Last weekend M.I.A. brought her tour to NYC’s Terminal 5, along with a very special guest.
Live from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, via Skype, Julian Assange spoke to the packed out venue for 10 minutes, on topics ranging from freedom of press, to total transparency between a government and its people.
A noted supporter of Assange and WikiLeaks tweeted hours before her show that she had “an EPIC guest speaker” in store for the crowd, few if not any could have imagined the founder of WikiLeaks.
M.I.A. and Assange became friends after the release of her Vicki Leekz mixtape in 2010, and would go on to record the theme song of his television show “The World Tomorrow.”
While currently facing arrest in the U.S., U.K., and Sweden for leaking classified government documents, setting up this broadcast was no easy task. “It was really special. It nearly didn’t happen, but a lot of people asked for it and I was really inspired by that.” M.I.A. told MTV News.
Assange went as far as to call her “The most courageous woman working in western music without exception.” he said in his speech.
After the broadcast the show went off without a hitch as the blindingly psychedelic kaleidoscopes rolled around in the backdrop, the singer took the stage, to perform some of her new music off of Matangi out November 5,along with some of her classics like the 2007 anthem “Paper Planes,” you can check out the opening act below.