Born in 1965 in the Icelandic capital city, daughter of Gudmundur Gunnarsson (who was electrician) and Hildur Hauksdóttir, who divorced before her second birthday, Björk grew up in a hippie type community with her mother and her 7 siblings. She started to study classical music at the age of 5 and released her first album in 1977 (mainly traditional Icelandic folk songs and international hits translated in Icelandic) when she was only 11. During her teenage years, Björk became involved in several bands, most of them being punk: Spit & Snot (1977), Exodus (1979-80), Jam 80 (1980), Tappi Tíkarrass (1981-83, who featured the documentary Rokk í Reykjavík (1982)) and Kukl (1984-86). Then she formed the pop group The Sugarcubes with Einer Orn and Siggi Baldurson and eventually other members Thor Eldon (with whom she had a son in 1986), Magg Ornotfsdottir and Bragi Olafsson. The band released its first single in 1986 and its first album, "Life's Too Good", in 1988, and discovered international success, especially in UK. During her Sugarcubes years, Björk also collaborated with the Icelandic jazz group Gudmundar Ingólfssonar Trio for the album "Gling-Glo" in 1990, and featured 808 State's "Ooops", which is the start of her electronic music interest. The Sugarcubes eventually split after a few albums in 1992 and in 1993, Björk released her first solo album, "Debut", collaborating with producer Nellee Hooper. The worldwide acclaimed success of the album (nearly 3 million copies sold) enventually gave birth to her second album, "Post", in 1995, also with help of Nellee Hooper but also techno gurus Graham Massey (from 808 State), Howie Bernstein and Tricky, followed by the remix album "Telegram" the year after. After some problems in UK where she lived, she decided to go to Spain to record her third album, "Homogenic", released in 1997. Her main collaborators were the Icelandic String Octet, Mark Bell (from LFO), Mark "Spike" Stent and again Howie B, and the album may be her most electronic album. After Lars von Trier discovered her in the music video of "It's Oh So Quiet", the Danish director asked her to play the main role and to compose the music for his new movie Dancer in the Dark (2000). Eventually winning the Best Actress Prize in the Cannes Festival, she said that it would be her only cinema performance (even if she'd already acted in the Icelandic movie Juniper Tree (1990)) because it was too painful for her and because she considered herself as a music artist and not a cinema artist. The original soundtrack was re-worked by Björk before being released as an album under the title "Selmasongs" in September 2000 (including a new version of the duet song "I've Seen it All" with Thom Yorke). Her fourth album, probably the most quiet one, "Vespertine", featured chamber orchestra, Icelandic choir and harpist Zeena Parkins, with also a successful collaboration with Matmos. She then successively released a book of photos and texts, series of DVD, a Greatest Hits album and two special boxes ("Family Tree" and "Björk Box"). This was also the time for her to marry the artist Matthew Barney with whom she had a daughter in 2002. In August 2004, she composed and sang "Oceania" for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens. This song featured her fifth album, "Medúlla", released about 2 weeks after the Ceremony. This album is mostly made with vocals and some titles are close to experimental music, featuring choirs, Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq, Japanese artist Dokaka, Robert Wyatt, Rahzel and Mike Patton, but also collaborating again with programmers Matmos, Mark Bell and Mark "Spike" Stent.