Born Free (M.I.A. song)
Encyclopedia
"Born Free" is a song by recording artist M.I.A.
, released alongside an accompanying short film/music video of the same name from her third album, /\/\/\Y/\
. "Born Free" was released as the unofficial first single from the album and premiered on internet music stores on April 23, 2010, with the music video released on April 26, 2010. "Born Free" was composed by M.I.A., Alan Vega
and Martin Rev
, with production by M.I.A. and Switch. The artwork for the single was released on April 25, 2010.
"Born Free" debuted on the UK Singles Chart
at number 156 and Swedish Singles Chart
at number 58. It earned a position on the UK Indie Singles Chart
at number 13. "Born Free" was her next release following the track "O...Saya" from the film Slumdog Millionaire
and the birth of her son in 2009. The song is a guitar and drum driven track that incorporates alternative rock, synthpunk and noise rock genres, and is considered more aggressive than the other songs of the album. The song was praised for its lyrics and composition as statement-making and provocatively complimentary to the artist's intentions for the piece, its artwork and accompanying video.
The music video
was filmed in California, America. It presents a genocide
against red haired people, depicting several incidents relating to the extra-judicial killing of Tamil males by the Sri Lankan Army filmed on mobile phones in Sri Lanka, some of which had been broadcast by news outlets worldwide. The video's portrayal of military force, violence and brutality met with a positive critical reception but much controversy worldwide, with some critics hailing its representation of oppression and political turmoil and others criticizing the explicit material in the video. NME
ranked the video number thirteen on its 2011 list of the "100 Top Greatest Music Videos Ever Made" and the same year, the video placed at number 2 on TIME
's list of the "Top 10 Controversial Music Videos" of all time.
band Suicide
, and was written as a reaction to what the singer experienced between 2009-2010. The track features distorted guitars and drums incorporating alternative rock, synthpunk and noise rock genres. Following the release and success of M.I.A.'s previous studio album Kala
(2007), the singer revealed her intention to retire from the music industry and focus on starting a family. The worldwide success of the album's third single "Paper Planes
" and her collaboration with A. R. Rahman
, "O...Saya", for the soundtrack of the film Slumdog Millionaire
, led some critics to believe M.I.A. would return to recording a third album following the birth of her son in 2009, although neither the artist or her label confirmed this. In 2009, M.I.A. took to Twitter and interviews to condemn the onslaught of the Sri Lankan Government against Tamils in the Vanni
, with reports that at least 50,000 civilians had been killed from government shelling in the first five months of the year. The artist debuted "Born Free" during her concert at San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival
in August 2009. The song was released via iTunes
and the rapper's official website page on April 23, 2010. Its artwork sleeve was debuted by M.I.A.'s official website on April 25, 2010. Following this release was the first official single release from /\/\/\Y/\, "XXXO
", on May 11, 2010 via digital download
. Explaining the inspiration for her new releases in 2010, she told George Stroumboulopoulos
of The Hour at the end of that year, "when Paper Planes happened, I was too busy to take note, I wasn't out there promoting it and doing any of this shit because, this 25 year old civil war was coming to an end in my country, and I was making new understandings, new observations and new experiences that was happening to me which didn't add up to what was going on over here."
in the United Kingdom
on August 25, 2009, that shows the extrajudicial killing of Tamil fighters by Sri Lankan government soldiers earlier that year, underlined by an image of YouTube
's customized error message. The footage would later appear in the documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
in 2011, exposing war crimes committed in Sri Lanka
in 2009.
described the track as a "blistering statement of intent" with a result that was "an almighty racket, but the best kind of almighty racket." The Guardian
s Douglas Haddow writes that "Born Free," " which presumably takes its title from article 1 of the UN's universal declaration of human rights
, is a kick to the gut or a wink and a nudge depending on how you look at it."
M.I.A. promoted the track with an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman
", during which she performed "Born Free" with Martin Rev
of Suicide playing keyboards, backed by a group of dancers styled to look like M.I.A. In November 2010 she appeared on "Later...with Jools Holland" on British television, performing "Born Free" and "It Takes a Muscle", the former accompanied by Victoria Smith
on drums and the latter with members of The Specials
.
Speaking more about touring in support of the album and the track at the Big Day Out
, M.I.A. told David Farrier of 3 News
at the beginning of 2011 how it felt "amazing" to perform for fans in Europe during her Maya Tour
following the reaction to the video, negative press and how it "blew out of proportion" in 2010, saying "I felt that the fans that turned up to support that and support the video, they just meant more to me, and you know, it was me and my baby was on tour as well, so the whole thing was meaningful, cause they weren't just there cause they liked the shoes I was wearing in a magazine, but they were there because of a bigger reason. I think that was really important to go and see."
The song has been covered by noise rock band Boogie Monster. The song's video is referenced in the intro to the song "Nando's Skank" by Example
and Ed Sheeran
.
list of the "Best Songs of 2010," comparing it favourably to the Beastie Boys
' "Sabotage
" and describing it as a "hip hop spin on punk rock...it flat out rocks." The online music service Rhapsody
placed it at position 46 on their Top 50 Singles of 2010 list. "Born Free" placed number 30 on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop
poll of the top singles of 2010, and ranked number 11 on NMEs list of the Top Tracks of 2010. German music magazines Intro and Musikexpress placed the song at number 33 in their lists of the best singles of the year while Heineken España
named "Born Free" the seventh best song released in 2010.
