M.I.A. may come back into studio

By JEN HANCE

This summer at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, M.I.A. announced: “This is my last show, and I’m glad I’m spending it with all my hippies.”

She gained quite a lot of popularity around college campuses in 2004 after putting some of her controversial songs on the Internet. Not only was she a hit with the younger crowds, but Blender and Rolling Stone named her two albums “Arular” and “Kala,” Album of the Year in 2007.

It came as quite a shock to fans when she decided to go M.I.A., but also shocking was her decision to cancel her European tour prior to the announcement of her retirement. She was supposed to start the tour on June 9 of 2008, but said she was too tired to continue the tour.

Thanks to the stoner-hit movie “Pineapple Express,” “Paper Planes” has become a popular tune on the radio and Billboard charts in the past month. This week alone, the song has remained at No. 6 on Billboard’s Top 20, and I have heard the song countless times as a favorite ringtone. But is the recent success of her song “Paper Planes” enough to make the singer pull a “Jay-Z” and come out of retirement?

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly only two months after her announcement, the singer said “Well, it was my last ever show. And it still is,” but mentioned that she may make another album.

Though it is exciting that someone like M.I.A. could be back in the studio making music, it makes you wonder what she is going to bring to the table. She is already happy with what she has created, and did not seem to be upset about leaving the business, so why come back?

I personally would rather listen to someone’s music who has something to sing about, or something to say. If she is just going to make music to make money now that she is more well-known or more mainstream, is she going to lose the fire of her previous albums? I think there is a certain raw emotion that goes into making truly great music, and if she would rather give that up to fish, then so be it. Just please M.I.A, if you are going to “retire” again, make sure it is for good. Don’t come back time and time again like Jay-Z. All you are doing is making the fans (you know, the ones paying for that mansion you live in) angry and annoyed. But until then, put your heart back in it and give us something new and exciting to jam out to, I need a new ringtone.