Björk said, in one of her very rare media appearances during an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, that she currently enjoys considerable anonymity that allows her to go shopping at the supermarket in Iceland without anyone stopping her on the street. She adds that her fans know that it bothers her when they approach her to say hello or ask for a photo, and that they respect her privacy. Normal: nobody wants Björk to give them her middle finger, like she did years ago.
The ironic coincidence is that Björk has a hit on the charts right now, of course thanks to Rosalía. ‘Berghain’ has been number 1 in Spain and has reminded many of the time when ‘Hidden Place’ was… more than twenty years ago, and thanks to the sales of that thing called “CD single.” ‘Berghain’ has now fallen to 45th overall on Spotify, but not without having doubled Björk’s monthly listeners on the controversial platform, reviled by the Icelandic.
Just when Björk is most anonymous, after having spent a decade wearing masks in interviews and concerts to protect herself from media attention (memorable was that DJ set in Barcelona where she appeared dressed as a mummy; we knew it was her because we had been told, but of course we didn’t see her), she gets what will soon become the biggest success of her career, far above ‘Oral’, her first collaboration with Rosalía. It is no coincidence that it does not appear in the video and is replaced by a little bird.
But if ‘Berghain’ has shown anything, it is that the new generations need Noemí Galera to explain to them who Björk is, because they don’t know. Why would they do it? Björk, who turns 60 this November 21, is no longer that media personality who toured television shows at the beginning of the century and gave euphoric thanks when receiving an award. While she has decided to continue making more experimental albums, life has gone on, and the result is that Björk has lost touch with reality, and reality with her. To the point that 20 Minutes publishes an article explaining who he is, using a, let’s say, unfortunate headline that immediately goes viral.
One of the secrets of success in music – it may be the main key – is making accessible albums, and Björk’s have not been accessible for a long time. ‘Medúlla’ (2004), ‘Utopia’ (2017) or ‘Fossora’ (2022) were interesting but demanding works, while ‘Post’ (1995) or ‘Vespertine’ (2001) managed to be artistically fascinating and, at the same time, accessible. As a Björk fan, I continue to listen to ‘Fossora’, discovering nuances within her universe, but the album is unlikely to have won Guđmunsdóttir any new fans. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s very difficult.
That is why it is so surreal and, at the same time, so affirming, to see Björk suddenly at number 1 on the official charts, even if it is only in Spain by default, because Rosalía is Spanish and this is her main market (after ‘Berghain’ it has been top 5 or top 10 in several territories). That an artist with Rosalía’s commercial reach values the legacy of Björk, Kate Bush or Patti Smith for new generations is priceless, and even less so that this admiration is reflected in the musical content of an album whose success is global.
Comparisons are being read between ‘LUX’ and ‘Homogenic’ (1997), accurate, although from my point of view ‘Vulnicura’ seems to really be the reference on Vila Tobella’s album, because ‘LUX’ is particularly orchestral. But the important thing is that Rosalía highlights with this release, even if in a subtle way, the importance of Björk’s discography, one of the best in history due to its experimental and innovative nature, reflected from ‘Debut’ (1993) to today.
It doesn’t matter if you prefer the color of ‘Post’, the intimacy of ‘Vespertine’ or the cosmic air of that ‘Biophilia’ (2011) that Maria Arnal claimed years ago; On each album you will find a proposal impossible to confuse with any other. Since her first album, Björk has created from the avant-garde, embodying modernity itself, or in cases like ‘Medúlla’, absolute artistic radicality. It is logical that it has inspired so many artists who create without fear of taking risks.
Rosalía has not even pointed out a favorite Björk album, nor does she have to have one: in interviews she talks mostly about her artistic admiration for the Icelander, calling her her “favorite woman.” I’m sure you are fascinated by his vocal experiments in ‘Medúlla’ (2004) as much as the complex arrangements of ‘Vulnicura’ or the global influences in ‘Volta’ (2007), which already pointed towards China or North Africa before ‘LUX’. I always thought that ‘Pienso en tu mirá’ was a little bit like ‘Innocence’, even if it was a coincidence. Or because El Guincho has worked with both.
That Björk has completely abandoned the town is positive for those who obsessively listen to the work of Arvo Pärt or Karlheinz Stockhausen, two composers whom Björk admires (she interviewed the former, by the way, in Barcelona). But it’s also complicated for those of us who thought that ‘Crystalline’ was a great pop song that lent itself to being listened to on loop as much as ‘Human Behaviour’. That Björk has become an object to be exhibited in a museum – literally, there is Digital Björk – is a victory for art and the avant-garde, but not for people born after the year 2000 who do not place her on their musical map.
It’s not that Björk has completely escaped from the popular in recent years: there’s ‘Atopos’, which was practically a reggaeton song, or of course ‘Oral’, which was based on dancehall, for Björk the “mother of reggaeton.” Her collaborations with Arca, Sega Bodega and Shygirl show that there is something that has not changed, and that is Björk’s interest in modernity, for now. The past, nostalgia, is never an option for her. If it is possible to wish that his albums were a little easier to get into than ‘Berghain’ (the disco, I mean), it will never be at the cost of disappointing his own expression and artistic intuition. We still need her as she is, even if we don’t see her behind her mask.
