Björk and the Politics of Iceland
Perhaps the biggest victim of the GFC (2008 - ) was Iceland which literally went bankrupt. How did Björk, the first thing everyone thinks of when they think of Iceland, react?
“I thought I would never ever get involved in politics, because when I was younger you couldn’t get un-cooler than that! Then I saw how they were planning to change Iceland from an untouched natural spot into something like Frankfurt. People my age and younger didn’t have a voice.” Björk explains that she gave a concert that “30,000 people came to … 10 per cent of the nation!” but felt that this changed nothing, and started workshops with her friend, the author and philosopher Oddn} Eir Ævarsdóttir, to encourage young businesses. Then the 2008 bank crash happened, almost wiping out the Icelandic economy overnight.
“All these economists were like our best mates by then, so we were right in the centre of it. And a lot of people in my generation who never cared about politics before were like, ‘This is an emergency situation!’ It was kind of amazing, though, because we’re such a small country that we can actually make changes.” Some of Björk’s friends even formed a political party called the Best Party, with a stand-up comedian running for mayor. “And he won! Much to his surprise! So now for 11 months all these punks have been running the city! We started a petition, and before I came here to complete my album we had a karaoke marathon for five days — it was amazing … we got 40,000 signatures, and there are only 350,000 people in Iceland. Then we delivered it to the Prime Minister; that was a moment! We will see what happens, but at least it raised awareness.”
“It was a lot of work, but if you do all that work and don’t follow it up it’s never going to change anything.”
Bjork has also said before that the good thing to come out of the GFC in Icelandis that it means they can shift and reboot to caring more about the ecological challenges they face there.
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