British rapper M.I.A. loses gig at UK festival due to 'contentious' online comments
During the podcast, M.I.A. discussed the pressure to conform to a certain narrative in the entertainment industry, stating that 'money didn’t mean s***, you know, when 150,000 people are getting bombed, and you can’t speak about it.'
British rapper M.I.A. has lost her scheduled performance at the upcoming Field Day music festival in the United Kingdom due to her appearance on a podcast.
The 47-year-old artist, whose real name is Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, was featured on the Candace Owens show on November first. On January 10, M.I.A. tweeted that she had received a message from the festival organizers stating that she was removed from the event due to her "online comments," which were considered "contentious,” the Daily Wire reported.
The message also stated that it would be "very hard" for the festival to continue with her following an offer to perform sent in October.
M.I.A. responded to the message by tweeting, “‘In light of her online activity’ like what accidentally launching a missile on an innocent village, or me scamming a billions of dollars [sic] from people or running a sex scandal? No it was your lil tweet. How Naughty. Festival stakeholders want musicians to be boring Puppets.”
“In light of her online activity”like what accidentally launching a missile on a innocent village, or me scamming a billions of dollars from people or running a sex scandal?
— M.I.A. (@MIAuniverse) January 11, 2023
No it was your lil tweet. How Naughty.
Festival stakeholders want musicians to be boring Puppets. pic.twitter.com/KWQJre7DEG
The rapper's appearance on the podcast focused on her childhood experiences growing up as a member of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka and her views on the Mullivaikkal Massacre, a 2009 event in which tens of thousands of Tamils were forced onto a beach and bombed, which M.I.A. labeled as war crimes.
During the podcast, M.I.A. discussed the pressure to conform to a certain narrative in the entertainment industry, stating that “money didn’t mean s***, you know, when 150,000 people are getting bombed, and you can’t speak about it,” and that “if you have to compromise that to achieve this status, it just wasn’t worth it, you know, in a larger scale, not just talking about myself and my experience, on a larger scale this level of censorship or gaslighting, I would say it induces mental illness in people, which I think is why it’s been going up in society because it’s so, it’s so difficult.”
The festival has not yet issued a further comment on the situation.
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