Björk calls on Greenlanders to "declare independence" amid Trump's latest threats
The Icelandic pop star laments the idea of Greenlanders going "from one cruel colonizer to another."
(Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)
Five days in, and it’s been a shameful, humiliating, and violent year for the United States. There is no shortage of horrors to point to, from the immigration raids to X, the everything app, adding a new CSAM feature to the gutting of public television. But for now, let’s focus on international relations. They’re bad. Days after the Trump administration kidnapped Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, the President and the ghouls hanging off him for warmth have renewed calls to annex Greenland. Speaking of which, Stephen Miller appeared on CNN today to rant that “Greenland should be part of the US,” though he failed to make any discernible case for it. While these threats probably won’t inspire any urgency among Democrats, Icelandic art-pop superstar Björk is calling on Greenlanders to declare independence.
In an Instagram post earlier today, the “It’s Oh So Quiet” singer loudly wished all “Greenlanders blessing in their fight for independence,” reflecting on how “relieved” Icelanders are that they “managed to break free from the Danish in 1944.” Iceland managed to retain its language because of its independence, which is why Björk’s children speak Icelandic rather than Danish. But Greenland hasn’t been so lucky. The country is a self-governing entity within the Kingdom of Denmark, which continues to oversee Greenland’s foreign affairs and to account for most of its public funds.
Though she did not mention Trump by name, Björk didn’t leave much to mystery as to who and what she was describing. “Colonialism has repeatedly given me horror chills up my back,” she wrote, “and the chance that my fellow greenlanders might go from one cruel coloniser to another is too brutal to even imagine.” As she lamented the threats from one cruel colonizer, she reflected on the horrors of another. “I burst with sympathy for greenlanders,” she wrote as she recounted the “forced contraception” of thousands of Greenlandic girls as young as 12 between 1966 and 1970, as well as the “parenting competency” tests Denmark enforced on Greenlanders until May 2025. “Still today the danish are treating greenlanders like they are second class humans, removing children from their parents in 2025.”
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