Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (born 23 April 1975) is an Icelandic musician; he is the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós.
He is known for his use of a cello bow on guitar and his "angelic" falsetto or countertenor voice.
1992
Jónsi also fronted a grunge band called Stoned around 1992–1993.
He also uses the alias Frakkur to release his solo material, e.g., the contribution to Kitchen Motors Family Album, which marked the first release under this name.
1994
Since 1994, Jónsi has been the singer and guitarist for Sigur Rós.
To date, they have released eight studio albums.
1995
In 1995, Jónsi fronted a band called Bee Spiders, under the alias 'Jonny B'.
He wore sunglasses on stage throughout their concerts.
Bee Spiders received the 'most interesting band' award in 1995 in a contest for unknown bands called Músíktilraunir (Music Experimentations).
The band played long rock songs and was compared to The Smashing Pumpkins.
2009
Aside from his many years with Sigur Rós, Jónsi has collaborated with his ex-partner Alex Somers under the moniker Jónsi & Alex, releasing their album Riceboy Sleeps in 2009.
The 68-minute album includes nine tracks and was released on 20 July 2009 on Parlophone Records.
A post that appeared on Jónsi's official site on 26 May 2009 stated that the artist was working on a solo album that would feature predominantly acoustic music and string arrangements from classical composer Nico Muhly.
2010
Jónsi released his debut solo album Go on 5 April 2010.
In April 2010, Jónsi released his first solo album, Go, and began a multi-nation tour to promote the album from March through September across North America and Europe.
Jónsi's song "Around Us" was used for the American promotional trailer for Studio Ghibli's film The Secret World of Arriety and was also included in FIFA 11, the soundtrack by EA Sports.
Jónsi recorded "Sticks and Stones" for the score to the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon, for which DreamWorks Animation released a music video on 17 December 2010.
His song "Tornado" was featured in the arena show adaptation of this film.
2011
"Boy Lilikoi" and instrumental versions of "Tornado", "Sinking Friendships", and "Around Us" were all included in the 2011 documentary This Is What Love in Action Looks Like.
2012
His song "Tornado" was featured in Henry Alex Rubin's 2012 film Disconnect.
Jónsi also wrote the score for the 2012 Cameron Crowe film We Bought a Zoo.
2014
In 2014, Jónsi co-wrote the song "Where No One Goes" for the sequel, How to Train Your Dragon 2, with the film's music composer John Powell.
He also co-wrote the melody for "For the Dancing and Dreaming".
Jónsi additionally wrote a rough demo (entitled "Mama's Boy") for the film, which was eventually replaced by "Flying with Mother".
He wrote and performed the song "Together from Afar" for the final installment of the franchise, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, in which he also provided the vocals for the track "The Hidden World".
2017
Jónsi's song "Grow Till Tall" was used by the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps in their 2017 competitive program Jagged Line. It was also featured in the trailer for the third installment of the Divergent series, Allegiant.
2018
In 2018, Jonsi contributed an original song titled "Who Are You Thinking Of?"
to the soundtrack of the feature film Boy Erased.
He collaborated with Troye Sivan on the song "Revelation", also included on the soundtrack.
2019
In 2019, it was announced that Jónsi and Swedish composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff had formed a new musical collaboration they were calling Dark Morph, and on 10 May 2019, they released their first album, also titled Dark Morph.
The project "promises to explore the ramifications of ongoing environmental collapse to the oceans and its inhabitants."
The album consists mainly of ambient sounds, often simulating the sounds of animals and nature, and contains very few actual melodies.
Jónsi and his ex-partner Alex Somers completed their first album together, Riceboy Sleeps, under the name Jónsi & Alex.
The instrumental album was recorded in Iceland, played solely on acoustic instruments, and mixed in Hawaii.
The album features appearances by the Icelandic string quartet Amiina and the Kópavogsdætur choir.
2020
A decade would pass before Jónsi would release his second studio album, Shiver, which was released on 2 October 2020.
He would release his third album Obsidian a year later in conjunction with the exhibit of the same name.
He has also collaborated with his ex-partner Alex Somers and has contributed to the scores for the films How to Train Your Dragon and We Bought a Zoo.
When Jónsi was 13 years old, he learned his first song on guitar, "Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden.
Iron Maiden remains one of his favorite bands to this day.
