Following the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro by U.S. military forces on Saturday, January 3, President Donald J. Trump has revived his threats of annexing Greenland, currently a semi-autonomous region of Denmark. That same day, he was quoted in The Atlantic as saying “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense.” Then, on Sunday, he reiterated his stance to reporters aboard Air Force One.
Now, Björk has shared a statement calling for Greenland’s independence. “[C]olonialism has repeatedly given me horror chills up my back,” she wrote on Instagram, “and the chance that my fellow greenlanders might go from one cruel coloniser to another is too brutal to even imagine.” Read her full message below.
Björk’s home country of Iceland was ruled by Denmark until 1944. “We didn’t loose our language (my children would be speaking danish now),” she noted. Björk also referenced the lawsuit brought against the Danish government by 143 Greenlandic women who claimed to have been fitted with IUDs without their knowledge or consent, and the “parenting competency tests” administered by Danish authorities that led to Greenlandic parents being separated from their children.
On Sunday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded to President Trump in a statement posted to Facebook: “[O]n the side of the United States, stop the threats against a historically close ally and to another country and another people, who have very clearly stated that they are not for sale.” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has also called Trump’s remarks “very rude and disrespectful.”
In September, Björk joined the ongoing No Music for Genocide campaign, which calls on musicians and labels to geo-block their music from streaming in Israel. She shared her latest album, Fossora, in 2022.
Revisit the cover story “Björk: Mother, Daughter, Force of Nature.”
