Beefs 2013: M.I.A. Claims the Grammys Ripped Off Her Stage Setup

BY Alex HudsonPublished Feb 20, 2013

This year's Grammy Awards sure seemed to spark a lot of bad blood. First there was Justin Bieber's feud with Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, and now M.I.A. has lashed out at the organizers for allegedly ripping her off.

As the singer noted in a post on Tumblr [via Pitchfork], the Grammy Awards' tribute to Bob Marley — which featured Rihanna, Sting, Bruno Mars, and Damian and Ziggy Marley — featured a backdrop of Rastafarian-coloured rectangles. According to M.I.A., this looked a bit too similar to a gold and yellow stage setup she used earlier this year in Sydney, Australia.

Her post included the note, "My ideas came from my life. My set was based on Tamil Hindu Temple. Not Bob Marley." She dubbed the post "MIA vs. The System" and added that this is part of a "steal log" of all the ways she is supposedly being ripped off. The post was captioned, "If u wanna see the real thing or get it first come to a M.I.A. show!"

Are her complaints justified? Or is she just sore that her "Bad Girls" clip lost Best Short Form Music Video to Rihanna. Judge for yourself by watching performance footage from both events below.

M.I.A. pointed out on Twitter that her setup cost $500, while she claimed that the Grammys cost $5,000,000. Not to sound too catty, but you get what you pay for.



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