What M.I.A. Wants To Wear On Her Wedding Day

By: Devon Thomas
Topics: Music ,; News

M.I.A. (Miguel Reveriego/GQ)

NEW YORK (CBS) Lots of future brides dream of getting married in white gowns, but white suits?

"I've always wanted to get married in a white suit" proclaims "Paper Planes" singer M.I.A., who shares this and other wishes in the July 2010 issue of GQ magazine.

The star is promoting her weirdly titled new album "/\/\/\Y/\" based on her given name Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam.

She's a 34-year-old rock mama who relocated to the City of Angels by-way-of Brooklyn's Bed Stuy neighborhood to raise her toddler son.

The singer's colorful stories are about as varied as those of any post-adolescent army brat. The memory of a childhood in a war-torn Sri Lanka still resonates for the singer, who does her best to compartmentalize the many experiences she has, from "refugee" turned London art-school anti-geek to genre-pushing alternative pop star. It's summed up in her lyrics: "I got brown skin but I'm a West Londoner / Educated but I'm still a refugee."

Staying street-smart in constantly changing surroundings did take its toll for the star, especially without her dad around. "England gave me a free education," she says, "but my grades suffered because I didn't have my dad to help me. I've paid the price. I've had the cause and effect, all that. I feel like I don't have anything to do with my dad."

Still, M.I.A. paints herself as a medium stuck between "the Third World and the First World" juggling that duality in her life and art. She's ready to venture to somewhere that even this far-out maven of the cool and obscure hasn't yet vistited: "I'm ready to go to Ohio," she says to GQ, sort of kidding. "I would love to move next door to Dave Chappelle. That's my dream. If I stick around America, that's what I'm doing."

The full article is available at GQ magazine.