In mid-June, the amazing artist M.I.A. played one of her usual stunning shows at Day 2 of the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN and announced from the stage that that performance was her “last show” ever, implying that she was forever quitting the music biz. In a new interview, M.I.A. confirms that she did intend to stop making music after her Bonnaroo performance but has since changed her mind:

MIA has spoken out about her comments onstage at Bonnaroo in June, when she told the audience that the slot was her last gig ever. The Brooklyn-based Sri Lankan said “It was my last ever show. And it still is. I stopped touring after that and I didn’t want to make music again. I was quite happy to just leave it all behind. I was happy with what I had achieved.” As previously reported, the rapper cancelled her summer tour of the UK, and while onstage at Bonnaroo said “This is my last show, and I’m glad I’m spending it with all my hippies.” But it seems she’s finding it hard to stay away from music, and is currently planning her new record after enjoying massive success with her song ‘Paper Planes’ in the US. “With the success of ‘Paper Planes’, there’s pull for me to make another record. Even my mum believes in me more” she told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a nice encouragement. But I was planning my life as a fishing woman on the outskirts of Cambodia. That’s a joke.” She also says if she had permanently quit the music business, that a foray into the film world was likely to have been her next step. “I think I would have gone and made a film. As an artist you want to play around with mediums and see if you can get the point across in a different way. I wanted to stay an outsider and prolong the process of getting accepted.”

Praise sweet baby Jebus, this is great news. M.I.A. is one of those artists who is far too creative to stop making her art. She is just so talented, it would’ve been a damn shame if she had decided to stop making music altogether. This is really great news, I’m glad to hear that we can expect to hear more from her in the future (that being said, I hope she does make a foray into film in addition to making more music, I think she’d do well in that arena as well). I suppose a movie like Pineapple Express (which used her brilliant song Paper Planes to promote the movie and shoot the track into the public consciousness) does have its merits. Wee!

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