M.I.A. Responds to Oscar Nod: "I Can Afford to Book Dave Chappelle at the Baby Shower Now"

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Yesterday's 2009 Oscar nominations brought disappointment to legions of Bruce Springsteen fans expecting the Jersey legend to score a nod for "The Wrestler." But it made one pregnant Sri Lankan MC who resides in Brooklyn pretty damn happy:

"This is a great honor. Thank you to all the people who are supporting us and the making of a real story of a slumdog millionaire," M.I.A. says. "Maybe I can afford to book Dave Chappelle at the baby shower now. Thank you again; My mum wants everyone to know what wonderful news this is for her."

M.I.A. is due to give birth the night of the Grammys (February 8th), which means she could possibly make it to the Oscars on February 22nd in Los Angeles to perform "O... Saya," the song she and Slumdog Millionaire score composer A.R. Rahman wrote for the Danny Boyle-directed film. M.I.A. is up for Record of the Year at the annual music awards, where she'll face off against Coldplay, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Leona Lewis, and Adele. Slumdog is also up for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Score, and even Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers (who is pissed about many of the nominations) gives the film's nods the thumbs up.

Last year's Best Song trophy went to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for "Falling Slowly" from Once. That track was up against three song from the fairytale flick Enchanted and "Raise It Up" from August Rush. This year the rules changed, so only two songs from any film could receive nominations.

Related Stories:

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Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

More Song Stories entries »

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