| M.I.A. new album release date and listen to 'XXXO'... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Wednesday, 12 May 2010 00:55 |
 Thirty-four year old Mathangi 'Maya' Arulpragasam, better known by her stage name M.I.A., was included by Time magazine in their 2009 Time 100 list of the 'World's Most Influential People'. Spike Jonze wrote for Time, that - "Last summer she was performing in Philadelphia, and she showed up at the venue, and it was an armory building. She felt kind of weird about it and decided she wasn't going to perform there unless she acknowledged that, so she found a group of Army veterans against the Iraq war and had them come and speak as her opening act. That's her mission — it's personal and evolving, focused but totally spontaneous." - WARM FUZZIES! M.I.A. graduated with a degree in fine art, film, and video - debuting her first public exhibition of graffiti art and spray-paint canvasses in 2001, catching the eye of Jude Law, who was an early buyer of her art. M.I.A. is also founder of the record label N.E.E.T., and has also released a collection of her own fashion designs, as well as having modelled for 'Marc by Marc Jacobs' in the Spring/Summer of 2008. By now, you'll have already watched M.I.A.'s video for new song 'Born Free', directed by Romain Gavras - whose previous work includes the videos of The Last Shadow Puppets' 'The Age Of The Understatement' and Simian Mobile Disco's 'I Believe' - in which a twelve year-old child (Ian Hamrick), dies after being shot in the head. If you've been living under a rock lately, you can watch the 'Born Free' music video in all it's full-screen brilliance at M.I.A.'s official website HERE. The official first single for M.I.A.'s upcoming album release '/\/\ /\ Y /\', is entitled 'XXXO' - and premiered on BBC Radio 1 yesterday. Hype Williams is expected to be filming the music video for 'XXXO' sometime soon. M.I.A.'s new album - '/\/\ /\ Y /\' will be released in New Zealand on Monday, July 5th.  Listen to 'XXXO' below and check out some more, really cool photographic 3D images of M.I.A. by visual artist Jaime Martinez - who is signed to M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. label - below...   |
