Björk has admitted that violence “on a scale I can’t even fathom” played a part in her decision to leave the United States.
The Icelandic singer lived part-time in New York between 2002 and 2020, leaving before the start of the pandemic.
Discussing her decision to depart the US and return to Iceland full-time in a new interview, the singer said that gun violence had majorly contributed to the move.
“The violence in the USA is on a scale I can’t even fathom,” she told Pitchfork.
“And having a daughter that’s half-American in school [in New York], 40 minutes away from Sandy Hook.”
In 2012, 26 people, including 20 children under the age of seven, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also killed his mother and shot himself when first responders arrived at the school.
Björk continued: “When we are here, I absorb all of Iceland. If one person is killed in the north, we all hurt. It’s an island mentality.
“In the States, just being a simple islander, all the violence was just too much for me.”
The Sandy Hook shooting is in the news once again as the second damages trial against Infowars host Alex Jones began last week.
Jones and other individuals appearing on the video channel Infowars falsely claimed for several years that the massacre was a hoax staged by crisis actors and the government to harm Americans’ second amendment rights.
Jones has said that he doesn’t retain that position anymore and is expected to appear in court on Thursday (22 September).
Last year, Jones and Infowars were found liable by default in a number of civil cases. The current trial will only determine how many damages he must pay.
