The Kala Tour is a 2007 global M.I.A.

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

performed in support of her 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, ...

'' (see

2007 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2007. Specific locations *2007 in British music * 2007 in Canadian music * 2007 in Irish music * 2007 in Japanese music * 2007 in Norwegian music * 2007 in South Korean musi ...

Tour details

The tour features dates across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. M.I.A. began performing in support of ''Kala'' at

Radio 1's Big Weekend BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (R1BW) (previously known as One Big Weekend, for 2012 as Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, and for 2018 as BBC Music's Biggest Weekend) is a British music festival run by the BBC's radio station. It is held once a year, in a ...

on 20 May 2007. She made sporadic appearances at venues in the US during late 2006, including performances at Gotham Hall in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on 31 August 2006 where other performing acts included

Cee-lo Cee-lo is a gambling game played with three six-sided dice. There is not one standard set of rules, but there are some constants that hold true to all sets of rules. The name comes from the Chinese ''Sì-Wŭ-Liù'' (四五六), meaning "four-five ...

and The Rapture, and at McCarren Pool on 3 September 2006 where other performers included

Spank Rock Naeem Juwan, better known by his stage name Spank Rock, is an American rapper and songwriter from Baltimore. He rose to fame with his 2006 album ''YoYoYoYoYo'', which was produced by former group member Alex Epton (XXXChange). A harbinger of po ...

and

Amanda Blank Amanda Blank (born Amanda Mallory McGrath; March 21, 1983) is an American singer, rapper and member of the performance art band Sweatheart based in Philadelphia. Early life Amanda Blank was born in Germantown, Philadelphia, Germantown, a neighb ...

. This tour followed recording for ''

,'' and the

Arular Tour The Arular Tour is a global concert tour by M.I.A. performed in support of her first studio album '' Arular'' (2005). It took place from 2005 to 2006. The tour featured dates across North America, South America, Canada, Europe, Asia and Aust ...

, which ended in February 2006 with performances in Japan. The 2007 ''Kala'' tour was announced by M.I.A. on her official website and Myspace page. The setlist featured songs heard for the first time from her studio album ''

'' (2007), and also included songs from previous album ''

Arular ''Arular'' is the debut studio album by British recording artist M.I.A. It was released on 22 March 2005 in the United States, and one month later in the United Kingdom, with a slightly different track listing. In 2004, the album's release was ...

'' (2005). Dates included concerts at

music festivals A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or ho ...

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

colleges A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

and

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

venues around the world.

Sets

Concerts during the tour often began with

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

Koichi Toyama is a Japanese street musician and a fringe political activist who was a candidate for the governor of Tokyo in the year 2007. He was born in Kagoshima Prefecture and lives in Fukuoka. He gained notoriety with his provocative 2007 Tokyo gubernato ...

on a panoramic screen delivering an

anarchic Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...

speech, ordering the overthrow of a government. The setlist often began with ''Kala's'' opening track "Bamboo Banga." M.I.A. selected programming, beats and

videos Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

during her set using a

Lemur Input Device The Lemur was a highly customizable multi-touch device from French company JazzMutant founded by Yoann Gantch, Pascal Joguet, Guillaume Largillier and Julien Olivier in 2002, which served as a controller for musical devices such as synthesizers ...

on stage, and performed dates with back up singer Cherry, DJs Sinden and Low B, supporting vocalists and backup dancers "The Coconut Twins" ( Kesh and Zezi Ifore). On the back screen, disembodied images and film footage of break-dancing street kids, strippers,

tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

, political rhetoric,

graphs Graph may refer to: Mathematics *Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges **Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties *Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...

globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...

s, laughing women and large concert crowds from her previous shows are played throughout the show. Fans were often invited on stage during the performance of "

Bird Flu "Bird Flu" is an urumee melam-dance song by recording artist M.I.A. on her second studio album '' Kala'' (2007). It was released as a digital download in 2006 through XL Recordings under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US. Cr ...

." M.I.A. has collaborated with CassettePlaya, Ashish and Brian Lichtenberg and as with the

she wore some of her own designs on tour. T-shirts such as the "How Many How Many" Tees from the " Boyz" set were sold as tour merchandise at gigs and via her website. "Kala Tour Tees" from her "Kala Tour/Okley Run" line were released in 2008.

Shows

M.I.A.'s date at the House of Blues in Chicago, US was performed with

Lupe Fiasco Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, ''Lupe Fiasco's ...

and

Emily King Emily King (born July 10, 1985) is an American singer and songwriter. She started her career in 2004 and her first album '' East Side Story'' was released in August 2007. In December 2007, King was listed as a Grammy nominee for Best Contemporar ...

, whilst her dates at the

Arena of Nîmes The Arena of Nîmes is a Roman amphitheatre, situated in the France, French city of Nîmes. Built around 70 Common Era, CE, shortly after the Colosseum of Rome, it is one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world.It is 133 meters lon ...

in France and at the Fox Theater in the US were performed opening for

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

. Her date at the Verizon Wireless Theatre was performed with

Paul Wall Paul Michael Slayton (born March 11, 1981), better known by his stage name Paul Wall, is an American rapper and DJ. He has spent much of his career affiliated with Swishahouse Records, and has released several albums under the label and collabor ...

