The Vespertine world tour was a tour by the singer Björk that focused on her album Vespertine. She also performed songs from Debut, Post, Homogenic and Selmasongs. She performed 35 shows on this tour and 31 different songs. The tour band consisted of harpist Zeena Parkins, electronic duo Matmos, a Greenlandic choir and a 70-piece orchestra (local to each venue). The tour was released on DVD as Live at Royal Opera House and the concert held at the Orchard Hall in Tokyo, Japan was broadcast on Japanese TV-station WOWOW. A separate release, Vespertine Live, contains a selection of Björk's favourite performances from throughout the Vespertine tour, while a tour documentary, Minuscule, was also released.[1][2][3][4][5]

Vespertine world tour
Tour by Björk
Poster for the concerts at the Radio City Music Hall
Associated albumVespertine
Start dateAugust 18, 2001 (2001-08-18)
End dateDecember 21, 2001 (2001-12-21)
No. of shows
  • 23 in Europe
  • 8 in North America
  • 3 in Asia
  • 34 total
Björk concert chronology

In early August 2001, Björk confirmed the first set of dates for the Vespertine world tour which would take place at opera houses, theatres, and small venues, with favourable acoustics for the concerts. She enlisted Matmos, Zeena Parkins, a choir of Inuit girls from Greenland, and conductor Simon Lee; the tour opened at the Grand Rex in Paris on 18 August. While in Paris, she held a press conference to discuss the album but gave no individual interviews saying that: "she'd rather do music than talk about it." While in France she also received the National Order of Merit at the Ministry of National Education in Paris. Another press conference was held in Barcelona on 3 November 2001 while touring in Spain. A 16 December 2001 performance at the Royal Opera House in London was released as the DVD Live at Royal Opera House in 2002. A DVD release featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the tour, titled Minuscule, was released at the end of 2003. Vespertine Live, a live album consisting of songs recorded during the Vespertine world tour, was included in the 2003 box set Live Box; it also includes a live version of "All Is Full of Love", a song from Homogenic.

Opening acts

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Songs performed

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Song Album
"Frosti" Vespertine
"Overture" Selmasongs
"All Is Full of Love" Homogenic
"Aurora" Vespertine
"Undo" Vespertine
"Unravel" (Live tour debut) Homogenic
"I've Seen It All" (Live tour debut) Selmasongs
"An Echo, A Stain" Vespertine
"Generous Palmstroke" Vespertine (b-side)
"Hidden Place" Vespertine
"Cocoon" Vespertine
"Unison" Vespertine
"Harm of Will" Vespertine
"It's Not Up to You" Vespertine
"Pagan Poetry" Vespertine
"Possibly Maybe" Post
"Isobel" Post
"Hyperballad" Post
"Human Behaviour" Debut
"Jóga" Homogenic
"It's In Our Hands" (Unreleased at the time) Greatest Hits
"You've Been Flirting Again" Post
"Army of Me" Post
"Bachelorette" Homogenic
"Play Dead" Debut (b-side)
"Venus as a Boy" Debut
"The Anchor Song" Debut
"Who Is It" (Unreleased at the time) Medúlla
"Pagan Poetry" (Music Box) Vespertine (b-side)
"Aurora" (Music Box) Vespertine (b-side)
"Gotham Lullaby" (Meredith Monk cover) Meredith Monk cover

Tour dates

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Date City Country Venue
Europe
August 18, 2001 Paris France Le Grand Rex
August 20, 2001
August 23, 2001 Sainte-Chapelle
August 25, 2001
August 29, 2001 London England St John's, Smith Square
North America
September 6, 2001 New York City United States Riverside Church
Europe
September 11, 2001 Stuttgart Germany Liederhalle Hegel-Saal
September 13, 2001 Lausanne Switzerland Salle Métropole
September 15, 2001
September 18, 2001 Frankfurt Germany Alte Oper
September 21, 2001 Roubaix France Colisée
September 23, 2001 London England The Coliseum
September 26, 2001 Brussels Belgium Le Botanique
September 29, 2001 Amsterdam Netherlands Muziektheater
North America
October 4, 2001 New York City United States Radio City Music Hall
October 5, 2001
October 8, 2001 Toronto Canada Hummingbird Centre
October 12, 2001 Boston United States Wang Center
October 14, 2001 Chicago Civic Opera House
October 17, 2001 Oakland Paramount Theatre
October 22, 2001 Los Angeles Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Europe
November 1, 2001 Paris France Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
November 4, 2001 Barcelona Spain Liceu
November 8, 2001 Parma Italy Teatro Regio
November 10, 2001 Rome Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
November 13, 2001 Cologne Germany Cologne Opera
November 15, 2001 Berlin Deutsche Oper
November 18, 2001 Lyon France Auditorium Maurice-Ravel
Asia
December 2, 2001 Tokyo Japan Hitomi Kinen Kōdō
December 5, 2001 Bunkamura Orchard Hall
December 7, 2001 Tokyo International Forum
Europe
December 16, 2001 London England Royal Opera House
December 19, 2001 Reykjavík Iceland Laugardalshöll
December 21, 2001 Háskólabíó

References

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  1. ^ "Bjork World Tour To Feature 54-Piece Orchestra". Billboard. August 3, 2001. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  2. ^ Paoletta, Michael (28 July 2001). Björk. Billboard. p. 78.
  3. ^ Killingsworth, Jason. "Björk: Björk - Miniscule (DVD Review)". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  4. ^ Mann, Mike. "Bjrk". Mixonline. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Bjork Tallies 'Greatest Hits' Tracklist". Billboard. Retrieved 13 May 2019.