"Bird Flu" is an urumee melam-dance song by recording artist M.I.A. on her second studio album ''

Kala Kala or Kalah may refer to: Religion Hinduism *Kāla, a Sanskrit word meaning ''time'' *Kāla, a Hindu deity of time, destiny, death and destruction closely related to Yama and Shiva. *Kalā, a Sanskrit word meaning ''performing arts'' * Kala Bo, ...

'' (2007). It was released as a digital download in 2006 through

XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six album ...

under exclusive license to

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...

in the US. Critics noted its autobiographical lyrics "updated to the present day, where she's straddling the line between major-label success and her own crazy-ass major-label-bucking tendencies, singing she's too cool "to be a Rocawear model," whilst adding that she couldn't be a "rocker on a label"- they wouldn't have her because "...my beats were too evil." Also praised was the song's utilization of the folk urumee melam/

gaana Gaana (or Gānā) is a genre of Tamil music, which is sung in the Madras Bashai dialect of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is rap-like "collection of rhythms, beats and sensibilities native to the Chennai people." It evolved over the past two c ...

music, a Tamil genre of music that the writer was familiar with having grown up in Jaffna. Arulpragasam recorded the song using live drummers from temples in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. M.I.A. wanted to work with Tamil folk music as it gave her a sense of rhythm as a child and she wanted to draw certain aspects from Indian music that Western audiences hadn’t heard before.

Composition

"Bird Flu" incorporates elements of the song "Thirvizha Nu Vantha" from the Indian

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

film ''Jayam''.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was produced and directed by M.I.A. and a few creative consultants. It was shown at the 2008

San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...

in the "Music Video Asia 2008" category. M.I.A. talked about the filming location for Bird Flu and how it had a personal connection for her: ''Where we shot the ‘Bird Flu’ video...it was really close to the refugee camp where all the Sri Lankans get off the boat in India in the south, just outside Chennai. I went to this press office from 1986 or something, and found all these pictures of the refugees and stuff. I didn’t find pictures of us but I found pictures of my dad.'' Clothes were made for the "Bird Flu" project with

Carri Mundane Carri Munden is an English fashion designer. Born as Carri Munden, she is credited as Carri Mundane and CassettePlaya, her fashion label. She currently works as a stylist and creative director and lives in London. Career Carri as cassette play ...

who with M.I.A., Steve Loveridge, and Sugu Arulpragasam, moved to Tamil Nadu during the shoot. Dancers were filmed auditioning for the video, which were posted on her

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

account. She chose the boy featured in the video for inventing her the Bird Flu dance, saying he "can out dance anything I've ever seen."

Release and reception

It was released as a downloadable single and video on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

on 23 November 2006, despite M.I.A. not considering this song to be the album's first official single. It was first mentioned in M.I.A.'s MySpace blog on 18 August 2006. M.I.A. posted the video for this track on her MySpace on 5 February 2007. "Bird Flu" has been remixed by Cavemen. This song is featured in the video game ''

FIFA Street 3 ''FIFA Street 3'' is an arcade-style sports game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS. It is the third game in the ''FIFA Street'' series from EA Sports BIG, and is the last title released under the brand. This game was followed up by ...

'' and was featured in the Japanese CGI

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

film ''

Vexille is a 2007 Japanese CGI anime film, written, directed, and edited by Fumihiko Sori, and features the voices of Meisa Kuroki, Yasuko Matsuyuki, and Shosuke Tanihara. At the 60th Locarno International Film Festival, where ''Vexille'' made its wor ...

''.

Kitty Empire Kitty Empire is the pen name of a British writer and music critic, currently writing for ''The Observer''. Early life Empire says that she was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1970 and brought up in Canada, Italy and Egypt before arriving in Britai ...

in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' and Jody Rosen in

Slate.com ''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former '' New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2 ...

named it the best song of 2007, with the latter appreciating the "clobbering" urumee symphony of the song complementing the "thick, buzzy and exciting beats" of much of ''Kala'' that was likened to "a post colonial studies seminar". The

folktronica Folktronica is a genre of music comprising various elements of folk music and electronica, often featuring uses of acoustic instruments – especially stringed instruments – and incorporating hip hop, electronic or dance rhythms, although ...

artist

Patrick Wolf Patrick Wolf (born Patrick Denis Apps; 30 June 1983) is an English singer-songwriter from South London. Wolf uses a wide variety of instruments in his music, most commonly the ukulele, piano, and viola. He is known for combining electronic samp ...

and

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

band

Fuck Buttons Fuck Buttons was an electronic music duo formed in Bristol in 2004 by Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power. Biography Origins (2004–2008) Hung and Power grew up in Worcester.

cited the song as a favourite with Andrew Hung of the band commenting "She's got experimental tendencies but it's really popular at the same time. It's quite admirable in that sort of way. I love it." M.I.A. often requested fans to dance with her on stage when "Bird Flu" was played in concerts during the

KALA Tour The Kala Tour is a 2007 global M.I.A. (artist), M.I.A. concert tour performed in support of her studio album ''Kala (album), Kala'' (see 2007 in music). Tour details The tour features dates across Europe, North America, Canada and Asia. M.I.A ...

in 2007 and the

People Vs. Money Tour The People vs. Money Tour was a 2008 concert tour by M.I.A. in support of her studio album '' Kala.'' Concerts also featured songs from her debut album ''Arular''. It began on 26 April 2008 and ended on 13 June in Manchester, Tennessee. The tour ...

in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bird Flu (Song) M.I.A. (rapper) songs 2006 songs Songs written by M.I.A. (rapper)