M.I.A. on performing at Virgin Mobile FreeFest: "I don't want every human turned into a Google ad"
M.I.A. is headlining the West Stage at the Virgin Mobile FreeFest today.
She's promoting her new album, "Maya," an even more confrontational work than her past two albums that she describes as being about the "dilemma" of distributing and consuming music today.
"I don't want every single human turned into a Google ad opportunity. But that's the problem, isn't it?" she says in this week's Live! "It's a difficult thing to do without the framework of a corporation."
Of course, that's precisely what Virgin FreeFest is: a free concert for fans, and a giant marketing opportunity for the cell phone company.
Executives there say the festival will generate for them an average 100 million impressions, which refers to the number of people who encounter the brand through advertising.
It's not an irony lost her, especially now, after her anti-corporate credibility has started to unravel with her marriage to Seagram liquor fortune scion Ben Bronfman, and a transparent hit-piece in the New York Times magazine. Her panned performance at the Hard festival hasn't helped matters.
But M.I.A.'s conflicting politics have always been part of her playbook. Her appearance here could be described as a double-cross or a dare. Or as she says in the bonus track "Believer," by local DJ, Blaqstarr: "I could be a genius. I could be a cheat/It's a thin line and I'm [playing] with it."
M.I.A. plays an hour-long set at the West Stage at 9 p.m. She is rumored to appear later Saturday night at Ottobar, where DJ Asma, who's touring with the rapper, is spinning. Her management has not confirmed.
Photo: Handout, Caroline de Greef
Erik Maza is a features reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He writes for several sections of the Sun paper and contributes weekly columns on music and nightlife. He also writes and edits the Midnight Sun blog. He often covers entertainment, business, and the business of entertainment. Occasionally, he writes about Four Loko, The Block, the liquor board, and those who practice "
