Iceland’s lead vocalist Bjork, played by ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member Kristen Wig, weighed in on the country’s collapsed economy and government in an appearance on ‘Weekend Update’. The “singer” suggested that to turn the economy around, they should ditch their paper currency and “pay for things with clouds.” She then broke into song, extolling the many wonders of Iceland. Watch the comedy clip below.
With her new single ‘Nattura,’ Bjork is calling for the Icelandic government to take a more environmental approach to the country’s natural resources. “I think I’m just one of many people who have stood up and spoken out,” the singer tells the Associated Press. “But I have to do it. I would not be able to live with my own conscience when my grandchildren drive around Iceland and there’s sort of like factories and smelters. It would be horrendous.” Watch the interview below.
Bjork is out with the music video to her new single ‘The Dull Flame of Desire’, featuring Antony Hegarty, the fifth release off the Icelandic singer’s sixth full-length album ‘Volta’, out now on One Little Indian. The video was made by the 3 runners up in the ‘Innocence’ video competition. Each got a third of the song to direct. Watch it via YouTube below.
Bjork has announced on her MySpace that her next release off ‘Volta’ will be ‘The Dull Flame of Desire’, hitting stores on September 29th through One Little Indian Records. ‘The Dull Flame of Desire’ features lyrics taken from a translation of a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev as it appears in the film ‘Stalker’ by Andrei Tarkovsky. The Icelandic singer selected from hundreds of entrants for the ‘Innocence’ music video competition, she chose 3 new directors to collaborate on the ‘Dull Flame’ video. Christoph Jantos from Berlin, Masahiro Mogari from Tokyo, and Marcal Cuberta Junca of Girona are the three directors who will make their creations after receiving footage of Bjork and Antony of Antony & The Johnsons performing against green screen in New York. Footage from their efforts was combined to create the final music video. Check out more details here.
Bjork is out with the 2D video for her new single ‘Wanderlust’, the fourth single from the Icelandic singer’s sixth full-length studio album ‘Volta’, out now on Universal Music. Watch it below.
The New Zealand Herald reports Bjork allegedly attacked photographer Glenn Jeffrey after arriving at the Auckland International Airport on Sunday morning. The Icelandic singer was in town to perform at the Big Day Out on Friday, but will have to face a police inquiry after tearing the Jeffrey’s shirt down the back. “I took a couple of pictures and I got about three or four frames of her … and as I turned and walked away she came up behind me, grabbed the back of my black skivvy and tore it down the back,” Jeffrey explained, conceding that the man accompanying Bjork asked him not to take photographs. “As she did this she fell over, she fell to the ground. At no stage did I touch her or speak with her.”
Jeffrey has spoken to police in Auckland about the incident, which may have been captured on airport security cameras. “I don’t see being assaulted as I’m working as a press photographer as an acceptable thing,” he said. “If anybody assaults anybody you have the right to a legal recourse, whoever they are.”
In a similar Bjork attacked a journalist in 1996 after a long flight to Thailand after being questioned by the reporter. Bjork later apologized for the incident.
Bjork spoke with Beat magazine about teaming up with Timbaland on her sixth full-length album ‘Volta’, which the Icelandic singer said “80% of the album I did on my own.” Regarding the difficulties working with Tim, Bjork explained, “I did try at first to get him involved in the concepts of ‘Volta’ and all the brass and the ideas I’ve been working on with my vocals, but he sort of sent them back to me and said that that wouldn’t really interest him. I think, with Tim, you really have to do it his way. He’s very macho – in the nicest way possible. He has a very primitive and productive energy. He’d just walk into a room and in the space of three hours we’d have four songs from scratch. He’s sort of a person who likes to work from scratch, so you’ve got nothing that you’ve prepared and came with and it’s just you, that’s it, and you just write a song… He’s sort of like a race car driver – it’s very extreme, that one element, but it made me feel like a tango dancer getting thrown around.”
Bjork said afterwards she returned to the songs for some additional noodling because she “wanted a bit more embroidery added in, because I’m a chick. So I sort of sat down and added in some structure, some backing vocals, some instruments. So we got the best of both worlds – Tim got to be a race car driver and I got to be… embroidery woman.” Three of the four songs, ‘Earth Intruders’, ‘Innocence’ and ‘Hope’, made it on the album.
The full story at beat.com.au has since been removed.
Bjork is out with the music video to her new single ‘Declare Independence’, the third release from the Icelandic singer-songwriter’s sixth full-length studio album ‘Volta’, out now. Watch it below the fold.
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‘Saturday Night Live’ did a spoof of the Sundance Channel’s ‘Iconoclasts’, featuring Kirsten Wiig as Bjork and Kenan Thompson as Charles Barkley hanging out at a Cheesecake Factory. Watch the comedy clip, aired October 13th, below the fold.
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Pop acts on television this week include Mandy Moore and Enrique Iglesias, who guest star on Monday night’s season premiere of ‘How I Met Your Mother’; former *NSYNC member Joey Fatone, who visits ‘The View’ on Tuesday; James Blunt, who performs on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ on Tuesday and ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ on Friday; Devendra Banhart, who performs on ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ on Wednesday; Cary Brothers, who performs on ‘The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ on Thursday; Bjork, who performs on ‘Late Night’ on Thursday; Paris Hilton, who visits ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ on Friday; and Jose Gonzalez, who performs on ‘Late Night’ on Friday.