Postponing the release of Jomi Massage’s new album "may feel and be interpreted as self-censorship but it is also a decision not to let one's art be pulled down to an undifferentiated level. It is to take the present situation seriously", says Jomi Massage.

Jomi Massage is an alias for the Danish singer Signe Høirup Wille-Jørgensen, and on the cover of her new album she is wearing the red-and-white Danish flag as a cape resembling a burka. Only that instead of at the eyes, there is an opening at the mouth.

On 6 February, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in association with two record companies had scheduled to launch the double-CD album, entitled ‘Jomi Massage meets DR Big Band and Lars Møller’.

“Considering the present very sensitive situation concerning muslim issues, we do not in any way wish this album to contribute to the confrontation, and we had no intention of creating a provocation. The message of the album is multi-faceted and politically diverse, but the way the political debate has taken a twist in the latest days, it seems as if more nuanced arguments have lost their strength. Therefore we have decided to postpone the launch of the album,” the publishers write in a press release.

The photos for the cover were taken long before the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published the 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed which has caused an international row.

Jomi Massage and her publishers state that the burka-like cape photo raises similar questions as the present debate over the cartoons, the issue being how people on one side must claim the right to express themself freely while at the same time not being blind towards value systems of other cultures and religions.