George Alan O’Dowd was born in Kent in 1961, and grew up in the London area. As Boy George, the front man for the 1980’s group Culture Club, he was an iconic, flamboyant, androgynous singer whose characteristic voice and presentation rocketed them to success, but also posed a challenge when the music scene shifted in the latter part of the decade.
Culture Club and Boy George enjoyed tremendous success with their debut album, Kissing to Be Clever, on the strength of its chart-topping hit, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” Colour By Numbers was equally successful, with the hit singles “Karma Chameleon,” “Miss Me Blind,” and “It’s a Miracle.”
By the late 1980’s, Culture Club’s popularity was fading, and in 1987, Boy George emerged as a solo artist. He released a series of albums, which enjoyed moderate success: Sold (1987), Tense Nervous Headache (1988), Boyfriend (1989), High Hat (1989), and The Martyr Mantras (1991.) However, unable to match the superstardom he’d enjoyed with Culture Club, Boy George shifted gears and in the 1990’s, and established a reputation for himself as a DJ. He also accepted a role in the musical Taboo, based on his own life, and even earned a Tony nomination for the score.
A unique collection of Boy George’s rare acoustic works, U Can Never B2 Straight, was released in 2002, to critical acclaim. In the new millennium, Boy George has embarked on a variety of endeavors, including hosting a weekly radio show in London, penning the foreword to a book on feng shui, releasing a variety of tracks through his website, writing music for other artists, establishing his own fashion line (B-Rude), and releasing a series of dance/electronica collaborations. Boy George even served as a guest DJ at The Court Hotel in Perth, Australia and performed in Dubai at the launch party for the Palazzo Versace in 2007.
Today, Boy George continues to perform and record. In 2009, he signed a new record deal and released Ordinary Alien – The Kinky Roland Files, in the following year. The album This is What I Do followed in 2013. In 2016, Boy George joined the mentoring cast of The Voice UK, and then later also The Voice Australia as a coach. Most recently, Boy George competed on The Celebrity Apprentice, coming in second place.
Bjork began her music career as the lead singer for the group Sugarcubes out of Iceland. However, when the group disbanded in 1992, Bjork found herself with a career far more successful than she’d enjoyed with the band. She shifted her musical style to reflect a more club and dance sound, and the new formula was an instant success. Not only did her first album, Debut, establish her solo career in 1993, but it also made her one of the 1990’s most notable stars and iconic celebrities. A string of hit singles followed, including “Big Time Sensuality” and “Venus as a Boy,” and by the end of the year Debut had gone platinum in the UK.
Her first single off her next album, “Army of Me,” was released in 1995, shortly before the album itself dropped. Post was equally successful and earned Bjork gold status in the United States, and yielded her additional BRIT awards. “Isobel,” “Hyperballad,” and “It’s Oh So Quiet” were notable singles released from Post. Telegram (1997) and Homogenic (1997) followed, and in the new millennium Bjork also expanded her endeavors to include acting. She earned the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for Dancer in the Dark, and the critics equally acclaimed her score for the film.
Bjork followed up with Vespertine (2001), a Greatest Hits collection (2002), Medulla (2004), and the soundtrack to the film Drawing Restraint 9 (2005) before releasing Volta in 2007. Volta, which was created with the assistance of notable producer Timbaland and artists such as the poet Sjon, kora master Toumani Diabate, and singer Antony Hegarty, features far more cross-cultural elements than Bjork’s previous albums. Both Volta and its first single, “Earth Intruders,” became Bjork’s highest charting works to date, reaching into the Top Ten. “Innocence, “”Declare Independence,” and “Wanderlust” fared equally well.
Bjork continues to perform, record, tour, and perform. So far in her career, she has had thirty top forty singles and sold approximately thirty million records worldwide. Bjork ranks on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women in Music and Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Her awards this far include five BRIT Awards and multiple award nominations, including fourteen Grammy Award nominations, two Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination. Bjork released her latest album, Utopia, in 2017.
