The heart of downtown Los Angeles got rowdy with two straight sold-out nights to see the British-Sri Lankan artist Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam (aka M.I.A). The historic Belasco Theater hosted explosive nights with a crowd filled with intense colors from head-to-toe. Leggings with all sorts of designs, fiery hair (hot pink, purple, you name it …), glitter and gold adorned the audience eager to see this exotic and talented beauty.
M.I.A. was joined by amazing dancers, a sick dj and a fantastic percussionist Kiran Gandhi, all wearing Versace making not only a great musical performance, but also a fashion statement. When on stage, M.I.A. had the crowd going wild with the songs we originally fell in love with such as “Paper Planes,” “Bucky Done Gun” and more. She brought a powerful performance sharing the material from her new album Matangi which we highly recommend checking out. The night got intense with a disturbance in the middle of the show that she broke up with class by inviting the daring audience to dance with her on stage. This singer/rapper/producer/activist got everyone’s heavy-ass-shaking-twerking spirits out and dancing to the beat of dancehall, hip hop, rap, and world beats which have heavily influenced the global bass scene of today. We are gonna call it for now “future music”, you can stream it here and live it in the many years to come.
Photos & Words: Farah Sosa
For more photos of M.I.A. at the Belasco, click through our photo gallery below!