In 2011, NME
ranked the song's music video number thirteen on the list of the 100 Top Greatest Music Videos ever made. It was listed number 2 on TIME
's list of the "Top 10 Controversial Music Videos" ever made in 2011.
and Lancaster, California
on January 15, 2010 was written by M.I.A. and directed by French director Romain Gavras
. Gavras, who directed the video for the song "Stress
" by Justice
which proved controversial after release dealt with themes of "real and fake" which complimented M.I.A.'s vision for the video. M.I.A. intended for the video to depict something real "made not real" to reach a wider audience. The video would depict the footage of the extra-judicial killing of Tamil males she had uploaded onto her Twitter
feed. Red haired men were used in the video following teasing of Maya
collaborator Rusko
in the studio during the album's recording. The songwriter stated it was one of those "ideas where people would beat the shit out of me because I was ginger [a natural redhead]. It has a whole double meaning. The gingers are kind of anyone who’s been oppressed...I didn't think she'd actually do it." Other roles in the video are played by veterans from the U.S. Army returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the video also features fake blood and ketchup imported from China
. Gavras went on to direct the film Our Day Will Come
, a continuation of the ginger-genocide theme of the video-short.
man violently into a detainee transport vehicle. Other red-heads are rounded up. Some of the SWAT team members wear American flags on their uniforms. During the video, a mural is seen depicting armed red-headed men and the slogan "Our day will come", the historic motto of the Irish Republican Army
(Tiocfaidh ár lá
). Keffiya-wearing red-haired young people throw rocks and glass bottles at the armored vehicles transporting the detainees, in an apparent reference to the iconic images of the Second Palestinian "Intifada
". The detainees are then driven out to the desert, treated brutally, and forced to run across a live minefield. During the course of events, a young red-headed boy is shot through the head, and another is blown to pieces after stepping on a live mine while the soldiers continue to chase, beat, and shoot the captives.
The Born Free film includes graphic violence and language, as well as nudity. Ian Hamrick, the 12 year-old red-haired actor whose character is shot in the head in the film, described the video as "showing violence to end violence." He felt a potency in the video absent from far more graphic video game media such as “Call Of Duty
” or “Grand Theft Auto
.” Giving more details on his role in an interview to the LA Times, Hamrick said M.I.A. complimented his work on set, stating "She wanted to make sure I was OK, that I knew what was happening and why she killed [my character]. I said I did, that she really accomplished her goal of getting people to talk about something they don’t usually see.”
in Baghdad
, and, more universally, the brutal tactics used against minorities by government forces around the world.
The Huffington Post stated "Whether it's a comment on the absurdity of genocide
(of which M.I.A. saw plenty during her early childhood in Sri Lanka
) or a challenge to the idea of "other" in Arizona's immigration law, it is startling even in the context of recent genre-bending music art-films." Zach Baron, writing in Village Voice added "NSFW
isn't exactly the word. More like art film? We can think of no goofier political allegory than the persecution, abuse, and murder of redheads, but then again, M.I.A.'s politics have never been of the kind you read about in the New York Times." James Montgomery of MTV
described it as "unflinchingly, unapologetically real" depicting "the kind of things that most nations — including the U.S., which is portrayed as the aggressor in the clip — often pretend don't happen: the rounding-up of ethnic minorities, the trampling of personal liberties, the bullying of the powerless by those with authority." Ann Powers
wrote in the Los Angeles Times
that the video "concentrated fully" on the physical horror of gun butts and bullets hitting flesh, with the scenes giving added poignancy to the lyrical themes of the song. Interpreted as a comment on desensitised attitudes towards violence, others found that the video stressed that genocide still exists and violent repression remains commonplace. Some critics described the film as "sensationalist". Neda Ulaby
of NPR
described the video as intended for "shock value" in the service of nudging people into considering real issues that can be hard to talk about. Haddow wrote further in The Guardian that particularly notable about the video was its use of red headed individuals as a proxy for anyone who has felt the brunt of a jackboot. The effect of this was that the viewer was "expected to empathise with the victim, rather than the aggressor." Haddow stated that this sat in "stark contrast" to the bulk of recent films on the subject of the Afghan and Iraq wars such as The Hurt Locker
, The Messenger and Green Zone
, where focus was almost entirely on the psychological experiences of military personnel, continuing "Rarely do we ever catch a glimpse of the locals, whom we are supposed to be helping, unless they are being blown up or used as plot devices to heighten the suspense."
Salon
described "Born Free" as "the most violent music video in ages – and a nine-minute masterpiece" adding that "M.I.A. has built a career on making music that's as outspoken as it is danceable" and described the video as "undeniably powerful, a lurid parable on the systematic ethnic cleansing
that goes on all over the world." Eric Henderson in Slant stated "what stuck with me is the furious dignity it accords the main tracksuit-wearing prisoner, and the amount of anger it allows him to deliver....I recognized within him and the band of rock-throwing dissidents that pelt the armored bus a sense of kinship relevant to anyone who occupies a minority class." While he felt that "the clip is but a metaphor, and not entirely successfully so, when the pitbull-faced, tenement-snatched redhead boy is slammed against an iron fence and still dares to glare into the eyes of his attackers, I want to be right there by his side fucking their shit up."
n television network, noted how several mainstream American TV news networks hesitated in covering the reaction to the video initially despite the widespread response. She said this was in contrast to their coverage of the controversy of Erykah Badu
's "Window Seat
" video two weeks prior, and suggested this was because the video for Born Free "hit too close to home" in the U.S. Billboard
writer Monica Herrera stated that anyone who was "up in arms" over Badu's video would probably feel "ridiculous" after watching the video for "Born Free". Journalist Alyona Minkovski
of The Alyona Show noted how M.I.A.'s own experiences with genocide in Sri Lanka contributed to the themes in the video but that the silence of the artist left audience members to speculate on several connections between the video and real events. Iraqi
rapper The Narcicyst
, Palestinian
hip hop group DAM
and singer Sabreena Da Witch told MTV Iggy that they saw the video as a "grander metaphor for society" and persecution in areas of political turmoil.
