M.I.A. Announces New Album, Shares New Single and Tour Dates

M.I.A. has the goods.

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The skilled capricious songwriter and performer has announced a number of new offerings for fans. For starters, she told fans that she’s set to release her first album since the 2016 album, AIM. Her new album, MATA, will drop via her new label, Island Records.

She also released the lead track from the new record, called, “The One,” which you can check out below.

In a recent interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, M.I.A. said, “I was in a really happy place. And I know that it was the pandemic, and kind of everything was hitting the fan, but I’d got to a place that was really happy. I did want to make that nice, happy record. Almost like the record that everyone wanted you to make when you made ‘Paper Planes.’ Then everyone’s like, ‘Why the hell did you make Maya? That was such a depressing record.’ In hindsight, it makes sense to people, but at the time everyone was like, ‘That’s the worst record in the world.’

“Now, I feel like, ‘Okay, well, you know that other record that everyone wanted? This is what it would’ve been.’ I guess it is just about sticking to what you are and the truth. I think, at the end of the day, that is also what this record is about to me, [it] is still trying to find truth. In a way, it’s kind of rebellious because everybody’s expecting me to put out that really havoc… Everyone’s expecting that, but it’s not, that’s not what it is. It’s about the battle of the ego versus you finding yourself and you finding the spiritual leader. Spirituality within, whatever form is given to you. I think that’s really interesting, when you think [about] everything, you get challenged by the universe. And that happened to me. Really I’m just here to share that.”

M.I.A. continued, saying about the new LP, “I think there’s a bit of a battle on the record. That there is a bit of a clash, but the clash is like your ego and spirituality. Those are the clashes. Because as a musician, you need some ego, otherwise you can’t do it. Also, the genre of music that, genres I should say, is all very much egocentric. It’s not like I’m an artist that came through gospel or something. For me, it was like to have that journey, and also, it was a significant time to discuss like Islamophobia…talking about wars in the Middle East, and things like that.”

She shared news of the new single on Twitter, just alluding to track one, writing, “T1.”

Also, check out the upcoming tour dates for the international artist here below.

M.I.A. 2022 Tour Dates

06-01 Stockholm, Sweden- Grona Lund
06-02 Funen, Denmark – Heartland Fest
06-10 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound
06-11 Dijon, France – VYV Festival
06-12 Marseille, France – Marsatac Festival
06-17 Lyon, France – InVersion Festival
06-18 Montendre, France – Freemusic Festival
07-08 Oeiras, Portugal – NOS Alive
07-09 Biscay, Spain – BBK Bilbao Live

Photo by Jan Lehner.