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Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson (b. April 23, 1975) plays guitar and sings lead vocals for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. His trademark is playing an electric guitar with a cello bow and using distortion and reverberation to get an ethereal and ambient sound. His vocal style includes the frequent use of falsetto. He is openly gay. His boyfriend Alex Somers does much of the graphic design for Sigur Rós and Amiina. Birgisson is also blind in his right eye and he is a vegetarian.

Musical history

In 1995, Birgisson fronted a band called ‘Bee Spiders’, under the alias ‘Jonny B’. He wore sunglasses on stage throughout whole concerts. Bee Spiders received the ‘most interesting band’ award in 1995 in a contest for unknown bands called ‘Musiktilraunir’ (Music Experimentations). The band played long rock songs and was compared to the Smashing Pumpkins. Birgisson also fronted a grunge rock band called ‘Stoned’ around 1992–1993. He sometimes uses the alias Frakkur to release his solo material.

Notes

The name Sigur Rós is altered from the name of Birgisson's little sister, Sigurrós. It was also the name of his late grandmother (a fairly well known if eccentric figure in her native Skagaströnd at the time). Birgisson's sister was born at the same time as the band formed. Sigur translates to “Victory” and Rós to “Rose”, but the phrase “Sigur Rós” is not intelligible in Icelandic as it is in English. That is to say, “Sigur Rós” does not mean “Victory Rose” (like a rose one would receive for a victory), and is actually not grammatical in Icelandic.

Languages

Birgisson's first language is Icelandic. He also speaks English. According to the official Sigur Rós web site:

On the first three Sigur Rós albums (Von, Von Brigði, Ágætis Byrjun), Jónsi sang most songs in Icelandic but two of them (“Von” and “Olsen Olsen”) were sung in ‘Hopelandic’. All of the vocals on ( ) are in Hopelandic. Hopelandic (Vonlenska in Icelandic) is the ‘invented language’ in which Jónsi sings before lyrics are written to the vocals. It’s of course not an actual language by definition (no vocabulary, grammar, etc.), it’s rather a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument. Jónsi likens it with what singers sometimes do when they’ve decided on the melody, but haven’t written the lyrics yet. Many languages were considered to be used on ( ), including English, but they decided on Hopelandic. Hopelandic (Vonlenska) got its name from first song which Jónsi sang it on, “Hope” (Von).

References

1. ^ "Icelandic rock". The Economist. June 14, 2001. Archived from the original on 2001-06-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. Price, Simon (July 17, 2005), "At last! The populist person's thinking band", The Independent on Sunday, retrieved 2007-11-25 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. ^ "Sigur Rós Official Site FAQ". Retrieved 2007-05-12.
4. "Sigur Rós Official Site". Retrieved 2007-05-12.

External link

• Official Sigur Rós Interview

• 1975 births
• Falsettos
• Gay musicians
• Icelandic musicians
• LGBT people from Iceland
• Living people
• Sigur Rós