The British network Sky News
reported that Sherry Adhami, spokeswoman for the UK Beatbullying
charity found the video "inappropriate" as it could "lead to more abuse against red-haired people." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian told the network "I think M.I.A. is making the point that if we segregated all ginger people as a minority - in the same way as black and Asian people - there would be an enormous outcry, and that we don't seem to get the same reaction when black people are treated in this way." She also stated that M.I.A. depicted violence in order to make a political point, in a way different to gangsta rap
.
Hamrick was to be prominently featured in the video for "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
" by Shakira
and Freshlyground
, the official 2010 FIFA World Cup
anthem but his appearance was allegedly recut to a crowd scene following the "Born Free" video release. "Waka Waka"'s producers responded that Hamrick was always meant to be an extra in the video and that this was not due to the controversy. Hamrick said of "Born Free" that he was really “proud to be a part of M.I.A.’s shout-out to the world” because “it was a great chance to tell everyone that bully’s [sic] suck no matter what country you are from."
A week after its release on Vimeo
on April 26, the video was viewed 1.8 million times on the site. From April 27 to May 2, M.I.A. remained the most blogged about artist on the internet, according to MP3 blog aggregator The Hype Machine
. The video was then re-posted on YouTube by VEVO
, without users having to sign in to prove they were 18 or older. The raw video is also on M.I.A.'s website. The video has been viewed over 30 million times on the internet.
removed the film from viewing within a day of its posting. It was subsequently age-gated on the site. YouTube stated that they did not comment on individual clips on the site but said that videos were removed only after users reported videos that could "contravene guidelines." Commentators proposed different reasons for the actions, from the graphic "excessive" violence depicted to political censorship. On April 27, the BBC
reported that the video was being removed in some instances by YouTube, and labelled with an age-restriction in others. Neither M.I.A. or her record label XL Recordings
commented on the development in the weeks following the release. Lisa Respers wrote in CNN
that the YouTube block may have worked in M.I.A.'s favor as it brought more publicity. M.I.A. tweeted she initially suspected her U.S. parent label Universal Music Group
to be responsible but confirmed it was not soon after.
M.I.A. stated in an interview to MTV News that she found the reaction to the film "fascinating" but that she was baffled by the media's fixation on the clip when real issues were ignored, stating "I think it's interesting how we react to fiction and how we react to realism on the internet... this is mainstream media, I wish I was talking about way more underground theories, but [I'm] not, this is just me digesting what I see in the mainstream." She joked to NME that she found the new Justin Bieber
video "more of an assault to my eyes and senses than what I've made". A few weeks later, in an interview with Angie Martinez
of Hot 97 radio station in New York City, she said "I said I love Justin Bieber and everyone like went crazy. It's weird. No I said that I found his video offensive, because people said they found my video offensive [...] It got out of hand, Now I feel really bad coz I have some family members who love Justin Bieber, and now they won't talk to me, I need my little cousins to talk to me!"
M.I.A. later stated that she found YouTube's action on the video "ridiculous", citing YouTube's streaming of real-life killings. Miranda Sawyer
of the The Observer
noted that although the metaphor in the video was obvious, the illustration was graphic and "some might say gratuitous". M.I.A. told Sawyer "It's just fake blood and ketchup and people are more offended by that more than the execution videos" referring to the clips of Sri Lankan troops shooting unarmed, blindfolded, naked men in the head that she tweeted beforehand, later telling French music magazine Mondomix "It’s amazing to me that is the state we're in today – people are more moved by something synthetic than something real. And as an artist that’s the decision you have to make – whether to be real or synthetic.”
Gavras was more reassured that audiences talked about the subject by themselves, than explaining the video himself as the debate over the video heightened, although he questioned "How can you be shocked by the M.I.A. video and not shocked when Israel
bombs Gaza
for days and days...Really crazy stuff where people actually die, real things." Vincent Cassel
, star of Gavras' film Our Day Will Come, stated he found the video "scary, shocking and totally crazy" on the first viewing, and added "If it would have been with any kind of community it would have been terrible, but suddenly it's redheads, so it's like a symbol of a quest that doesn't really exist." Thus the video also seemed "strange and funny" to him.
Xinhua, the official news agency of the Chinese government
noted the removal of the film on American YouTube within a week of Born Free's release. M.I.A. condemned the Chinese Government's role in supporting and supplying arms to the Sri Lankan government during Eelam War IV
, stating that China's influence within the UN was preventing prosecutions of war crimes committed during the conflict.
M.I.A. (artist)
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A. , is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of hip hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. M.I.A...
, released alongside an accompanying short film/music video of the same name from her third album, /\/\/\Y/\
Maya (M.I.A. album)
Maya is the third studio album by British-Tamil recording artist M.I.A., released in July 2010 on her own label, N.E.E.T. Recordings, through XL Recordings and Interscope Records. Songwriting and production for the album were primarily handled by M.I.A., Blaqstarr and Rusko...
