British pop icon M.I.A. has shared a brand new song called “CTRL” via her Twitter account and website, OHMNI.com. With the announcement, the multi-talented musician noted that the new track is not from her upcoming much-anticipated sixth full-length studio album, but rather simply a track made for today’s day and age, and 2020 in general.
The song is signature M.I.A. with a pulsing electro-beat behind the singer’s anthemic, catchy rhymes and lyrics. Alluding to the current state of the world, the new track sees the singer pleading for people to “wake up, snap out” and “stand up when they try to take control.”
んŊí.◎ṁ pic.twitter.com/tuuLrvho7z
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) September 9, 2020
The artist made the inspiration and reasoning behind the surprise, non-album track clear on her Twitter post that debuted the song. “CTRL! A SONG FOR 2020… This is not a song from M.I.A.’s upcoming highly anticipated IIIIIIth LP,” she explains. “It was made for the HERE + NOW, TODAY.”
Additionally, M.I.A. uses the announcement to also call attention to the situation of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange, whom she has long been a proponent of. “In opposition to the ongoing extradition of Julian Assange,” the statement reads. “The significance of this moment and this case is like nothing we have seen in modern jurisdiction.” This week Assange appeared in London court for a U.S. extradition hearing, which the singer has long protested. The journalist faces charges of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network in 2010.
M.I.A. released her fifth studio album AIM, in 2016 and was the subject of the 2018 documentary, MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. In June of 2019, the singer was given the distinct honor of being named a Member of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her “services to music.” Earlier this year, she released her first new music in three years with the track “OHMNI 202091.”