Boldly addressing politically-charged issues is not something that M.I.A. shies away from. Her visa status in the United States is often complicated due to her outspoken activism and commentaries on oppression against Tamils, Palestinians, African Americans, and others.
Her latest music video is no exception to the powerful message she sings through her unique blend of Western and Eastern musical influences. M.I.A. not only wrote and performed the song, “Borders,” she also directed the music video, which she posted on Twitter, dedicated to her uncle who was one of the first Tamil activists who migrated to the U.K. and who helped her family escape the violence in her home country.
As many of her works tend to do, “Borders” all at once draws criticism as well as praise. The video opens to M.I.A. singing about freedom as two lines of refugees run behind her – a direct reference to the refugee crisis in Europe and how the West has responded to the waves of people running away from violence in their home countries and are then greeted by barbed wire fences when they are steps away from their journey's end.
The video also shows the singer atop an over-crowded boat as she sings about the hypocrisy of the attitudes towards the refugees:
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) November 24, 2015
“Borders” will be part of M.I.A.'s upcoming studio released album, which will be entitled "Matahdatah." The video was released on Apple Music with more to come over the next few months. It is expected to be a “truly global and characteristically DIY M.I.A. experience.”
British artist of Sri Lankan descent, M.I.A. migrated to the U.K. with her mother. Her father was a political activist for the Tamil minority of South Asia and her childhood was spent moving from place to place, hiding from the Sri Lankan Army as civil war escalated in the country.
In 1986, her family successfully applied for refugee status and migrated to London where she learned to speak English. In 2000, she released her debut album, in which lyrics tackled issues such as the Iraq war and her daily life as a migrant in England.
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