. "Born Free" was released as the unofficial first single from the album and premiered on internet music stores on April 23, 2010, with the music video released on April 26, 2010. "Born Free" was composed by M.I.A., Alan Vega
Alan Vega
Alan Vega For several years other sources stated that he was born in 1948 – see 'Myth' section is an American vocalist, primarily known for his work with electronic protopunk duo, Suicide...
and Martin Rev
Martin Rev
Martin Rev is an American musician and the instrumentalist in the electronic proto-punk band, Suicide. He also has a solo career and has released several solo albums for a number of labels, including ROIR and Puu...
, with production by M.I.A. and Switch. The artwork for the single was released on April 25, 2010.
"Born Free" debuted on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
at number 156 and Swedish Singles Chart
Sverigetopplistan
Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....
at number 58. It earned a position on the UK Indie Singles Chart
UK Indie Chart
The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK.- History :In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered...
at number 13. "Born Free" was her next release following the track "O...Saya" from the film Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
and the birth of her son in 2009. The song is a guitar and drum driven track that incorporates alternative rock, synthpunk and noise rock genres, and is considered more aggressive than the other songs of the album. The song was praised for its lyrics and composition as statement-making and provocatively complimentary to the artist's intentions for the piece, its artwork and accompanying video.
The music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was filmed in California, America. It presents a genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against red haired people, depicting several incidents relating to the extra-judicial killing of Tamil males by the Sri Lankan Army filmed on mobile phones in Sri Lanka, some of which had been broadcast by news outlets worldwide. The video's portrayal of military force, violence and brutality met with a positive critical reception but much controversy worldwide, with some critics hailing its representation of oppression and political turmoil and others criticizing the explicit material in the video. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
ranked the video number thirteen on its 2011 list of the "100 Top Greatest Music Videos Ever Made" and the same year, the video placed at number 2 on TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
's list of the "Top 10 Controversial Music Videos" of all time.
Background
Written and produced by M.I.A. and co-produced by Switch, "Born Free" opens with a frantic rhythm built around a sample from 1977's "Ghost Rider" by the synthpunkSynthpunk
Synthpunk is a music genre combining elements of electronic music and punk rock. The term was coined by Damian Ramsey in 1999 as an attempt to retroactively identify a small sub-genre of punk music from 1977 to 1984 that involved musicians playing synthesizers in place of electric...
band Suicide
Suicide (band)
Suicide is an American electronic protopunk musical duo, intermittently active since 1970 and composed of vocalist Alan Vega and Martin Rev on synthesizers and drum machines. They are an early synthesizer/vocal musical duo....
, and was written as a reaction to what the singer experienced between 2009-2010. The track features distorted guitars and drums incorporating alternative rock, synthpunk and noise rock genres. Following the release and success of M.I.A.'s previous studio album Kala
Kala (album)
Kala is the second studio album by British musician M.I.A., released in August 2007. The album features musical styles ranging from dance music to alternative hip hop and makes extensive use of South Asian music such as that of the urumee, a drum used in gaana music native to Tamil Nadu, India. It...
(2007), the singer revealed her intention to retire from the music industry and focus on starting a family. The worldwide success of the album's third single "Paper Planes
Paper Planes
"Paper Planes" is a song recorded by musician M.I.A. for her second studio album Kala released in 2007. The song was written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Wesley "Diplo" Pentz, Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer and produced by Diplo with additional production by Switch...
" and her collaboration with A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
, "O...Saya", for the soundtrack of the film Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
, led some critics to believe M.I.A. would return to recording a third album following the birth of her son in 2009, although neither the artist or her label confirmed this. In 2009, M.I.A. took to Twitter and interviews to condemn the onslaught of the Sri Lankan Government against Tamils in the Vanni
Vanni
Vanni may refer to:* Vanni , an area of northern Sri Lanka* Vanni Electoral District, an electoral district of Sri Lanka* Vanni Wang, international fashion designer China, USA...
, with reports that at least 50,000 civilians had been killed from government shelling in the first five months of the year. The artist debuted "Born Free" during her concert at San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival
Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival
The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is a music festival held annually in San Francisco, California at Golden Gate Park. The first edition occurred August 22–24 in 2008, and included over 60 musical acts from around the world, as well as several art installations...
in August 2009. The song was released via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and the rapper's official website page on April 23, 2010. Its artwork sleeve was debuted by M.I.A.'s official website on April 25, 2010. Following this release was the first official single release from /\/\/\Y/\, "XXXO
XXXO
"XXXO" is a song by recorded by musician M.I.A. for her third studio album /\/\/\Y/\. The song was written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Charles "Blaqstarr" Smith and Cherry Byron-Withers, and produced by Blaqstarr and Rusko. "XXXO" was released as a digital download on 11 May 2010 following its...
", on May 11, 2010 via digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
. Explaining the inspiration for her new releases in 2010, she told George Stroumboulopoulos
George Stroumboulopoulos
George Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos is a Canadian television and radio personality, best known as the host of CBC Television's George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight and being a VJ for Canadian music television channel MuchMusic...
of The Hour at the end of that year, "when Paper Planes happened, I was too busy to take note, I wasn't out there promoting it and doing any of this shit because, this 25 year old civil war was coming to an end in my country, and I was making new understandings, new observations and new experiences that was happening to me which didn't add up to what was going on over here."
