Declare Independence
"Declare Independence" is a song written and recorded by Icelandic singer Björk. The track was released as the third single from her sixth full-length studio album, Volta. The single was released on 1 January 2008. Björk's dedication of the song to various independence causes at live performances of the song in Shanghai and Tokyo have caused controversy. Background "Declare Independence" was originally an instrumental track by British musician and frequent musical collaborator Mark Bell, performed at his live shows as early as November 2006. Björk later added her vocals and brass arrangement on top. The lyrics are dedicated to the Faroe Islands and Greenland, islands which currently are constituent nations within the Kingdom of Denmark, as Björk's home country of Iceland had been. "Declare Independence" was originally meant to be released as the second single from Volta in August 2007, but the previously-planned video shoot for "Declare Independence" with Michel Gondry in London was postponed due to Björk's busier than expected promotional schedule. The deadline for the music video contest for "Innocence", then slated as the third single, was then brought forward a month to 10 June 2007 so as to provide a finished video able to coincide with a July 2007 release originally planned for "Declare Independence". The limited edition "multiformat" box set consists of a sticker-sealed fold-out box with five colored nesting boxes containing two 12" vinyl singles, a CD and a music video DVD in colored paper sleeves. A digital release accompanied the physical release on the same date. Music video Background and development The military-themed performance video was directed by French director Michel Gondry. It is his seventh video with Björk, and the first since 1997's "Bachelorette". In a press conference on 22 March 2007, Gondry stated that he would be shooting a video with Björk for an upcoming single, and though he did not specifically state which song it would be for, described his treatment as being for a "punk" song. Later confirmation of the video being for "Declare Independence" was made in an article on Monsters and Critics on 8 May 2007. The video shoot was originally going to take place in August 2007 in London (as was the projected single release) but it was eventually rescheduled to 11 October 2007 in New York City. The finished video was premiered on AOL on 6 December 2007. A making-of was made available on 29 November 2007. The video was premiered exclusively on Channel 4 in the UK on 13 December 2007. The video is also available on the DVD compilation Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1). Synopsis The video opens with Mark Bell standing on a wall suspended above Björk, playing a loom-shaped bass guitar. The strings from this guitar thread themselves through Björk's megaphone, the helmets of several foot soldiers and then up through a pulley system before returning to the guitar. As the song progresses, the strings are spraypainted with several colours as they pass through the loop. When