NME News

China to 'tighten control' on foreign bands

Bjork headline the other stage at glastonbury festival 2007.    `pic Andrew kendall

Bjork headline the other stage at glastonbury festival 2007. `pic Andrew kendall

State to crack down on bands after Bjork outburst

Chinese officials have vowed to tighten control on foreign artists playing gigs in the country following Bjork’s recent onstage outburst in Beijing.

During a recent gig in the Chinese city, the Icelandic singer made a vocal show of support for freedom in Tibet, a subject considered taboo in China.

Since the outburst, China’s culture ministry has condemned her actions and pledged to take action to prevent such future outbursts.

A statement on the Chinese culture ministry website said that Bjork’s actions had “broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings”, and that as a result the organisation would take action to “further tighten controls”.

The statement continued: “We will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future. We shall never tolerate any attempt to separate Tibet from China and will no longer welcome any artists who deliberately do this.”

A spokesperson for the ministry told AFP News that the organisation would consider banned Bjork from the country in the future. “If Bjork continued to behave like that in the future, we may consider never allowing her to perform in China,” she said.

Comments (3)

Add a comment

YorkshireNed 

Mar 7, 2008

Well, it does annoy me to see artists going and play a country with such an appalling human rights record but I have to hand it to Bjork for having the guts to speak out there. The ridiculous heavy-handed talk from the Chinese officials shows exactly what kind of vile, heartless bureaucrat run that place.

Chris Nicks 

Mar 8, 2008

"Hurt Chinese people's feelings"???!!! I doubt most of the Chinese people know about Bjork's statement due to the fact that China has no free press and internet access is tightly controlled so her comments can't have hurt the people more than the way their human rights are stomped on everyday by the government who can't take the slightest (and totally justified) criticism. And look at the reaction! No bands should go there, most ordinary Chinese people will be denied the chance to see them anyway. YorkshireNed hit the nail on the head, vile and heartless is what the Chinese government are. And they get the Olympics....

damonucl 

Mar 8, 2008

I'm looking forward to see bjork get more guts to hold a concert in London to free 'Malvinas & N Ireland' from british, or hold another one in Barcelona to advocate independence for Basque & Catalonia region. too many to cite,

but I don't see it's gonna happen as bjork was only playing the peacock no matter on or off stage.

btw, the uncomfortable abuse was in Shanghai not Beijing.

Add your comment

NME Alerts

Get NME news delivered direct to your desktop. Find out more

Please sign in

Forgot your password?

Register with MyNME

Every Tuesday

  • Breaking News stories
  • All you need to know about the week's NME magazine
  • Live, Album and Track reviews
  • Tip offs about the most important Gigs
  • All the latest NME.COM video exclusives

Every Friday

  • NME.COM's free mini-magazine
  • Gig listings for the weekend
  • All the most important Album and Track reviews
  • The week's biggest News stories
  • Competitions - with exclusive music prizes
  • plus loads more!

In The Magazine

This Week's Issue
  • The ultimate guide to the week in music
  • Agenda-setting news and fiery comment
  • Must-read interviews with the planet's hottest bands
  • Hundreds of UK gigs listed every week
  • Unrivalled access to the artists that matter
  • Subscribe today and get 1/3rd off NME