Artwork
The single artwork depicts a still from mobile phone footage first obtained and broadcast by Channel 4 NewsChannel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on August 25, 2009, that shows the extrajudicial killing of Tamil fighters by Sri Lankan government soldiers earlier that year, underlined by an image of YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
's customized error message. The footage would later appear in the documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields was an investigatory documentary about the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War broadcast by the British TV station Channel 4 on 14 June 2011...
in 2011, exposing war crimes committed in Sri Lanka
War crimes in Sri Lanka
According to the UN Panel Report, there are credible allegations and credible evidence that war crimes and according to the British Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt, there is a convincing evidence that violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Sri...
in 2009.
Critical reception
Slant stated that "word is that most of the record won't explore this kind of sound. Even so, it's a hell of a one-off, and it should pique expectations for the new record simply by proving that M.I.A.'s bag of studio tricks is as inexhaustible as her attitude." Nick Levine of Digital SpyDigital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
described the track as a "blistering statement of intent" with a result that was "an almighty racket, but the best kind of almighty racket." The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Douglas Haddow writes that "Born Free," " which presumably takes its title from article 1 of the UN's universal declaration of human rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
, is a kick to the gut or a wink and a nudge depending on how you look at it."
Promotion, cover versions and media use
The song was debuted live at San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in August 2009.M.I.A. promoted the track with an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
", during which she performed "Born Free" with Martin Rev
Martin Rev
Martin Rev is an American musician and the instrumentalist in the electronic proto-punk band, Suicide. He also has a solo career and has released several solo albums for a number of labels, including ROIR and Puu...
of Suicide playing keyboards, backed by a group of dancers styled to look like M.I.A. In November 2010 she appeared on "Later...with Jools Holland" on British television, performing "Born Free" and "It Takes a Muscle", the former accompanied by Victoria Smith
Ipso Facto (band)
Ipso Facto were a goth-inflected, melodramatic psychedelic rock band. Founded in 2007 by Rosalie Cunningham , Victoria Smith , Cherish Kaya and Samantha Valentine . They were based in London but individually originated from different parts of the UK, including Southend, Newcastle and Bedford...
on drums and the latter with members of The Specials
The Specials
The Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups...
.
Speaking more about touring in support of the album and the track at the Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
, M.I.A. told David Farrier of 3 News
3 News
3 News is the television, internet and radio news service of New Zealand's TV3. Its flagship bulletin, which airs every evening at 6:00pm, is anchored by Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts. Carolyn Robinson and Simon Shepherd are weekend and substitute anchors...
at the beginning of 2011 how it felt "amazing" to perform for fans in Europe during her Maya Tour
Maya Tour
The /\/\ /\ Y /\ Tour is a 2010 global M.I.A. concert tour performed in support of her studio album Maya .-Background:...
following the reaction to the video, negative press and how it "blew out of proportion" in 2010, saying "I felt that the fans that turned up to support that and support the video, they just meant more to me, and you know, it was me and my baby was on tour as well, so the whole thing was meaningful, cause they weren't just there cause they liked the shoes I was wearing in a magazine, but they were there because of a bigger reason. I think that was really important to go and see."
The song has been covered by noise rock band Boogie Monster. The song's video is referenced in the intro to the song "Nando's Skank" by Example
Example (rapper)
Elliot John Gleave , better known by his stage name Example, is an English singer and rapper signed to Data Records. His name arose due to his initials being E.G., which is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase "exempli gratia", which means, "for example".Example's third album Playing In The Shadows...
and Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter who is currently signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records. Sheeran broke through commercially in June 2011, when his debut single "The A Team" debuted at number 3 on the UK chart.-Early life:Sheeran was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire to...
.
Awards and accolades
"Born Free" ranked number 45 on MetromixMetromix
Metromix is a network of local entertainment websites backed by a joint venture between media companies Gannett and Tribune Co. A guide to local restaurants, bars and clubs, events, concerts and movies, Metromix is currently available in over 60 markets. In late 2009, the company launched 27 new...
list of the "Best Songs of 2010," comparing it favourably to the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
' "Sabotage
Sabotage (song)
"Sabotage" is a song by American hip-hop group Beastie Boys, released as the first single from their fourth studio album Ill Communication....
" and describing it as a "hip hop spin on punk rock...it flat out rocks." The online music service Rhapsody
Rhapsody
Rhapsody may refer to:* Rhapsody , an enthusiastic instrumental composition of indefinite form* A work of epic poetry, or part of one, that is suitable for recitation at one time...
placed it at position 46 on their Top 50 Singles of 2010 list. "Born Free" placed number 30 on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
poll of the top singles of 2010, and ranked number 11 on NMEs list of the Top Tracks of 2010. German music magazines Intro and Musikexpress placed the song at number 33 in their lists of the best singles of the year while Heineken España
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
named "Born Free" the seventh best song released in 2010.
In 2011, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
ranked the song's music video number thirteen on the list of the 100 Top Greatest Music Videos ever made. It was listed number 2 on TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
's list of the "Top 10 Controversial Music Videos" ever made in 2011.
Development
The music video-short film, filmed in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Lancaster, California
Lancaster, California
Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the high desert, near the Kern County line. Lancaster currently ranks as the 30th largest city in California, and the 148th largest city in the United States. Lancaster is the principal city within the Antelope Valley...
on January 15, 2010 was written by M.I.A. and directed by French director Romain Gavras
Romain Gavras
Romain Gavras is a French director, best known overseas for directing M.I.A.'s controversial video for "Born Free". His films and music videos are often portrayed in a gritty and realistic manner as well as using flashing images.-Biography:...
