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Björk

Icelandic singer (born 1965)

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 21 November 1965) is an Icelandic singer, composer, producer, and actor.

Björk in her swan dress at the 73rd Academy Awards in Los Angeles (March 25, 2001)

Quotes

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  • It's so amazing when people tell me that … electronic music has not got soul. And they blame the computers. They got the finger pointed at the computers like, "There's no soul here." … You can't blame the computer. If there's not soul in the music, it's because nobody put it there. And it's not the tool's fault.
  • I don't like records that are the same from beginning to end, that are too styled and slick. Everything is so designed and airbrushed and Botoxed, it makes us think, 'Oh, everybody's perfect except me. Everything's smooth except me.' But nothing is smooth.
    • Defending her song "Ancestors", which had been alleged to be "really hard to listen to". Newsweek, 6 September 2004.
  • Everyone is bisexual: I’ve always had as many powerful, creative ladies in my life as I have men, and you could probably describe some of those relationships as romantic. I think everyone's bisexual to some degree or another. It's just a question of whether or not you choose to recognise it and embrace it. Personally, I think choosing between men and women is like choosing between cake and ice cream: You'd be daft not to try both when there are so many different flavours.
    • Diva magazine, October 2004
  • It's interesting for me to bring up a girl. You go to the toy store and the female characters there—Cinderella, the lady in Beauty and the Beast—their major task is to find Prince Charming. And I'm like, wait a minute, it's 2005! We've fought so hard to have a say, and not just live through our partners, and yet you're still seeing two-year-old girls with this message pushed at them that the only important thing is to find this amazing dress so that the guy will want you. It's something my mum pointed out to me when I was little—so much [so] that I almost threw up; but, she's right.
    • From The Observer, March 13 2005 issue
  • It's a big question. Getting rid of religion would be a good start, wouldn't it? It seems to be causing a lot of havoc.
    • When asked "Given the chance, how would you change the world?" (The Independent, 18 March 2005.)
  • The thing about making [Dancer in the Dark] that upset me most was how cruel Lars is to the woman he is working with. Not that I can't take it, because I'm pretty tough and completely capable of defending myself, but because my ideals of the ultimate creator were shattered. And my friend said, 'What did you expect? All major directors are sexist; a maker is not necessarily an expert in human rights or female–male equality.'

    My answer was that you can take quite sexist film directors like Woody Allen or Stanley Kubrick, and still they are the one[s] that provide the soul to their movies. In Lars von Trier's case it is not so, and he knows it. He needs a female to provide his work soul. And he envies them and hates them for it. So he has to destroy them during the filming, and hide the evidence. What saves him as an artist, though, is that he is so painfully honest that even though he will manage to cover up his crime in the "real" world (he is a genius to set things up [so] that everybody thinks it is just his female-actress-at-the-moment imagination, that she is just hysterical or pre-menstrual), his films become a documentation of this 'soul-robbery'. Breaking the Waves is the clearest example of that.
  • You know, it's ironic that just at the point the lawyers and the businessmen had calculated how to control music, the Internet comes along and fucks everything up." Björk gives the finger again, this time waving it into the air. "God bless the Internet," she adds. And what about you, then? "I'll still be there, waving a pirate flag.

Song lyrics

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Debut (1993)

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  • There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic
    To human behaviour
    …
    There's no map
    And a compass
    Wouldn't help at all
  • His wicked sense of humour suggests exciting sex
    His fingers focus on her
    Her touches
    He's Venus as a boy

Post (1995)

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  • I'm back at my cliff
    Still throwing things off
    I listen to the sounds they make
    On their way down
    I follow with my eyes 'til they crash
    Imagine what my body would sound like
    Slamming against those rocks
    And when it lands
    Will my eyes
    Be closed or open?

Homogenic (1997)

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  • I'm a fountain of blood
    In the shape of a girl
    …
    Leave me now, return tonight
    Tide will show you the way
    If you forget my name
    You will go astray
    Like a killer whale
    Trapped in a bay
  • If travel is searching
    And home what's been found
    I'm not stopping

    I'm going hunting
    I'm the hunter
    I'll bring back the goods
    But I don't know when
  • I thought I could organize freedom
    How Scandinavian of me
  • I want to go on a mountaintop
    With a radio and good batteries
    And play a joyous tune
    And free the
    Human
    Race
    From suffering (saccharine)
  • You'll be given love
    You'll be taken care of
    You'll be given love
    You have to trust it
  • Emotional landscapes
    They puzzle me
    The riddle gets solved and you push me up to
    This state of emergency
    How beautiful to be
    State of emergency
    Is where I want to be
  • I dare you to take me on
    I dare you to show me your palms
    I'm so bored of cowards who say they want (love)
    Then they can't handle love
    • "5 Years"

Vespertine (2001)

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  • He offers a handshake, crooked five fingers
    They form a pattern yet to be matched
    On the surface simplicity
    But the darkest pit in me
    Is pagan poetry

Family Tree (2002)

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  • Oh thou that bowest
    Thy ecstatic face
    Thy perfect sorrows
    Are the world's to keep
    Wherefore onto thy knees
    Come we
    With a prayer
    • "Mother Heroic"

Medúlla (2004)

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  • When in doubt, give.
    • "Pleasure is All Mine"
  • You have done
    Good for yourselves
    Since you left my wet embrace
    And crawled ashore
    …
    My sons and my daughters
    Ho-oh
    Your sweat is salty
    I am why

Volta (2007)

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  • Declare independence
    Don't let them do that to you
    ...
    Start your own currency
    Make your own stamp
    Protect your language

Quotes about Björk

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  • Do not fuck with Björk! Björk will beat your ass! … I saw Björk beat this woman's ass one time in this videotape. She was in the Bangkok Airport and she was pushing her luggage cart, and this woman came up and just touched her, and Björk went [roars and hisses]. And it was so scary because you didn't expect it at all, because Björk is so cute. … And Björk called the woman she attacked afterwards to apologize. 'I'm very sorry I tried to pull your eyes up over your head. Somebody must have fed me after midnight.'

    But Björk wore the best dress ever to the Oscars ever: She wore a swan. And I'm not talking about a dress with white feathers on it. Oh, no. She rocked the whole bird. The beak was up here and shit. And she accessorized it with an egg. What else you gon' wear with your bird? And all of the fashion magazines said she was the worst dressed, but when they say you're the worst, that means you're the best.
  • I … thought about all the artists that I really respected and liked. They were just them. … They're people who always stuck to who they were, and were true and honest about who they were. So, I think that kind of gave me … confidence to just stick at it. Just thinking about people like Björk. You know? [Like] Bob Dylan … artists that truly were strong in themselves.
  • She has a weird energy about her as a woman. We were in this town to do a show, and she spread such positive vibes. There were birds singing, and rainbows; we could even see a tornado going on. We could actually see it! … I think that every artist has an aura and persona that develops, and Björk spreads such a positive energy. You can just feel it.
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