Bjork On The Colbert Report: Artist Performs 'Cosmogony,' Talks Elves (VIDEO)

Bjork dropped by "The Colbert Report" Tuesday night, in advance of her New York City residency, sporting a hairdo resembling a flattened beehive and opening herself up to Colbert ridicule from the get-go.

Colbert didn't take the bait, however, focusing on her latest album, Biophilia, which explores themes of nature and science. It comes with an iPad component -- an interactive app to go with each song -- that both took us back to the days of sitting down with an album and made us wonder, is this the future of albums?

Colbert kept things simple, fumbling with her apps on stage and asking, why, why the apps?

Bjork explains how she's never been able to play a guitar or piano and sing at the same time, "like those troubadour people." With the touchscreen option available for her as a musician, she thought, "finally, I can be a troubadour!"

The conversation then inevitably turns into one about those elf people.

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Bjork then performed "Cosmogony" "live" (it was previously taped), wearing a tubular dress, as girls in shiny gold dresses back her up and a dude "touches" the beat out on multiple iPads. We hope this is the future.

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Comments

[Heather Ferreira]

01:09 PM on 02/05/2012

Lady Gaga, at the dawn of her career:

(Walking tired and hungry through Washington Square Park, where the failed student and stripper is about to be kicked out of New York University. Desperately she wonders...)

"I'm so cold and hungry... I want to be as famous as Madonna, how can I do that? How can I become a celebrity? I'm not physically attractive, I'm not in shape, and my singing voice isn't that unique... God, the odds are against me... but dammit, I'm a sociopath, I need and must have mass attention! What do I do?"

(Stumbles across fallen magazine. Bjork is inside, wearing her swan dress. Gaga pauses and stares at the photo. "Could this be it?" she wonders. She rushes into Bobst Library, swipes her purple ID card and sits behind a Mac on the first floor and Googles Bjork. Learning about her, she is led to other groundbreaking artists, and discovers, for the first time, that the Eighties, other than just Madonna's fame in them, existed. She then learns about Grace Jones, Lena Lovich, Cyndi Lauper and Nina Hagen.)

(She then copies costumes by them all, hides her unflattering features under them and bricklayers' spatulas of makeup, copies the singing styles of every black disco artist of the 1970s and begins phone calling clubs, disguising her voice and pretending she is her own non-existent manager, and promoting herself. Media falls for it. She becomes famous.)

Disprove it.

[millebocca]

05:37 PM on 02/04/2012

ljove this gal

[thisNewFoundLand]

01:44 AM on 02/02/2012

...Biophilia is a masterwork.

[davidmuzquiz]

11:12 PM on 02/01/2012

surprises me how many people here seem to have seen bjork for the first time lol shes been around forever!

[usrnmna]

03:04 AM on 02/02/2012

I know! The Sugarcubes were awesome.

[Clare53]

10:23 PM on 02/01/2012

GaGa before GaGa existed, except Bjork is loaded with talent.

[usrnmna]

03:21 AM on 02/02/2012

Yeah. Bjork is wearing a ball of fuzzy wool on her head, but I agree.

[Sunflo]

07:02 AM on 02/02/2012

LOL she'll never top that swan dress she wore to the Oscars.

[Sunflo]

07:02 AM on 02/02/2012

BJork is head and shoulders above Gaga. There's absolutely no comparison.

[Clare53]

06:10 PM on 02/02/2012

I was kind of just referring to her outfits. I don't think there is any comparison in talent.

[edejan]

04:32 PM on 02/01/2012

Never saw her live.
Watched this to make fun of her.
She was awesome.
This is music of the future.
Now I love her.

[westreal]

02:07 PM on 02/01/2012

Tagged

[Afterschool Carl]

01:03 PM on 02/01/2012

Wow this is great. I feel that I can finally forgive Bjork for being French.

[Spram]

02:07 PM on 02/01/2012

She's Icelandic... or claims to be, but all Icelandic people are blond with blue eyes so she doesn't fool me! She's an elfling from the ding-dong dimension. If she wanted to pass as human she should have pretended to be Asian.

[Afterschool Carl]

03:52 PM on 02/01/2012

LOL Icelandic....that would be awesome if it were true.

[edejan]

04:32 PM on 02/01/2012

She looks more Native American.

[seachange525]

12:47 PM on 02/01/2012

I am a musician, and for what it's worth, I feel like in discovering Bjork for the first time, I have stumbled upon on the future of music. IMHO she is a genius.

[JackLewis]

01:01 PM on 02/01/2012

You need to get the soundtrack from "Dancer in the dark", it's some of her best work.

[seachange525]

04:24 PM on 02/01/2012

Thanks! Will do! Her new album Biophilia is mind blowing!

[millebocca]

05:39 PM on 02/04/2012

welcome on bjoard!
she's been around for ages - her appearance really deceives, as she looks so young.

[seachange525]

08:57 PM on 02/04/2012

Thanks, millebocca :) Good to be here!

[Holypat777]

12:41 PM on 02/01/2012

A very creative and intelligent woman. Aspiring musicians and signers should look up to her.

[flandryx]

09:38 AM on 02/01/2012

Saw her in concert once, one of the best experiences (at a concert) I've ever had! She's amazing.

[gemini68]

05:12 PM on 02/01/2012

Agreed! Besides David Bowie her concert was my all-time favorite that I've ever been to.

[Matthew Walton]

09:29 AM on 02/01/2012

she's fantastic

[Sunflo]

11:34 AM on 02/01/2012

That she is.