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MIA slams Oprah Winfrey

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Press Trust of India Los Angeles
Sri Lankan-origin singer MIA has slammed chat show queen Oprah Winfrey for calling her a "terrorist".

The pair first met back in 2009 and the musician said that her efforts to talk to Winfrey about the plight of people in her home country were entirely rebuffed.

The 39-year-old singer was born in London but is of Sri Lankan Tamil decent and apparently tried to talk to Winfrey about the violence in the nation, reported Rolling Stone magazine.

Mia, whose real name is Mathangi Arulpragasam, said that she was met with a total lack of interest.

Rather than listening to what MIA had to say she claims Winfrey was more concerned with maintaining her relationships with high profile celebrities.
 

"She was like, '...You were rude to Lada Gaga and I'm not talking to you. And I'm gonna interview Tom Cruise jumping on my sofa," MIA recalled.

While the pair did pose for a photo at the time the rapper is adamant that that was the extent of the time she would afford her.

"Yeah, she didn't talk to me. She shut me down. She took that photo of me, but she was just like, 'I can't talk to you because you're crazy and you're a terrorist'. And I'm like, 'I'm not. I'm a Tamil and there are people dying in my country and you have to, like, look at it because you're Oprah and every American told me you're going to save the world'," MIA added.

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First Published: Mar 22 2015 | 11:42 AM IST

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