"Bachelorette" is a song recorded by Icelandic singer, songwriter and actress Björk for her third studio album, Homogenic (1997).[a] Released as its second single on 1 December 1997, the song was originally written for Stealing Beauty, a film by Bernardo Bertolucci, but the project was withdrawn. The lyrics for "Bachelorette" were written by Sjón, a friend and collaborator of the singer. The song's accompanying music video was noted for its surrealistic art direction, leading to a win at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.
| "Bachelorette" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Björk | ||||
| from the album Homogenic | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | 1 December 1997 | |||
| Studio | El Cortijo (Marbella) | |||
| Length |
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| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Björk | |||
| Björk singles chronology | ||||
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| Isobel song cycle singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Bachelorette" on YouTube | ||||
Music and lyrics
editBjörk wrote about the writing process of "Bachelorette" on her website:
Because I wanted the lyrics to be so epic, I got my friend Sjón – who's a poet in Iceland – to write them. We sat together at the kitchen table and drank a lot of red wine and I told him the whole story for hours and days and he wrote the words from that story.[3]
"Bachelorette" is emotionally charged and theatrical, following Homogenic's theme of "beats and strings", but also includes instruments such as timbales, timpani, Alp horn and accordion, among others, which helped make the song stronger and more dramatic. Björk described the song's lyrical theme as "Isobel goes to the city".
Critical reception
editBritish magazine Music Week gave the song four out of five, describing it as "[a] big number topped by swirling strings — the most obvious single from her album."[4]
Music video
edit
The surreal music video for "Bachelorette" was directed by longtime Björk video collaborator Michel Gondry, and is an exploration of self-reference, featuring a dramatized version of the Droste effect. It features Björk as "Bachelorette", a woman who finds a book buried in her garden that begins to write itself, describing what Bachelorette does as she describes it; the book is titled My Story. She takes the book to a publishing house named Clark Publishing, in an unspecified large city (though visible references of the location point to Chicago), and she and the publisher (played by Toby Huss) fall in love. It becomes obvious, seeing and hearing excerpts from the book, that the book tells the story of how Bachelorette found the book, travelled to meet the publisher, and fell in love with him. The book becomes incredibly popular (at one point, all of Bachelorette's fellow passengers on a subway are seen reading it), and is turned into a musical, featuring Bachelorette as herself. The musical version includes the story of the musical itself, so at some point a mini theater is shown on the stage, featuring actors dressed as a small audience. At some point later in the musical, the mini musical features an even smaller version of itself, with an even smaller stage audience. The publisher, who is in the actual audience, becomes disgusted with seeing so many versions of himself, and breaks off the relationship; later, his character in the original musical does as well. The book becomes unpopular, and the original copy begins unwriting itself. Because of this turn of events, a chain reaction occurs in the nested theatres, causing each to be nullified and revert to nature. Ultimately, the entire city devolves into the garden that appeared at the outset. The unwritten book finds its resting place buried in the ground once more, and Bachelorette ends up dancing and surrounded by wildlife.
The video was based on an original idea by Björk, who saw "Bachelorette" as a continuation of the character portrayed in "Isobel" and "Human Behaviour". The song lyrics of "Isobel" were also written by Björk's longstanding co-writer Sjón. As Gondry describes it, "this character is leaving the forest and she decides to go to the city to have a normal life. She tries her best and it doesn't work out and she comes back to the forest and she is happier there."[5] Björk also wrote the entire story featured in the video on her website.[3]
The art direction of the video was heavily praised. The video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction. It was also nominated to the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards (1999).
Track listings and formats
edit
|
|
Charts
edit| Chart (1997–1998) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[6][7] | 95 |
| European Hot 100 Singles (Music & Media)[8] | 48 |
| France (SNEP)[9] | 17 |
| Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)[10] | 6 |
| Italy (Musica e dischi)[11] | 21 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[12] | 96 |
| Scotland (Official Charts Company)[13] | 27 |
| UK Singles (OCC)[14] | 21 |
| UK Indie (OCC)[15] | 2 |
Release history
edit| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 10 November 1997 | Alternative radio | Elektra | |
| France | 1 December 1997 | Maxi CD | Mother | |
| Germany | ||||
| United Kingdom |
|
One Little Indian | ||
| 8 December 1997 | Box set | |||
| France | 6 January 1998 | CD | Mother | |
| Japan | 8 July 1998 | Maxi CD[b] |
Notes
edit- ^ Homogenic is officially considered to be Björk's third solo album,[1][2] although technically it can be viewed as fourth if to count her 1977 juvenilia work, or fifth, counting in her 1990 jazz output Gling-Gló.
- ^ In Japan, "Bachelorette" was released as a double A-side maxi CD single with "Jóga".
References
edit- ^ "Homogenic". Björk's WebSense. bjork.com. 1997. Archived from the original on 24 January 2001. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Sjón (1997). "Dear readers!". Telegraph. Vol. 2. Myndstef – Honnun. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
Björk is working on her third album 'Homogenic'
- ^ a b Guðmundsdóttir, Björk. "Bachelorette". bjork.com. Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ "Reviews: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 22 November 1997. p. 12. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
- ^ Pytlik 2003, p. 132
- ^ "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart – Week Ending 22 Feb 1998". ARIA. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- ^ Ryan 2011
- ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
- ^ "lescharts.com > Björk – Bachelorette (chanson)" (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- ^ "Íslenski Listinn NR. 249 Vikuna 27.11. – 4.12. 1997". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 28 November 1997. p. 22. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ "Classifiche". Musica e dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 28 May 2022. Set "Tipo" on "Singoli". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Bjork".
- ^ a b "dutchcharts.nl > Björk – Bachelorette" (in Dutch). Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
- ^ "Official Charts > Björk". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- ^ "Official Independent Singles Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ "Be on the Lookout". Gavin Report. No. 2180. 7 November 1997. p. 17.
- ^ "Bachelorette – Björk – CD maxi single" (in French). France: Fnac. 1 December 1997. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ "Singles – Releases for 1 Dec–7 Dec 1997: 186" (PDF). Music Week. United Kingdom. 29 November 1997. p. 35. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ Bachelorette (3×CD+VHS box set). Björk. United Kingdom: One Little Indian Records. 1997. 212TP7BOX.
{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Bachelorette – Björk – CD single" (in French). France: Fnac. 6 January 1998. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ "Bjork – Joga / Bachelorette". Record City. Japan. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
Bibliography
edit- Pytlik, Mark (2003). Bjork: Wow and Flutter. ECW Press. p. 132. ISBN 1-55022-556-1.
- Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mount Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.