Mononymic Artists: Bjork

Bjork: It's Not Up To You

[Purchase]

With a first name like Bjork there's not much need for a last name. But when your last name is a mouthful like Guðmundsdóttir, your fans will thank you for shortening it for them. As it is, she is known the world over by her first name, and has singularly put her homeland of Iceland on the map for many people.

The song I chose is from her 2001 album "Vespertine". It's a little after our 2000 cut-off for this blog, but it was an important year for my love of Bjork, and I really love this song. It was the year that I saw her in the Lars von Trier film "Dancer in the Dark", and showed the movie to a number of friends, and also my parents. Later that year I received an excited call from my mother while she was on vacation to tell me that she has sat next to Bjork on the flight into New Mexico that afternoon. I of course didn't believe her, but all signs point to it being true at this point. Figures my mother who only knew of her because I showed her that movie would sit next to her and make small talk about ginger ale and I'd be sitting at home, because I had decided not to join my family on their trip to New Mexico. Silly me.