Information M.I.A.

How do you report on one of Sri Lanka's most famous daughters when no one is talking?

The Hot Zone team recently received an e-mail from a reader asking why we haven't covered a reported immigration dispute involving the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger, British rapper M.I.A.

"As thorough as your coverage of Sri Lanka was, you forgot to discuss Sri Lanka's greatest export to the West: singer M.I.A. Hugely popular now in Europe and the US, M.I.A.'s (Maya) father is a...rebel Tamil Tiger, and as a result M.I.A. has been unable to get a visa to return to the US to record her new album with American hip hop producer Timbaland."

Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A.

Actually, we didn't forget M.I.A.

We've heard her underground dance hit "Galang."  We know her connection to the Tamil Tigers makes her an obvious tie-in to our stories on Sri Lanka. Her controversial song lyrics (for example: "Like the PLO, I don't surrender"), tales of dodging bullets during the war in Sri Lanka, and her explosive popularity just make her a good story.

In fact, Kevin Sites even listened to her music on his iPod to help prepare for the Hot Zone's Sri Lanka coverage.

When we saw the stories about her U.S. visa being denied because of her songs' lyrical content, we decided to do a follow-up story on the subject. There's only one problem: we can't confirm the story is true.

We started our research with the U.S. State Department. Three different people we talked to would not confirm the visa denial, saying that as a matter of policy, the State Department does not comment on individual visa requests. One spokesperson even said the information was classified, meaning it probably cannot be garnered with a Freedom of Information Act request.

Since we hit a brick wall with State, we turned to everyone we could get in touch with in the music industry to try and get an interview with M.I.A., or simply a comment from one of her record labels, Interscope or XL Recordings. Not one of our calls or e-mails to either record label was returned.

We began to wonder, if none of the parties involved are talking about this "story," then where did the "story" come from?

After doing some more reading, we realized every story on the visa denial was based on a blog post. Puportedly, M.I.A. wrote fans something like, "Roger, roger do you hear me, over? The US Immigration won't let me in." (Reports vary on what the blog actually said.)

We looked for the blog post and couldn't find it. The M.I.A. official site, linked to by her recording companies, was inaccesible this week. We didn't see that blog post on the M.I.A. MySpace page either.

After following the breadcrumbs, the only thing we can solidly report is that we don't have enough facts for a visa story on M.I.A.

So, thanks to our reader that gave us the M.I.A. reminder. Just so you know, we've got a standing request with Interscope Records for an interview with M.I.A. If she'll talk to us, we'll share her stories from the hot zone.

You can read more about M.I.A. and listen to her music here.

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