Plug pulled during stage invasion at MIA’s headline Lovebox show

Technical hitches leave singer furious but she returns for encore last night (July 19) in London's Victoria Park

MIA‘s climatic stage invasion at last night’s (July 19) Lovebox festival was cut short, with the artist expressing frustration throughout the gig in London’s Victoria Park.

Prior to ‘Double Bubble Trouble’, the Sri Lankan singer invited the front rows of the crowd to join her on the stage. Moments after reprimanding a couple of fans for getting in her way whilst trying to perform, the sound across the field cut out, and the video screens went black. As the crowd started booing, the song was cut short, MIA disappeared and the stage invaders were hurriedly ushered away.

However, after a brief pause, MIA returned for a rapturously received encore of ‘Paper Planes’ and ‘Bad Boys.’ Despite the crowd’s enthusiastic response, as she left the stage she threw her mic over the back of her head aggressively as her general frustration with the show’s hiccups bubbled over.

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Throughout the performance, the singer complained that should couldn’t hear her own beats, and repeatedly gestured to and approached the side of stage asking for the technical problems to be rectified.

MIA arrived on stage for her headline slot just after 9.30pm, accompanied by T-shirt-clad performers brandishing glowsticks, which were thrown into the crowd and lit up mid-way through opening track ‘Bucky Done Gun’. Her set comprised of a mix of material from her four albums and was peppered with instrumental breakdowns and samples, including Kanye West’s ‘Jesus Walks’, and also included hits like ‘XR2’, from her second album ‘Kala’, and ‘YALA’, which saw her leap down from the barriers into the crowd.

Prior to her show, Nas performed his legendary 1994 album ‘Illmatic’ in full, to a huge crowd who appeared to know every word. After rapping a faithful run through of the album with the Michael Jackson sampling ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell,’ he dug into his back catalogue for a handful of other classic cuts, including ‘Made You Look’ and ‘Hate Me Now.’

Earlier in the day there were performances from the likes of The Horrors, Mount Kimbie and Banks.

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