M.I.A. attacks Rosalía: "The system is helping her steal my work"

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, known by her stage name M.I.A., is no stranger to controversial stances, which have ended up costing her a fair amount of goodwill in the music business. But her latest controversy sounds genuinely unexpected and rather surreal.

As it happens, the cover story Vogue devoted to Rosalía has triggered a reaction from M.I.A., who on social media accused her Spanish colleague of building an aesthetic and spiritual narrative by closely mirroring her own personal and artistic path.

The author of "Arular", who converted to Christianity some time ago and has grown increasingly explicit about blending music, activism and preaching, claims she has been marginalized by the industry precisely because of her religious views. In a series of tweets, M.I.A. states that Rosalía is monetizing spiritual themes with the backing of "the system", while she herself was "canceled" for being Christian and, she adds, not white.

@voguemagazine setting up false prophet’s for profits . Listen some of us live this life. And I’m not saying she is stealing God from me but I’m canceled for being Christian yet she mimics my life and is profiting the industry and the Catholic church so she has the entire system… pic.twitter.com/CUjRGMWQe4

— M.I.A. ⊕ II II II (@MIAuniverse) February 10, 2026

“Creating false prophets for profit”, she writes, tagging Vogue. “Some of us actually live this life for real. I'm not saying Rosalía is stealing God from me, but I was cancelled for being Christian, yet she's copying my life and making money off the industry and the Catholic Church, with the whole system helping her steal my work. I stand against Satan and his squad of imitators. In the name of Jesus”.

The message is accompanied by three images: two taken from an earlier M.I.A. photo shoot, and one from Rosalía's recent Vogue shoot, presented as evidence of a conceptual and visual resemblance. In another post, the artist suggests that some of her photos may have been lifted from her phone and used as creative reference.

M.I.A. contrasts her own status as an independent artist, funding her projects through Ohmni Music and Ohmni Clothing, with that of a colleague backed by a multimillion-dollar industry machine. While saying she's "happy that Rosalía is bringing Christ to the left and to the West", she identifies the problem as the appropriation of her aesthetic: "When the team handling the aesthetic steals my work, that's not a Christian thing to do. I can forgive, but I know my work is the truth because I lived it. It cost sacrifice and discipline."

In the most contentious passage, M.I.A. reaches for an evangelical metaphor: if the Gospel of Mark had been signed by an emperor, or by a "younger or whiter" neighbor, and known as "the Gospel according to Disney or Kevin", would it still be the Truth?

The controversy is bound up with accusations of shadow banning and censorship. “I'm sick of them constantly cancelling me and stopping me from bringing you the message”, writes the British artist of Sri Lankan heritage. “I'm fighting for what's mine and for everything that is divine”. She closes by announcing a change of strategy too: the new LP's release will be moved up by four months from the original plan.

At the time of writing, Rosalía has not publicly responded to her colleague's accusations.

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