. Gavras, who directed the video for the song "Stress
Stress (song)
"Stress" was the Norwegian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968, performed in Norwegian by Odd Børre.The song is a moderately up-tempo number, with Børre seemingly conducting a conversation with a friend or colleague, while trying to excuse himself to catch "the last bus home"...
" by Justice
Justice (band)
Justice is a French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay . The duo is one of the most successful groups on Ed Banger Records and is managed by the label's head, Pedro Winter...
which proved controversial after release dealt with themes of "real and fake" which complimented M.I.A.'s vision for the video. M.I.A. intended for the video to depict something real "made not real" to reach a wider audience. The video would depict the footage of the extra-judicial killing of Tamil males she had uploaded onto her Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
feed. Red haired men were used in the video following teasing of Maya
Maya (M.I.A. album)
Maya is the third studio album by British-Tamil recording artist M.I.A., released in July 2010 on her own label, N.E.E.T. Recordings, through XL Recordings and Interscope Records. Songwriting and production for the album were primarily handled by M.I.A., Blaqstarr and Rusko...
collaborator Rusko
Rusko (musician)
Christopher Mercer, more commonly known as Rusko, is an English dubstep record producer and DJ who was born on 26 January 1985 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.-History:Rusko graduated from Leeds College of Music with a degree in Music Performance...
in the studio during the album's recording. The songwriter stated it was one of those "ideas where people would beat the shit out of me because I was ginger [a natural redhead]. It has a whole double meaning. The gingers are kind of anyone who’s been oppressed...I didn't think she'd actually do it." Other roles in the video are played by veterans from the U.S. Army returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the video also features fake blood and ketchup imported from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Gavras went on to direct the film Our Day Will Come
Our Day Will Come
"Our Day Will Come" is a popular song composed by Bob Hilliard and Mort Garson which was a #1 hit in 1963 for Ruby & The Romantics.-Ruby & the Romantics:...
, a continuation of the ginger-genocide theme of the video-short.
Synopsis
The film is over nine minutes long and depicts a SWAT team driving up to a building and staging a raid, during which they ignore a man sitting in a room smoking a crack pipe, beat a couple engaged in coitus, and then force a young red-hairedRed hair
Red hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...
man violently into a detainee transport vehicle. Other red-heads are rounded up. Some of the SWAT team members wear American flags on their uniforms. During the video, a mural is seen depicting armed red-headed men and the slogan "Our day will come", the historic motto of the Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
(Tiocfaidh ár lá
Tiocfaidh ár lá
Tiocfaidh ár lá is an Irish language phrase which translates as "our day will come", the hoped-for day being that of a united Ireland. It became a popular slogan with militant Irish republicans in the 1980s.-Origins:...
). Keffiya-wearing red-haired young people throw rocks and glass bottles at the armored vehicles transporting the detainees, in an apparent reference to the iconic images of the Second Palestinian "Intifada
Intifada
Intifada is an Arabic word which literally means "shaking off", though it is usually translated into English as "uprising" or "resistance" or "rebellion". , not to be confused with the Arabic plural ...
". The detainees are then driven out to the desert, treated brutally, and forced to run across a live minefield. During the course of events, a young red-headed boy is shot through the head, and another is blown to pieces after stepping on a live mine while the soldiers continue to chase, beat, and shoot the captives.
The Born Free film includes graphic violence and language, as well as nudity. Ian Hamrick, the 12 year-old red-haired actor whose character is shot in the head in the film, described the video as "showing violence to end violence." He felt a potency in the video absent from far more graphic video game media such as “Call Of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
” or “Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
.” Giving more details on his role in an interview to the LA Times, Hamrick said M.I.A. complimented his work on set, stating "She wanted to make sure I was OK, that I knew what was happening and why she killed [my character]. I said I did, that she really accomplished her goal of getting people to talk about something they don’t usually see.”
Release and critical reaction
On April 26, 2010, the music video was released online and was immediately noted as political allegory, drawing parallels to genocides and many indigenous resistance movements around the world. Its content elicited strong, widespread discussion across the world. Real life parallels were drawn with the issue of immigration in the American state of Arizona, the treatment of prisoners by U.S. troops at the Abu Ghraib prisonAbu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...
in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, and, more universally, the brutal tactics used against minorities by government forces around the world.
The Huffington Post stated "Whether it's a comment on the absurdity of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
(of which M.I.A. saw plenty during her early childhood in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
) or a challenge to the idea of "other" in Arizona's immigration law, it is startling even in the context of recent genre-bending music art-films." Zach Baron, writing in Village Voice added "NSFW
NSFW
Not suitable/safe for work , not work-suitable/safe , or not school-suitable is Internet slang or shorthand...
isn't exactly the word. More like art film? We can think of no goofier political allegory than the persecution, abuse, and murder of redheads, but then again, M.I.A.'s politics have never been of the kind you read about in the New York Times." James Montgomery of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
described it as "unflinchingly, unapologetically real" depicting "the kind of things that most nations — including the U.S., which is portrayed as the aggressor in the clip — often pretend don't happen: the rounding-up of ethnic minorities, the trampling of personal liberties, the bullying of the powerless by those with authority." Ann Powers
Ann Powers
Ann Powers is an American writer and pop music critic.Powers has been writing about popular music and society since the early 1980s...
