Earlier this month, over 400 musicians—including MJ Lenderman, Massive Attack, and Yaeji—and labels, among them Bayonet, 10k, and Pan, signed up for a campaign asking distributors to block their music from streaming in Israel. Now, Björk has joined their ranks. The Icelandic legend has not issued a statement on her participation in the embargo, but her name is now listed among the artists on the No Music for Genocide website.
No Music for Genocide’s mission statement calls on artists and labels to join the cultural embargo in protest of “Israel’s genocide in Gaza; ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank; apartheid within Israel,” repression of pro-Palestine activism, and the music industry’s links to “weapons and crimes against humanity.” The campaign arrives as numerous artists pull their catalogs from Spotify entirely, many citing now-Executive Chair Daniel Ek’s investments in artificial intelligence (AI) military technology through his venture fund, Prima Materia.
Björk shared her latest album, Fossora, in 2022. She’s since become an advocate against unsustainable salmon farming practices in her native Iceland. Proceeds from “Oral,” her 2023 single with Rosalía, went towards a legal case brought against Norwegian-owned commercial fishing operations by the residents of Seyðisfjörður. In November 2023, Björk posted a graphic on Instagram that displayed territory changes between Israel and Palestine since 1946 with the caption “is this what you call sharing ?”
Read about Fossora at No. 57 on “The 100 Best Albums of the 2020s So Far.”