Singer M.I.A., whose real name is Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, has said that she faced the “biggest backlash” of her career for stating that “Jesus is real.”
The Paper Planes songstress was raised Hindu and had previously believed Jesus was a “silly story.”
“The fact that the biggest back lash in my career and life I’m facing after saying ‘Jesus is real’ is such a revelation to me. People who control these apps rather me be a bad girl, then a good one,” the British superstar tweeted.
The singer told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she became a “born again Christian” after she saw a “vision of Jesus Christ” that “turned her world upside down.”
“Basically, all of my fans might turn against me because they are all progressives who hate people that believe in Jesus Christ in this country,” she said in the Apple Music interview. “[E]ven if it costs me my career, I won’t lie. I will tell the truth, and I will tell you what’s on my mind and my heart. If I’m coming back now saying ‘Jesus is real,’ there’s a point.”
Speaking to Relevant Magazine in September, M.I.A. said that when it comes to her faith, “I’m still very much even working out what this all means.”
“At the moment, I feel like I have to stick to who I’ve always been, which is to tell the truth. This experience happened. And I have to tell the truth about it,” she said.
“And right now I think the only clear thing I can say is that even when I had no belief in Jesus Christ and Christianity, and even when I was 100 percent comfortable in Hinduism, it was a Christian God that turned up to save me. And I think there is truth in that,” she added.
M.I.A. has long been an outspoken supporter and friend of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.