M.I.A. has revealed that she used WhatsApp to write a song with Zayn Malik for her upcoming album, AIM. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly from India, M.I.A. said of the track, titled “Freedun:” “We just basically did it while I was here, because I’ve been here for a week-and-a-half. We’ve just been going back and forth on, you know, WhatsApp.”
“We have the same publishers and they wanted me to demo some songs for Zayn,” she explains. “Before I started writing properly my own stuff [for AIM], I was thinking maybe I’ll write for other people instead. I really wanted to write a song for Zayn… We had a couple people in common. And that’s how it came about. I didn’t really approach him for my own record until later on. First, I thought I wanted to try writing a song for him.”
M.I.A. is currently finalizing her much anticipated fifth album, with former beau Diplo already confirmed for the project, alongside Skrillex and producer Blaqstarr. And while her collaboration method with former 1D star Malik may be a little unorthodox, it will ultimately save on the need for a radio edit, with all of the swear words handily autocorrected to ‘ducking’.
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Text Matthew Whitehouse
Image via Instagram