M.I.A. has returned with a new single ‘Armour’. Check it out below.
- READ MORE: ‘Matangi/Maya/MIA’ Film Review – a compelling profile of a fiercely political pop force
The track comes from her independent label OHMNI, which exists as part of her clothing brand that famously features a “tin foil hat” and claims to block 5G waves from entering one’s body.
With a psychedelic soundscape, the reverb-heavy track takes inspiration from her 2022 conversion to Christianity, described in a press release as the artist’s “spiritual declaration”.
“I’m a prayer/Living a life of favour/I’m a fire/Hallelujah,” M.I.A. sings. “Put on God’s armour/I can withstand Satan’s power/I got angels watching me, every corner, undercover/With swords of fire.”
Check out the track, and its accompanying black-and-white music video, below.
It marks the musician’s first new music since her 2023 mixtape titled ‘Bells Collection’, which followed her sixth studio album, ‘MATA’ the year prior. ‘MATA’ included the singles ‘The One’, ‘Popular’ and ‘Beep’.
A press release for the track says “M.I.A. fought some battles in 2024; She shed all blocks and restrictions she faced.” It follows a string of controversies surrounding the artist in recent years
Over the past few years, M.I.A. has received backlash for her controversial statements – from comparing InfoWars host Alex Jones’s falsehoods about the Sandy Hook shooting to celebrities “pushing” COVID-19 vaccines and suggesting the latter, too, should “pay for lying”. She then clarified her stance on COVID vaccines, saying she’s “not really” an anti-vaxxer.
Last year, she endorsed Donald Trump in the US Presidential Election, despite criticising him and his administration in 2017 for having “mental disorders”. “Trump is going to ride America through the most challenging four years coming,” she tweeted in August, adding her wish for Trump “pulling out weed” as president. “RFK will inherit America when God is ready to replant and rebuild it righteously.”
In June, M.I.A. launched Ohmni, the aforementioned clothing brand that offers items such as “Protency boxers” which claim to “block electromagnetic frequencies” and boost fertility as well as a “tin foil hat” which allegedly deflects “electromagnetic waves such as Wi-Fi & 5G with up to 99.999 per cent shielding effectiveness.”
M.I.A. talked about the clothing line while appearing as a guest on Infowars. While there, she explained to Jones that the clothing line is designed to protect wearers from nanoparticles and discussed a scrapped album, her supposed “anti-vaxx” views, and being “cancelled”.