. Although reports suggested that M.I.A was booked and subsequently cancelled an appearance at the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

in 2007, a statement released by M.I.A.'s agents explained ''"Contrary to printed reports in the Guardian Guide, M.I.A. advised Glastonbury that she was unavailable to perform in late May. We are sorry if fans were led to believe otherwise. M.I.A. looks forward to performing next year.“'' More dates were added to her US tour after September 2007 due to high demand. M.I.A. ended 2007 with a mini-tour of venues across the U.K. She and her label

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 ...

made available a tour diary of her late 2007 UK dates in different parts to view on

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 ...

. Opening acts throughout her tour included The Gray Kid,

Rye Rye Ryeisha Berrain (born November 25, 1990), known by her stage name Rye Rye, is an American rapper, singer, dancer and actress. Signed to N.E.E.T. Recordings, she released her first mixtape RYEot PowRR in 2011 and her anticipated debut album ''Go! P ...

Santigold Santi White (born September 25, 1976), known professionally as Santigold (formerly Santogold), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. '' Billboard'' presented her in 2022, saying: "Spanning punk rock, hip-hop, and dance music, S ...

Holy Fuck Holy Fuck is a Canadian electronica band from Toronto. They were a part of Dependent Music, a music label and artist collective that began in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 2004 until its closing. They were then a part of the Young Turks label and in ...

The Cool Kids The Cool Kids are an American hip hop duo composed of rappers Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish. The Cool Kids' music had been released primarily to the independent Chocolate Industries via their own label C.A.K.E. Recordings. Reed and Inger ...

Soko Soko ( sh-Cyrl, Соко) was a Yugoslav aircraft manufacturer based in Mostar, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company was responsible for the production of many military aircraft for the Yugoslav Air Force. SOKO was created in 1950 by the rel ...

, Radioclit,

Buraka Som Sistema Buraka Som Sistema was an electronic dance music project from Portugal, specializing in a fusion of techno beats with the African zouk and kuduro genre. It is generally credited with creating the "zouk bass" and "progressive kuduro" variant and ...

and Afrikan Boy. Her DJs also often played opening sets before her shows. On her YouTube account, M.I.A. posted a video of her and her tourmates during an encore performance of " Paper Planes" at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, where she named the tour the "KALA Back 2 P.O.W.A. Tour." The KALA tour ended in December 2007, with

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

, the

Beastie Boys Beastie Boys were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Mike D, Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (voca ...

Nick Zinner Nicholas Joseph Zinner (born December 8, 1974) is an American guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a record producer. Zinner is an accomplished photographer. Musical career Before forming the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs with Karen O and ...

and

Brian Chase Brian Chase (born February 12, 1978) is an American drummer and drone musician who plays in the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He was ranked at #50 in Gigwise's list of ''The Greatest Drummers of All Time''. He plays drums with tradition ...

of the

Yeah Yeah Yeahs The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complem ...

and Pavement's

Mark Ibold Mark Alan Ibold (born October 17, 1962) is an American musician. He is best known as the bass guitarist of the indie rock band Pavement (band), Pavement, with whom he recorded four studio albums. Following Pavement's initial break-up in 1999, Ib ...

among attendees. It was followed by M.I.A.'s

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.

Set list

M.I.A. did not follow the same setlist at every show, but played combinations of the following songs. "Galang" and "Paper Planes" were variably chosen as the final song she played for the encore depending on the venue. During the Terminal 5 club performance, part of the

CMJ Music Marathon CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

, she performed mash ups of New Order's " Blue Monday" with " Jimmy", " 10 Dollar" with the

Eurythmics Eurythmics were a British pop duo consisting of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. They were both previously in The Tourists, a band which broke up in 1980. The duo released their first studio album, '' In the Garden'', in 1981 to little succ ...

' "

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British new wave music duo Eurythmics. It is the title track of their album of the same name (1983) and was released as the fourth and final single from the album in early 1983. The song became t ...

", (from the mixtape ''

Piracy Funds Terrorism ''Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1'', usually referred to simply as ''Piracy Funds Terrorism'', is a mixtape produced by British recording artist M.I.A. and American DJ Diplo featuring vocal tracks intended for M.I.A.'s debut album '' Arular ...

'') and " Galang" with

Lil Mama Niatia Jessica Kirkland (born October 4, 1989), better known by her stage name Lil Mama, is an American rapper, singer, actress and television presenter from Brooklyn, New York and Harlem, New York. She experienced top 10 ''Billboard'' placeme ...

's "

Lip Gloss Lip gloss is a cosmetic used primarily to give lips a glossy luster, and sometimes to add a subtle color. It is distributed as a fluid or a soft solid (not to be confused with lip balm, which generally has medical or soothing purposes, or lipst ...

". It was noted that the latter "served as a reminder of how much the mainstream pop/dance/rap landscape has shifted since M.I.A. first appeared in 2004, and how much certain megahits such as Fergie's "

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

" have come to resemble her sound." *" Video Introduction" *"Bamboo Banga" *"World Town" *"XR2" *"Pull Up the People" *"Fire Fire" *" Sunshowers" *"20 Dollar" *"Hussel" *" Jimmy" *"10 Dollar" *"U.R.A.Q.T." *" Bucky Done Gun" *" Birdflu" *" Boyz" Encore: *" Paper Planes" *" Galang"

Tour dates

Notes

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kala Tour 2007 concert tours M.I.A. (rapper) concert tours