alec Empire, Bogdan Raczynski, Beastie Boys and others. She was produced by Nellie Hooper.
The bulk of her success did come in the 90s with no less than 14 Top 40 hits in the UK alone (20 in total so far).
90 Hits (
Discography):
Date UK Song
Jan 1992 17 Hit (credited to Sugarcubes)
Jun 1993 36 Human Behaviour
Sep 1993 29 Venus As A Boy
Oct 1993 12 Play Dead (with David Arnold)
Dec 1993 17 Big Time Sensuality
Mar 1994 13 Violently Happy
May 1995 10 Army Of Me
Aug 1995 23 Isobel
Nov 1995 4 It's Oh So Quiet
Feb 1996 8 Hyperballad
Nov 1996 13 Possibly Maybe
Mar 1997 36 I Miss You
Dec 1997 21 Bachelorette
Dec 1998 33 Alarm Call
Jun 1999 24 All Is Full Of Love
What happened next?
Bjork quickly developed as a producer, moving from co-producer role on her early albums to full producer role in her later work, as her Music Producers Guild Award for Innovation in the category of production testifies. She is well recognized in both pop and experimental music worlds: her album Vespertine became album of the year by The Wire Magazine in 2001 and she won more than 20 awards in Europe and received 15 nominations in the US.
While Bjork developed her unconventional song structures, she has worked with many renowned artists, mainly in the realm of electronic music. One of her long-time friends and main collaborators was Mark Bell of LFO who co-produced many of her songs and even co-wrote a number of pieces over the years. There are other artists who played important roles in the creative part of her work: Guy Sigsworth, Icelandic poet Sjon who helped on lyrics for some of her key songs and video director Michel Gondry (who directed the cult classic "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind").
