Watch M.I.A's Amazing Music Video For Refugee Anthem "Borders"!
M.I.A is back with a new music video and, as always, she never disappoints. This new flawless “MV”, from the Sri Lankan-British singer, belongs to the song “Borders”, a new single from M.I.A featuring an urban-electronic production with the singer’s signature Middle East/South Asia folklore music influences, that will appear on M.I.A’s forthcoming album “Matahdatah”, due in stores “soon” via Interscope Records.
The stunning self-direced music video features a politically-charged theme. In it, M.I.A can be seen standing in what seems to be a desert and, flanking her sides, long lines of refugees running towards an unknown destination, a destination that is revealed once the director turns the camera and we see the tall barbed fences the refugees will try to climb.
Other scenes in the “Borders” music video show 1) M.I.A standing on top of a group of men that are forming a bizarre figure on the beach, 2) M.I.A in a canoe with several other refugees trying to cross the ocean, apparently heading to Europe, or 3) the “Paper Planes” songstress climbed up on the top of the tall barbed fences, wearing sunglasses, and singing “Borders” at night time.
The ending of this "Borders" music video has made me think a lot. In the last scene, we can see an endless line of refugees walking into the ocean, in a desperate attempt to reach Europe by foot apparently, but also several refugees walking back to beach from the ocean heading back to their places of origin. It seems what M.I.A is trying to describe with this possibly-confusing ending is the reality of refugees trying to reach Europe nowadays. This is, they’re being denied the entry to Europe, and they’re being sent back where they came from, that is, back to the misery and war of their birth places, from which they escaped with the objective of just SURVIVING.
Don’t miss M.I.A’s “Pirates” jersey that she wears in the scenes where she’s standing in the waters, surrounded by a group of canoes full of refugees. I think the message she’s tying to get across with this jersey is pretty clear! (they ain't 'pirates' really, they're people!)
Is this one of the best music videos M.I.A’s released since “Bad Girls”? Hell yeah! This is so powerful, clever, and well-shot!