The treatment of M.I.A. should worry all musicians

For every one person cancelled, one hundred others will self-censor

M.I.A., the British avant-garde music artist, has unacceptable opinions. Or so says London’s Field Day festival. The event’s organisers cite her “online comments” as they rescind their booking request, in a move that should worry all musicians.

The London-born rapper M.I.A., whose real name is Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, published her correspondences from the festival this week. “We must consider the wider risks to the festival and its stakeholders” they explained and informed her they “cannot continue with [their] offer”.

One may be forgiven for guessing we have a new Kanye on our hands. Was Ms Arulpragasam MBE on some sort of racist romp? No. Not even close. It appears that the offending “online comments” relate to criticisms of the COVID-19 vaccines.

An emotional spate of tweets by M.I.A. reveal the vaccines have been deeply concerning her. A concern rooted in maternal instincts and a sense of injustice.

“U vaccinated my child without my consent.Made childrn criminals for turning up to school unless they took it. Gaslighted healthy ppl into thinking they r weak, Put me on front page of the news papers ridiculing me made to feel like we wr murderers for believing we were healthy [sic].”

Calling out Big Pharma she also wrote “I hope all families who lost loved ones due to forced injections or suffering from permanent injuries due to forced vaccines are compensated by these profit based companies.” But perhaps her most pugnacious tweet was: “Everyone who did the devils work injected 75% of humanity should be held accountable! #crimes against humanity. [sic]”.

The music industry, which prides itself on empathy and kindness, might in another age have looked at these statements rather differently. Clearly she is distressed. The issue of vaccines has been distressing both to those for and against. And only a pinch of empathy is required to understand that a mothers love and desire to protect her child comes above all else.

Even if one disagrees with M.I.A. about the vaccines surely she has a right to question them.

It is not clear exactly which of her “online comments” have given the London festival the collywobbles. If not the above, perhaps it was a photo taken with American conservative Candace Owens. But it makes no difference to the argument.

It is not the first time M.I.A. has been penalised for wrongthink. In April 2020 British Vogue pulled a feature on her because her opinions jarred with their upcoming features on frontline workers. In October 2022 she was nixed from the GQ Awards for tweeting “If Alex jones pays for lying shouldn’t every celebrity pushing vaccines pay too ? [sic]” A tweet with over 150,000 likes, one should note.

But the most recent case with Field Day is markedly different for two reasons.

Firstly, unlike the incidences with British Vogue and GQ, this is paid work. Festivals are a significant income stream for artists. Many artists rely on festival income to support their regular touring. In that sense festival bookers are powerful gatekeepers. Losing such gigs can cause serious damage to the business of touring artists. Artists employ crew, have multiple business partners, and their own expenses in what is a fragile enterprise, even for the more successful.

Given this significance, other artists will look at the case of M.I.A. and conclude it is best they keep shtum. For every one person cancelled, one hundred others will self-censor. Quite the paradox for an industry whose sine qua non is self-expression.

Secondly, the communication from Field Day to M.I.A. reveal part of the philosophy behind modern day cancel culture.

“We must consider the wider risks to the festival and its stakeholders” they explain. Stakeholder capitalism is a concept popularised by Will Hutton and Klaus Schwab in antithesis to Milton Friedman’s shareholder capitalism. It is a theory of business ethics which prescribes that all those connected, not just shareholders, are considered when making decisions. This includes partners, associates and customers. In the case of Field Day this means the ticket buyers.

The festival organisers claim booking M.I.A. would be a “risk” for festival goers. But did they ask the festival goers? No.

By hiding behind the term “stakeholders” the festival are outsourcing accountability for their behaviour. They are placing M.I.A. in an imagined conflict with her fans.

And what do her opinions have to do with her music anyway?

It is not the stakeholders who are at risk. It is the shareholders who fear media backlash.

If the stakeholders are liberal, and believe in tolerating people with different opinions, they would want artists with a variety of different opinions. Evidently the music industry’s commitment to ‘diversity’ is shallow. In the case of Field Day it does not apply to diversity of thought. And given M.I.A.’s Sri Lankan heritage their ethnic diversity will also suffer.

Further detail in the exchange reveals that guilt-by-association also played a role. Field Day organisers explained that “people are ready to judge us all based on our actions, and in this case therefore a booking may be viewed as an endorsement of her views. We are, and always intend to remain, politically neutral.”

The paradox of Field Day’s position is that the very act of rescinding their offer, so as to remain “politically neutral”, is to take a political stance in opposition to hers. The way to remain neutral is to book artists despite their opinions, not drop artists because of them.

Freedom of association is an important right to defend. And if Field Day don’t want to be associated with M.I.A. that is their prerogative. But at least then have the pluck to say so rather than incoherently claim “there is no judgment here. Maya's politics… [are] really not our business.”

Benjamin Franklin once warned “If we all think alike, no one is thinking.” Field Day have condemned themselves to booking artists who either think exactly as they do or are too terrified to speak freely. Excising artists for thinking differently, even if they are wrong, fosters a culture of fear and an aversion to risk. Do not be surprised if the result is insipid, bland and soporific music.

More power to M.I.A.. At least there’s one artist with courage. As she says on her new album ‘MATA’ - freedom is a state of mind.