Jón 'Jónsi' Þór Birgisson born 23 April 1975Jón 'Jónsi' Þór Birgisson plays guitar and sings lead vocals for the Icelandic band Sigur Rós.
Sigur Rós are an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical, experimental, and minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound and lead singer Jónsi’s falsetto voice.
Obscure and highly artistic, the band have nonetheless developed a huge international following without either compromising their integrity or achieving mainstream commercial success. They could best be described as the Icelandic Radiohead.
In January 2010, the band announced that they will be on hiatus until further notice in order to pursue solo careers and to spend time with their families. Jónsi and Alex Somers released an instrumental album Riceboy Sleeps in 2009. His first 'proper' solo album Go was released in April 2010.
Brigisson's trademark is playing an electric guitar with a cello bow and using distortion and reverberation to get an ethereal and ambient sound. His vocal style includes the frequent use of falsetto. His first language is naturally Icelandic but he also speaks English, although the band avoid this compromise. Most songs are sung in Icelandic but Birgisson has developed a made-up language called 'Hopelandic' - a kind of gibberish vocal that functions as another instrument as opposed to a conventional lyric-based vocal.He is gay and is blind in his right eye. The two facts are unrelated.
His boyfriend Alex Somers does much of the graphic design for Sigur Rós and Amiina.
Sigur Rós