wrote in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
that the video "concentrated fully" on the physical horror of gun butts and bullets hitting flesh, with the scenes giving added poignancy to the lyrical themes of the song. Interpreted as a comment on desensitised attitudes towards violence, others found that the video stressed that genocide still exists and violent repression remains commonplace. Some critics described the film as "sensationalist". Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulaby is an American reporter for National Public Radio, covering arts, cultural trends and digital media. She lives in Washington, D.C.- Early life and education :...
of NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
described the video as intended for "shock value" in the service of nudging people into considering real issues that can be hard to talk about. Haddow wrote further in The Guardian that particularly notable about the video was its use of red headed individuals as a proxy for anyone who has felt the brunt of a jackboot. The effect of this was that the viewer was "expected to empathise with the victim, rather than the aggressor." Haddow stated that this sat in "stark contrast" to the bulk of recent films on the subject of the Afghan and Iraq wars such as The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
, The Messenger and Green Zone
Green Zone
The Green Zone is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It is a area of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental center of the Coalition Provisional Authority and remains the center of the international presence in the city...
, where focus was almost entirely on the psychological experiences of military personnel, continuing "Rarely do we ever catch a glimpse of the locals, whom we are supposed to be helping, unless they are being blown up or used as plot devices to heighten the suspense."
Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
described "Born Free" as "the most violent music video in ages – and a nine-minute masterpiece" adding that "M.I.A. has built a career on making music that's as outspoken as it is danceable" and described the video as "undeniably powerful, a lurid parable on the systematic ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
that goes on all over the world." Eric Henderson in Slant stated "what stuck with me is the furious dignity it accords the main tracksuit-wearing prisoner, and the amount of anger it allows him to deliver....I recognized within him and the band of rock-throwing dissidents that pelt the armored bus a sense of kinship relevant to anyone who occupies a minority class." While he felt that "the clip is but a metaphor, and not entirely successfully so, when the pitbull-faced, tenement-snatched redhead boy is slammed against an iron fence and still dares to glare into the eyes of his attackers, I want to be right there by his side fucking their shit up."
Further response
Lucy Kafanov, producer at RT America, a RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n television network, noted how several mainstream American TV news networks hesitated in covering the reaction to the video initially despite the widespread response. She said this was in contrast to their coverage of the controversy of Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...
's "Window Seat
Window Seat (song)
"Window Seat" is a song by Erykah Badu. It is the lead single from her album New Amerykah Part Two . It was produced by Badu and James Poyser. The song is low-tempo ballad with lyrics that concern escapism and longing for a lover...
" video two weeks prior, and suggested this was because the video for Born Free "hit too close to home" in the U.S. Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
writer Monica Herrera stated that anyone who was "up in arms" over Badu's video would probably feel "ridiculous" after watching the video for "Born Free". Journalist Alyona Minkovski
Alyona Minkovski
Alyona Minkovski is a correspondent for the international news network RT . She is a United States citizen based in Washington, D.C., and currently hosts The Alyona Show on RT.-Biography:...
of The Alyona Show noted how M.I.A.'s own experiences with genocide in Sri Lanka contributed to the themes in the video but that the silence of the artist left audience members to speculate on several connections between the video and real events. Iraqi
Iraqi people
The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...
rapper The Narcicyst
The Narcicyst
Yassin Alsalman, better known by his stage name The Narcicyst , is an Iraqi journalist and Hip Hop MC[1][2]. Originally from Basra, he was born and raised in Dubai.[2] Now settled in Montreal, Canada....
, Palestinian
Palestinian
Palestinian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Palestine, the Palestinian territories or the State of Palestine*A member of the Palestinian people, also rendered as Palestinian Arabs**Demographics of Palestine...
hip hop group DAM
DAM (band)
DAM is a Palestinian hip-hop group. Based in Lod, Israel, DAM was founded in 1999 by brothers Tamar and Suhell Nafar and their friend Mahmoud Jreri, and their songs are largely about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and poverty...
and singer Sabreena Da Witch told MTV Iggy that they saw the video as a "grander metaphor for society" and persecution in areas of political turmoil.
The British network Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
reported that Sherry Adhami, spokeswoman for the UK Beatbullying
Beatbullying
Beatbullying is a multi-award winning UK charity that aims to empower young people to lead anti-bullying campaigns in their schools and local communities, and to build the capacity of local communities to sustain the work...
charity found the video "inappropriate" as it could "lead to more abuse against red-haired people." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian told the network "I think M.I.A. is making the point that if we segregated all ginger people as a minority - in the same way as black and Asian people - there would be an enormous outcry, and that we don't seem to get the same reaction when black people are treated in this way." She also stated that M.I.A. depicted violence in order to make a political point, in a way different to gangsta rap
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
.
Hamrick was to be prominently featured in the video for "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)
"Waka Waka " is a song by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, featuring South African band Freshlyground. It was the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, along with its Spanish language version, entitled "Waka Waka "...
" by Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
and Freshlyground
Freshlyground
Freshlyground is a South African Afro-fusion band that formed in Cape Town in 2002. The band members variously hail from South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe...
, the official 2010 FIFA World Cup
2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...
anthem but his appearance was allegedly recut to a crowd scene following the "Born Free" video release. "Waka Waka"'s producers responded that Hamrick was always meant to be an extra in the video and that this was not due to the controversy. Hamrick said of "Born Free" that he was really “proud to be a part of M.I.A.’s shout-out to the world” because “it was a great chance to tell everyone that bully’s [sic] suck no matter what country you are from."
