billboard: Bjork Shouts Out To Tibet During Shanghai Show

Bjork Shouts Out To Tibet During Shanghai Show


Bjork
March 04, 2008, 1:50 PM ET

Berwin Song, Beijing

Icelandic singer Bjork's first concert in mainland China Sunday (March 2) may have been her last, after she chanted "Tibet" several times during "Declare Independence," the closing song in her set at the Shanghai International Gymnastic Center.

By appearing to come out in favor of independence for Tibet, which China claims is an integral part of the People's Republic, Bjork violated a key Chinese political taboo.

As reports and videos of the incident began circulating on the Internet, Chinese Web sites featured a flood of angry reactions such as "Call the relevant authorities!" and "Away with her!"

For those at the show, however, it was a different story. "It was a very brave thing to do," says Alex Pasternack, an American who lives in Beijing. "I was thinking of Tibet already, because the lyrics of that song are so explicitly about declaring independence."

Pasternack says there wasn't much of a reaction from the audience to Bjork's remarks. "I looked around for guards or security, but didn't see any -- and (then) the show was over," he says. "My first thought was, 'She's never going to be invited back here again.'"

The show's promoter, Shanghai-based Emma Entertainment, had no comment on the incident. Shanghai was Bjork's only scheduled China show.

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nme: Bjork management: Kosovo WAS behind Exit festival row | News | NME.COM

Bjork management: Kosovo WAS behind Exit festival row



Representatives of Bjork have insisted that the singer was forced out of Serbian festival EXIT due to her views on Kosovo.

The singer claimed she was dropped from the July event because of what she said onstage recently in Tokyo in support of the region gaining its impendence.

EXIT’s organiser Bojan Boscovic then issued a statement denying that the singer had been not dropped for her views, or that Bjork had ever been cancelled.

However Bjork’s management have issued to following statement to NME.COM claiming that they were told politics was the reason she would not be allowed to play, and said that the festival had cancelled her performance.

The statement reads as follows:

“Bojan Boscovic, General Manager of the Exit Festival in Serbia, said in an email to 's representatives, that, quote: ‘We hope Bjork does not relate to Kosovo on other concerts here in Europe, nor in her interviews, because if she does we need to cancel the concert; if this happens, we may as well look for some other artist, or see what is available’.”

Her management added: “The coverage of dedicating her song ’Declare Independence’ to Kosovo at two recent shows in Japan was so widely covered in print and online media that the festival had no option but to cancel her performance. We will replace this event with another show in due course.”

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I read about this in The Guardian. Good on her I say.

Tibet is annoying and Bjork sucks, but I like it when people anger the Chinese.

Good on her. I think that's superb.