September 3, 2008 11:45

Bjork accuses 'Vespertine' detractors of sexism

Icelandic singer hits back at claims she didn't write the album

Bjork has hit out at detractors who claimed that she did not write the instrumentals on her 2001 album 'Vespertine', suggesting that sexism is at the root of the accusations.

The singer complained in an open letter to Icelandic music paper Reykjavik Grapevine that Valgeir Sigurosson, rather than herself, had been credited over the years for writing and producing the 2001 release. He was in fact a computer programmer and engineer.

Bjork was driven to write after a reference to 'Vespertine' was made in an interview with DJ B Ruff in the newspaper, in which he mentioned "Bjork's voice mingling with Valgeir Sigurosson's instrumentals".

Bjork wrote: "MIA had to deal with this with Pitchfork.com, where they assumed Diplo had produced all of her 'Kala' album without reading the credit-list," she wrote. "It just had to be – it couldn’t have been MIA herself!

"It feels like still today after all these years people cannot imagine that woman can write, arrange or produce electronic music.

"I have had this experience many times that the work I do on the computer gets credited to whatever male was in 10-metre radius.

"One thing that could have kept this misunderstanding alive is that neither me nor Valgeir Sigurosson have bothered to correct it. But I am doing it now."