M.I.A. and Oprah Winfrey attended Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Gala and while there, the musician claims that Oprah called her a ‘terrorist’ and refused to speak to her at the event. Read more on the story after the jump!
M.I.A. revealed in a recent Rolling Stone interview that she was called a “terrorist” by the media mogul. M.I.A. spoke about meeting Oprah at Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Gala in 2009. She tried to engage the celeb in conversation about the civil war in her native Sri Lanka. She recalled telling Oprah, “Hey, people are gonna f—ing die in my country. Like, please pay attention…And she was like, ‘You’re s–t because you were rude to Lady Gaga and I’m not talking to you. And I’m gonna interview Tom Cruise jumping on my sofa, so f–k off.’”
M.I.A. said that even though Oprah agreed to take a photo with her, she refused to speak with her. M.I.A. goes on to say, “She shut me down. She took that photo of me, but she was just like, ‘I can’t talk to you because you’re crazy and you’re a terrorist…And I’m like, ‘I’m not. I’m a Tamil and there are people dying in my country and you have to like look at it because you’re f—ing Oprah and every American told me you’re going to save the world.”
In the Interview she also opened up about her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, music producer Diplo. “I wish I enjoyed (my success) because I had this person on my shoulder the whole time saying, ‘It’s s–t, it’s s–t, it’s s–t. You shouldn’t be on the charts. You shouldn’t be in the magazines and you should not be going to interviews. You should not be doing collaborations with famous people. You should be an underground artist.” Diplo has gone mainstream himself by collaborating with major stars like Madonna and Britney Spears. He’s also dated Katy Perry and was in a feud with Taylor Swift. She says, “When I look back at it in 2015, I can see that he was just jealous and he couldn’t wait to be Taylor Swift’s best friend and date Katy Perry…But at that time I believed him.” M.I.A.’s interview with Rolling Stone was to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of her debut album “Arular.”
