I heard a song the other day that I’m almost sure is by M.I.A., mostly because she spelled out her name. It’s not Galang, I’m sure of that, but my google-fu is lacking, mostly because googling “M.I.A. lyrics” brings up all M.I.A. lyrics. So what is it?
Is it Paper Planes? “M.I.A., Third World democracy, I got more records than the KGB…”
I think Pull Up the People is the only one where she specifically says ‘M.I.A.’, though now I’ll have to listen to Arular and Kala to be sure.
But she says it a lot in Pull Up the People.
Errrr… you don’t happen to remember anything else about the song, do you? Any guest lyricists? Specific instrumentation or beats?
(on preview: my guess would also be Paper Planes, since it’s her current single and is getting some airplay)
It’s not Paper Planes, I would have remembered the gunfire. It could be Pull up the People, though. She said it a lot, though, not just once.
Yeah, she says it a lot in Pull up the People, but also in the song Amazon (also on Aurular) she mentions her name a lot: a bit about being lost in the jungle, “Hello, this is MIA, won’t you please come get me” etc.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner. It’s Amazon.
Is the line: “M.I.A. coming back with power power!”? If so the song is Bamboo Banger off of Kala.
Edit: Probably should have read the whole thread.
Out of curiosity, is she (they?) popular in the States? I’m out of touch with any music after 1982, and the only time I’ve ever seen her (them?) was on a French channel in Montreal (Boyz) and thought it was pretty entertaining.
Interesting question, as I see that at least one other poster in here with a location listed is Canuck (I thought “hey, I’m American and I love her” and then realized that I’d been in Vancouver for the last 2 years and am disqualified from Americanness on this one. . .).
I heard the song on my college’s radio station (in the dining hall) on evening, and the student DJs play all kinds of stuff, so I don’t know how popular she really is. I knew her enough to recognize it as M.I.A. even before she said her name, though.
I’m not a good candidate for deciding what’s popular in Canada (assuming i’m the Canuck referenced above)… My music tastes tend towards the obscure compared to the general population, which means it’ll be a cold day in hell before most of my favourite artists get airplay on mainstream radio.
She did perform at the Virgin Festival here in Toronto over the summer, though, which probably won her quite a few new fans (enough to justify another live show in a midsize venue a couple of months later)… I’m guessing she’s starting to gather a reasonably-sized following here.
I heard “Bucky Done Gone” at least a year ago. I seem to find her music quite easily on most jukeboxes. But very few people know her around here.