diff --git a/package/upmpdcli/upmpdcli.mk b/package/upmpdcli/upmpdcli.mk
index 0be4d912a..a5c6370fd 100644
--- a/package/upmpdcli/upmpdcli.mk
+++ b/package/upmpdcli/upmpdcli.mk
@@ -10,6 +10,18 @@ UPMPDCLI_LICENSE = GPLv2+
 UPMPDCLI_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
 UPMPDCLI_DEPENDENCIES = libmpdclient libupnpp
 
+ifeq ($(BR2_STATIC_LIBS),y)
+# Upmpdcli forgets to take the dependencies of libupnpp into
+# consideration, breaking static linking, so help it.
+# Libupnpp unfortunately doesn't provide a .pc file, so manually
+# handle the dependencies here.
+# The build system doesn't expand LIBS from the configure step, so
+# manually pass it to make.
+UPMPDCLI_DEPENDENCIES += host-pkgconf
+UPMPDCLI_MAKE_OPTS = \
+	LIBS='$(shell $(PKG_CONFIG_HOST_BINARY) --libs expat libcurl libupnp)'
+endif
+
 # Upmpdcli only runs if user upmpdcli exists
 define UPMPDCLI_USERS
 	upmpdcli -1 upmpdcli -1 * - - - Upmpdcli MPD UPnP Renderer Front-End