I've Seen It All

björk's idea

Björk wrote it with the Icelandic writer Sjón and Lars von Trier for Dancer in the Dark, and it is the song of Selma, the character Björk plays, the words of someone going blind, deciding she has seen enough. In the film she sings it with Peter Stormare, on a train. For the soundtrack album, Selmasongs, she wanted Thom Yorke.

We spent four days in Spain just singing as and when we felt like it. He's a very pure soul and I know he doesn't do things lightly.

björk · nme, 15 august 2000

The album version was recorded over four days in March 2000, though Björk's own vocal was cut in Las Vegas. On 21 July 2000 it went out as the first promotional single from the album, and as a download from her website, and in 2001 it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

the duet

Alexandra Flood at MTV liked the two voices over the techno beat, with the strings kept low. Ryan Schreiber at Pitchfork did not, and blamed the mismatch between Björk's intensity and what he took for Yorke's lack of interest.

Two videos exist: the scene lifted from the film, and an interactive piece by Floria Sigismondi made for MTV, in which the viewer changes the effects by clicking. A third, by M/M Paris, was cancelled.