Bjork offended some of her Chinese fans with an impromptu Tibet protest during a concert earlier this month, leading Chinese officials to threaten a pop star crackdown of their own.
Now, the Icelandic pixie of progressive pop defends her attack on Chinese democracy:
“When I said "Tibet, Tibet", I whispered it three times. There was no fuss in the room. It happened afterwards on websites. It shows more than anything that China has become the next superpower in the world. And the issue is: how are they going to deal with Western moral issues like freedom of speech? China said, ‘It's obvious Björk planned a trip to China with the purpose of political propaganda gathering… and I was like, no! It's not true! It's a question of [them] sensationalising it.”
But Björk was desperate to point out that she wasn’t a political spokesperson. “Perhaps after what's happened, people will find that difficult to believe. But I'm still working from an emotional core, and my songs come from private and personal experiences. Even songs like Declare Independence for me are about humanity.”
She added: “I stand by what I said, but I think what I should do is make more music, go in the studio and make more songs, have that connection to people.”