A week after its release on Vimeo
Vimeo
Vimeo is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. It was founded by Zach Klein and Jake Lodwick in November 2004...
on April 26, the video was viewed 1.8 million times on the site. From April 27 to May 2, M.I.A. remained the most blogged about artist on the internet, according to MP3 blog aggregator The Hype Machine
The Hype Machine
-History:The Hype Machine was created in 2005 by Anthony Volodkin, a sophomore computer science major at Hunter College. The site was born out of Volodkin's frustration with music magazines and radio stations. He said, "I discovered MP3 blogs like Stereogum and Music for Robots...
. The video was then re-posted on YouTube by VEVO
Vevo
Vevo is a music video website. It is a joint venture among Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media with EMI licensing its content to the group without taking an ownership stake. The service was launched officially on December 8, 2009...
, without users having to sign in to prove they were 18 or older. The raw video is also on M.I.A.'s website. The video has been viewed over 30 million times on the internet.
YouTube controversy and makers' response
U.S. YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
removed the film from viewing within a day of its posting. It was subsequently age-gated on the site. YouTube stated that they did not comment on individual clips on the site but said that videos were removed only after users reported videos that could "contravene guidelines." Commentators proposed different reasons for the actions, from the graphic "excessive" violence depicted to political censorship. On April 27, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
reported that the video was being removed in some instances by YouTube, and labelled with an age-restriction in others. Neither M.I.A. or her record label XL Recordings
XL Recordings
XL Recordings is a British independent record label owned by Richard Russell. It originated as a 1989 offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records.Though only releasing an average of six albums a year, XL Recordings has worked with The Prodigy, Radiohead, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Vampire...
commented on the development in the weeks following the release. Lisa Respers wrote in CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
that the YouTube block may have worked in M.I.A.'s favor as it brought more publicity. M.I.A. tweeted she initially suspected her U.S. parent label Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
to be responsible but confirmed it was not soon after.
M.I.A. stated in an interview to MTV News that she found the reaction to the film "fascinating" but that she was baffled by the media's fixation on the clip when real issues were ignored, stating "I think it's interesting how we react to fiction and how we react to realism on the internet... this is mainstream media, I wish I was talking about way more underground theories, but [I'm] not, this is just me digesting what I see in the mainstream." She joked to NME that she found the new Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian pop/R&B singer, songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager...
video "more of an assault to my eyes and senses than what I've made". A few weeks later, in an interview with Angie Martinez
Angie Martinez
Angela "Angie" Martinez is an American radio personality and occasional rapper.-Radio career:Angie Martinez got her first break in radio at the age of 16 answering hot lines at the urban radio station WQHT . There she met popular DJ Funkmaster Flex, and began working as his protégé...
of Hot 97 radio station in New York City, she said "I said I love Justin Bieber and everyone like went crazy. It's weird. No I said that I found his video offensive, because people said they found my video offensive [...] It got out of hand, Now I feel really bad coz I have some family members who love Justin Bieber, and now they won't talk to me, I need my little cousins to talk to me!"
M.I.A. later stated that she found YouTube's action on the video "ridiculous", citing YouTube's streaming of real-life killings. Miranda Sawyer
Miranda Sawyer
Miranda Sawyer is an English journalist and broadcaster.She grew up in Wilmslow, Cheshire with her brother Toby, who is an actor. She has a degree in Jurisprudence from Pembroke College, Oxford...
of the The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
noted that although the metaphor in the video was obvious, the illustration was graphic and "some might say gratuitous". M.I.A. told Sawyer "It's just fake blood and ketchup and people are more offended by that more than the execution videos" referring to the clips of Sri Lankan troops shooting unarmed, blindfolded, naked men in the head that she tweeted beforehand, later telling French music magazine Mondomix "It’s amazing to me that is the state we're in today – people are more moved by something synthetic than something real. And as an artist that’s the decision you have to make – whether to be real or synthetic.”
Gavras was more reassured that audiences talked about the subject by themselves, than explaining the video himself as the debate over the video heightened, although he questioned "How can you be shocked by the M.I.A. video and not shocked when Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
bombs Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
for days and days...Really crazy stuff where people actually die, real things." Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...
, star of Gavras' film Our Day Will Come, stated he found the video "scary, shocking and totally crazy" on the first viewing, and added "If it would have been with any kind of community it would have been terrible, but suddenly it's redheads, so it's like a symbol of a quest that doesn't really exist." Thus the video also seemed "strange and funny" to him.
Xinhua, the official news agency of the Chinese government
Chinese government
The phrase "Chinese government" may refer to:- Contemporary :* Government of the People's Republic of China * Government of the Republic of China - Historical :* Chinese dynasties* Beiyang Government...
noted the removal of the film on American YouTube within a week of Born Free's release. M.I.A. condemned the Chinese Government's role in supporting and supplying arms to the Sri Lankan government during Eelam War IV
Eelam War IV
Eelam War IV is the name given to the fourth phase of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is currently proscribed as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries . Renewed hostilities began on the July 26, 2006 when Sri Lanka Air...
, stating that China's influence within the UN was preventing prosecutions of war crimes committed during the conflict.
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
58 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
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Further reading
External links
- "Born Free" music video on VimeoVimeoVimeo is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. It was founded by Zach Klein and Jake Lodwick in November 2004...