Jón Þór Birgisson (born 23 April 1975), better known by his nickname Jónsi (pronounced "yone-see"), is an Icelandic singer, musician, artist, and composer best known as the vocalist and guitarist for the post-rock band Sigur Rós, which he named after his youngest sister. He has received acclaim for his countertenor range, falsetto singing, and extensive use of bowed guitar, and is also recognizable for his unique appearance (due to being born blind in his right eye from a broken optic nerve in his brain).
Outside of the band, Jónsi has ventured into solo work. In 2010, he released his Genre-Busting debut album Go. He has largely rotated between Sigur Rós and his own endeavors since then, eventually releasing his second and third albums (the vibrant Shiver and the ambient Obsidian) in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In the interim, other musical projects of his included composing the scores for We Bought a Zoo and Without Remorse and contributing original songs to works including the How to Train Your Dragon series, The Circle (2017), and Boy Erased.
Jónsi has also composed ambient music using the name Frakkur, under which he contributed the track "ammælistrákur" to the collaborative Kitchen Motors Family Album (which also contains music from contemporaries like the band Múm and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson) and released a full compilation of songs composed in the early half of the 2000s in 2018. He has additionally been part of several ambient collaborative acts; he is one half of Jónsi & Alex with musician/artist Alex Somers (his partner at the time of formation), and one half of Dark Morph with composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff.
Additional ventures of Jónsi's have included perfumes and visual arts; he has exhibited personal artwork on various occasions, and he released his album Obsidian alongside an eponymous art installation.
Jónsi is openly gay, and was in a relationship with Alex Somers from 2003 to 2019, when they announced their separation.
Discography:
- Go (2010)
- 2000-2004 (as Frakkur, 2018)
- Shiver (2020)
- Obsidian (2021)
Soundtracks:
- Full, credited alone:
- We Bought a Zoo (2011)
- Without Remorse (2021)
- Contributions:"Sticks and Stones"
- How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
"Where No One Goes""For the Dancing and the Dreaming" - melody"Simple Gifts"- Boy Erased (2018)
"Revelation" - with Troye Sivan"The Hidden World""Together from Afar"
Other works
- Jónsi & Alex (with Alex Somers)
- Riceboy Sleeps (2009)
- All Animals EP (2009)
- Manhattan: Original Score from the Television Series (2016)
- Lost and Found (2019)
- Frakkur
- 2000 - 2004 (2018)
- Dark Morph (with Carl Michael von Hausswolff)
- Dark Morph (2019)
- Dark Morph 2 (2020)
We trope where no one tropes.
- all lowercase letters: mostly his site as well as sigur rós but then again, it kinda fits their vibes.
- Ambient: The music accompanying his visual artworks; the Liminal saga, everything Jónsi & Alex, and Dark Morph.
- Animal Motif: Birds. Even his signature guitar for Sigur Rós has birds which he added himself.
- Bilingual Bonus: 'Lilikoi' is Hawaiian for 'passion fruit'. "Boy Lilikoi" is an ode to being passionate and wildly unafraid to live life to the fullest.
- Boléro Effect: "Tornado" and "Grow Till Tall" (the latter resembles his Sigur Rós work).
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Got famous for a bow over an electric guitar and has since made time to work on multisensory art installations and run an artisanal perfumery with his family in Reykyavík. He's the one crafting the scents.
- Careful with That Axe: Had a go at this in "Hún Jörð". Never again.
- Consuming Passion: "Cannibal", natch.
- Cover Version: Of MGMT's "Time to Pretend", and of "Simple Gifts" for The Circle (2017).
- Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover to Shiver, in contrast with the more colorful Go. Maybe not too deliberate with Obsidian given its actual color.
- Echoing Acoustics: His guitar-and-bow combo relies massively on reverb for the Post-Rock texture you hear in Sigur Rós.
- Everything Is an Instrument: The pounding beat you hear after the first 4 bars in "Go Do" was on a suitcase.
- Fish Eyes: Not so much a sign of madness, but it's been caught
◊ on camera◊ a few times◊. Jónsi has been blind in his right eye since birth thanks to a broken optic nerve.- Dreamworks Face: Does this◊ sometimes◊ in photoshoots◊ to downplay his Fish Eyes.
- Dreamworks Face: Does this
- Gayngst: "Sinking Friendships" and "Hengilás".
- The SFTLBnote tracks in the Frakkur collection sprang out of Jónsi's love for a guy who didn't love him back.
- Genre-Busting: Go is a mishmash of indie, worldbeat, post-rock, and baroque pop.
- Guilt Complex: "Exhale" is a Survival Mantra made for someone dealing with this.
- Incredibly Long Note: Can sustain a falsetto B4 for around a full minute live while playing "Festival". And most likely will.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: If you don't speak Icelandic, you're in for this. Even if you speak Icelandic, you're in for this when Jónsi busts out the Vonlenska.
- Lighter and Softer: The closest Sigur Rós record you can compare Go to would probably be Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, both having more upbeat down-to-earth vibes compared to most of their material.
- Looped Lyrics: "Grow Till Tall".
- Love Martyr: "Hold".
- Lyrical Tic: Anything that rhymes with the word "you".
- Miniscule Rocking: "SFTLB8" is 39 seconds long.
- Mortal Wound Reveal: "Grenade":Carefully, carefully
Carefully remove your clothes from open wounds
It's hard to see, looks like a black hole
I realize, it swallows me whole - Multilingual Song: The second verse of "Animal Arithmetic" and "Sticks and Stones" both are in his native Icelandic. Bonus points for the latter having been written as a soundtrack for a Norse by Norsewest kind of movie.
- "Beautiful Boy" bounces between Icelandic and English.
- Non-Appearing Title: "Animal Arithmetic".
- New Sound Album: Seriously, compare Go, Shiver, and Obsidian.
- Ominous Music Box Tune: FRAKKUR.
- One Man Wail: The Norse god of this trope.
- Obsidian: As if having a Sigur Rós track called "Hrafntinna" isn't enough, Jónsi revisits the igneous rock as a motif for a solo ambient album and crafts an intricate blossom with petals made of obsidian, making it the cover art.
- Pep-Talk Song: "Go Do", "Boy Lilikoi", "Animal Arithmetic".
- Pop-Star Composer: For We Bought a Zoo. Also worked on parts of the soundtrack for the How to Train Your Dragon movies.
- Precision F-Strike: Drops andskotann in "Heysátan" and "Fljótavík".
- In "Animal Arithmetic" he casually drops the F-bomb in English twice.
- Scatting: Vonlenska/Hopelandic. Mostly in Sigur Rós.
- Although he might have resorted to this in "Where No One Goes".
- "The Hidden World" begins with a Vonlenska solo interspersing with an Ethereal Choir before segueing into the escalating tension of John Powell's orchestration.
- Rearrange the Song: "TB8" from Frakkur is rearranged into "Beautiful Boy" for Shiver.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: A one-man Ethereal Choir.
- Sense Freak: Shows in his art installations, which often involve resonating speakers all over the place along with certain scents that evoke the smoke of a volcano or the rising ocean.
- Solo Side Project: Frakkur, formerly. Now, under his nickname.
- Straight Gay: His whimsical artistry, penchant for perfume-making, and love for splashes of color make him seem Camp Gay, but otherwise he's this judging by how he gets along with other guys.
- Uncommon Time: "Tornado".
- Unplugged Version: Go Quiet.
- Word Salad Lyrics: Frequent, whether he's singing Icelandic or English.
