M.I.A. Talks David Bowie And Refugees On Democracy Now

M.I.A. appeared on longstanding independent news show Democracy Now to talk about David Bowie’s passing and the latest controversy about her music. Her insights about Bowie include anecdotes about how everyone at her art school loved him and the observation that “what he was, was what he was till the end.” As M.I.A. chews her cheeks and makes faces on camera—which, to be fair, is pretty typical behavior for Democracy Now interviewees—host Amy Goodman asks for the musician’s take on a Parisian soccer team’s public request to have her recent music video for “Borders” taken down. In the video, Goodman explains, M.I.A. is wearing a modified version of the sport club’s jersey. “Obviously I don’t want to talk about fashion, but this is a fashion issue,” M.I.A. responds. “It’s a t-shirt. The bigger message in the video is completely ignored…I think that it’s really difficult to control something like that, to say, ‘Refugees or immigrants don’t wear sportswear.’ It’s like the wrongest thing.”

To be perfectly honest, although we are generally down with M.I.A., we think she was one of the least eloquent and interesting guests to appear on this consistently stellar (if often technically jankity) program in a while. We recommend you watch Goodman’s recent interviews with author and journalist Abdel Bari Atwan, UK parliamentary Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and a Noam Chomsky lecture they aired in September. But if you want to watch M.I.A.’s appearance, here’s the link to her talking about David Bowie and here’s the link to her talking about the “Borders” video.