M.I.A. Says BBC Banned Coverage of Her Glastonbury Set Because of Political T-shirts, Though Footage Was Ultimately Broadcast

Video portrait by Erik Sanchez

At her headlining set at Glastonbury tonight, M.I.A. made an announcement that her performance wasn't aired over BBC's live broadcasting services because of the political t-shirts worn by her dancers and members of her band that said "Stop Tamil Deportation".

Prior to the performance, she tweeted:

BBC WONT BROADCAST MY GLASTONBURY SHOW / COZ MY T SHIRT IS TOO POLITICAL. BOOOOO

— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) June 27, 2014

According to NME, M.I.A. later told the Glastonbury crowd:

"This is a political announcement, The BBC have banned M.I.A at Glastonbury. It's because of these T-shirts that say 'Stop Tamil Deportation'. But we don't give a fuck and you know why? We are going to do the best fucking show tonight and it ain't gonna be on TV. I'm here, you're here and that's all we fucking care about. Hashtag freedom motherfucker."

Despite M.I.A.'s commentary, however, BBC DJ Stuart Maconie later tweeted that no such block existed. Over twitter, he confirmed that M.I.A.'s set would be streaming via the BBC.

Don't know where M.I.A gets her info from but we fully intend to broadcast some of her set. And we're streaming it.

— Stuart Maconie (@StuartMaconie) June 27, 2014

BBC's Glastonbury account later confirmed that M.I.A.'s set was in fact broadcast live:

Now playing on @bbc6music @MIAuniverse doing her live #bbcglasto version of Double Bubble…>> More from @stuartmaconie until 12pm..

— bbcglasto (@bbcglasto) June 27, 2014

No further comments have been made at this time.

Watch M.I.A.'s video for "Bad Girls":

via Molly Beauchemin