M.I.A. Redefines Working While Pregnant

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Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the past few days, you know that a Violet Beauregard-esque, polka-dotted M.I.A. performed at last night’s Grammy Awards, giving most writers something more inspiring to write about than Katy Perry arriving to the show via banana. In case you missed it, a clip of M.I.A.’s performance and a roundup of our favorite reviews after the jump.

PS. We know it looks kind of like mac ‘n cheese, but we loved her yellow nail polish.

1. M.I.A. may have lost her Record of the Year bid, but the very pregnant pop rebel (she’s due any minute now) did take part in the night’s undoubted highlight, a black-tie take on “Swagga Like Us” along with Kanye, Wayne, Jay, and T.I. And it’s not like she tried to hide her bump, either — her polka-dot bikini/mesh outfit left little to the imagination. It was easily the most fearless performance of the entire night. [Pitchfork]

2. The first half of their ”Paper Planes”/”Swagger Like Us” medley was broadcast in black and white — a reference to the Rat Pack joke Queen Latifah made when she introduced them, we think? Whatever. No silly visual gimmick could distract from this hip-hop power summit. [EW]

3. 9:48: M.I.A.! “Paper Planes” for a second! PRO TIP: Black and white makes you look less pregnant. [Stereogum]

4. But this year, the dumb, cruel Recording Academy truly outdid itself — they made poor, nine-months-pregnant M.I.A. (whose due date was yesterday!) perform “Paper Planes” and “Swagga Like Us” on last night’s telecast, and they couldn’t even give her one of their silly awards. Did you see her out there? She was huge! She could’ve popped right there onstage at the Staples Center! T.I. might’ve been forced to deliver her baby! And after she finished singing (and dancing, adorably!), they presented Record of the Year — the only award for which she was nominated — to boring Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, neither of whom was visibly pregnant nor in need of another stinking Grammy. [Vulture]

5. …watching a uber pregnant M.I.A. perform alongside T.I., Jay-Z, and Lil’ Wayne, was awesome. She is possibly the coolest woman in music EVER. [The Modern Age]

6. MIA’s water is about to break. This could be awesome. [YM]