Born Björk Guðmundsdóttirin in Reykjavik, Iceland on November 21, 1965, Björk (the Swedish name for “birch”) started learning classical piano and flute at the age of 6 and was performing before she was a teen after teachers sent her recital recording of Tina Charles’ 1976 hit “I Love to Love” to the only radio station in Iceland. The station broadcasted the young Björk’s recording nationally, which led her to a recording contract and her eponymous debut, Björk, when she was 11.
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Punk, surrealist, jazz—she continued exploring it all in several bands throughout her teens, and gained even more attention by the mid-’80s, fronting The Sugarcubes, along with their breakthrough 1988 album Life’s Too Good.
In the 1990s, Björk embarked on her solo career, releasing her successful Debut in 1993 with hit singles “Venus as a Boy,” “Human Behaviour,” Violently Happy.” Debut became her best-selling album in America with a catalog spanning 10 albums, including the 2022 release, Fossora.
Circumnavigating the avant-garde, electronic, jazz, classical, pop, trip-hop, and beyond, Björk stands alone in a career flanked by her free-flowed experiments in sound.
In addition to acting and writing music for film, throughout the years, Björk has also collaborated with a number of artists in and out of her own collection of songs.
Here’s a look at three songs Björk composed from the 1990s through 2010s for film and other artists.
1. “Bedtime Story,” Madonna (1994)
Written by Björk, Marius De Vries, Nellee Hooper
Following her more provocative Erotica album, which complemented her Sex book and steamy film Body of Evidence, Madonna wanted to dial things back for her sixth album, Bedtime Stories. Exploring more themes of love and romance over sex, Madonna’s ballad, “I’ll Remember,” went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was also featured on the soundtrack to the 1994 film With Honors. On the new album, Björk also co-wrote the more electronic and techno “Bedtime Story” with her longtime collaborator and producer Nellee Hooper (U2, Sinéad O’Connor, Massive Attack).
Madonna’s accompanying music video for “Bedtime Story” was also the most expensive ever made at the time, until Michael and Janet Jackson‘s “Scream” in 1996.
Bedtime Stories was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Album but lost to Joni Mitchell‘s 15th release, Turbulent Indigo.
Today is the last day
That I’m using words
They’ve gone out, lost their meaning
Don’t function anymore
leaving logic and reason
(Traveling) to the arms of unconsciousness
(Traveling) leaving logic and reason
(Traveling) to the arms of unconsciousness
2.”Overture,” Vincent Mendoza (2000)
Written by Björk
Though an instrumental, Björk still pieced together the music to “Overture,” which was reworked by jazz artist and composer Vincent Mendoza for Lars von Trier’s 2000 musical drama, Dancer in the Dark, which also starred the Icelandic artist.
Mendoza orchestrated “Overture” for timpani and brass for the film. The song was also included on Björk’s album, Selmasongs, which also served as the soundtrack to Dancer in the Dark.
3.”Flétta,” Anohni and the Johnsons (formerly Antony and the Johnsons), featuring Björk (2010)
Written by Björk and Anohni
British transgender singer, songwriter, and visual artist Anohni (formerly known as Antony and the Johnsons) collaborated with Björk on her fourth album, Swanlights. On the album, the duo co-wrote the hypnotic “Flétta,” which stands for “Braid” in Icelandic.
“We spent a few days singing together, and during that time he wrote a piano song that I sang over in gibberish Icelandic, you know, that hazy undefined scratch vocal you make when you’re coming up with a melody,” said Björk of their collaboration. “I was improvising over his piano track, coming up with a melody. After I went to bed, Antony stayed up all night, recording vocals and harmonizing all my gibberish with these lush four-part harmonies, effectively making a choir out of it. When I woke up in the morning, he told me he wanted to play me something. I was really honored when I heard his work. And the track is great. It’s him singing in Icelandic, even if he has no idea what he’s singing about.”
Björk’s sixth album, Volta (2007), also features two duets—”The Dull Flame of Desire” and “My Juvenile”—with Anohni.
Scrape with a screw
I come When he
I flipped slowly behind my loins how
I scrape the waves like a swim forward
Let me expose myself
All I want is to soften all the inside indefinitely
Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images for ABA
