Rapper, producer, director and visual artist M.I.A. has been announced as the curator of the Southbank Centre’s 24th Meltdown Festival, which will take place from 9-18 June 2017.
Launched 25 years ago, the festival is famed for bringing to life the world of its curator, counting Patti Smith, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, David Byrne, Ray Davies, Morrissey and Ornette Coleman amongst those that have held the position.
M.I.A., said: “For me this Meltdown will be about putting on a musical week that shows different types of music which have inspired each other to exist. Genres that support other genres, redefining the concept of a melting pot. Respect the history, don’t live in it. I plan to bring together music’s best forward thinkers who have contributed to all our lives. When music acts as inspiration, it’s boundary-less.”
Named in 2009 as a defining artist of the decade by Rolling Stone Magazine and an influential person by both Time Magazine and Esquire Magazine, M.I.A.’s artistic projects aim to challenge convention. Her Top 20 track Paper Planes, questions immigrant stereotypes and was featured on the soundtrack of Danny Boyle’s hit film Slumdog Millionaire, and her later music videos for Bad Girls and Born Free, directed by Romain Gavras, were critically acclaimed and politically polarising.