Björk calls for Greenland independence following Donald Trump annexation threat

Björk has shared her support for Greenland’s independence amidst US president Donald Trump’s threats to annex the autonomous Danish territory. 

The Icelandic star, whose home country became independent from Denmark’s rule in 1944, posted a statement to Instagram on Monday, 5th January. The post came in the aftermath of a weekend which saw US military forces capturing Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in a raid, with Trump vowing to “run” the country before later turning his sights back to Greenland, reiterating previous threats to lay claim to the island for “national security”, per BBC News.

“Colonialism has repeatedly given me horror chills up my back, and the chance that my fellow Greenlanders might go from one cruel coloniser to another is too brutal to even imagine”, Björk wrote.

She also cited Denmark’s problematic record of separating Greenlander children from parents and implanting contraceptive coils in thousands of unconsenting and unknowing girls in the 1960s: “I burst with sympathy for Greenlanders, repeatedly, especially like when the case came up about the forced contraception, where 4,500 girls as young as 12 got IUD[s] without their knowledge between 1966 and 1970… They are my age and younger… Childless… And still today the Danish are treating Greenlanders like they are second class humans removing children from their parents in 2025″. 

Greenland’s prime minister Jens Frederik Nielsen called Trump’s idea a “fantasy” and told him to “stop the threats”, while Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen said, “The US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom”. 

Björk joined the No Music For Genocide streaming boycott of Israel this past October. That same month, she called for the “safe return” of her friend Berlin’s Oyoun founder Louna Sbou, who was imprisoned in Israel as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. In December, Björk confirmed her follow-up album to 2022’s ‘Fossara‘ is “in development”. 

Read Björk’s Instagram statement in full.