MIA may not be attending this year's Grammy Awards, and she has a perfectly good excuse – she is having her baby.
Writing on her MySpace blog, the British musician explained that "BABY + GRAMMY ... IS DUE THE SAME DAY!". The awards ceremony is scheduled for February 8, at Los Angeles' Staples Centre.
Her song, Paper Planes, is a surprise nominee for the record of the year award. Taken from an album released 15 months ago, Paper Planes enjoyed renewed attention this year after being featured in a TV advert.
Instead of being disappointed at the synchronous events, MIA instead seemed ecstatic. "Either way I figure [I] win," she wrote. "But OMG if I get it, I will never diss the Grammys ever again!"
The dancefloor-filling rabble-rouser announced in October that she was expecting – sorry, "creating" - a baby. She is engaged to the father, Benjamin Brewer, a New York-based rocker and the son of Universal Music CEO Edgar Bronfman.
"When I found out I was pregnant and Paper Planes was in the iTunes Top 10, it seemed like the whole world was reshuffled in one week," she said then. This week, her world must be reshuffling again.
But MIA has not stopped her work, despite the little Arulpragasam growing in her belly. "IN THE STUDIO ON THE GRIND!" she wrote. We trust that this grinding is sensible, motherly, and just part of the preparation for that fateful day in February when MIA will receive an adorable little statuette.
