She kept awards-show fashion "rock and roll," was "kinda real," "legendary" and "fierce" on stage and committed no natal errors. Other than not taking home an award, M.I.A. had a great Grammy night.

Rapper—uh, excuse me: artist—M.I.A. is due to give birth to her first kid on Sunday. She's also due to perform on the Grammy's that night. She figures she'll be late, so she's gonna perform.

Being a fan of rapstress M.I.A. is a rollercoaster ride. Her songs are good. You love her. She says dumb things, you hate her. Songs are good again, great. Then she says annoying things again!

Nominees for the 51st Grammy Awards were announced. Big winners: Coldplay (seven nominations), Lil Wayne (eight nominations, white nerds are gonna flip), Jazmine Sullivan (new R&B singers gets five noms) and M.I.A., nominated for record of the year (Idolator: "!!!!!!!!"). For the latter, stock up on cave-aged gruyere for the dressing room and prepare the cameras for an ultra-close-up during any self-undermining comments from the singer about how she has so not sold out the struggle (and performance too plz?). Robbed:

What complex feelings we have towards M.I.A. The Sri Lankan-British rapper (sort of) has said some bone-headed things about missing the days when she used to get shot at and made crazy contract demands, and married a rich guy. So that was annoying! But then there's her music. The music. It's really good. Like the soundtrack in the new Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire. It's kinetic as ever and, unlike when her song "Paper Planes" was featured in Pineapple Express ads, the tales she spins of third-world ghetto kids actually make sense within the context. To the extent that Slumdog feels like it's a different view of the Bombay slums, M.I.A.'s music throughout the film deserves plenty of the credit. "If I was painting a picture of that part of the world, it’s not that I’d make it more glum, but I would try not to involve all the positive stuff from it, like the singing and dancing and easy stuff," she tells the LAT's Pop & Hiss blog. "I think we’re already used to that, and comfortable with that part." Those Pineapple television spots made M.I.A. a star (not unlike Feist's iPod Nano ads), but when the visuals match the aurals, you can get a better sense of her lyrics and beats and crazy sounds and all that good stuff that almost makes us forget about her cave-aged Gruyère needs. Almost.

You knew the engagement of hip-hop artist M.I.A. and musician Benjamin Brewer — son of mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. — would yield plenty of hilarity, but this? Since her 2007 album Kala launched her from rising star into actual pop songstress (we blame Pineapple Express for introducing her to Judd Apatow fans), M.I.A. has been trying to emphasize that she doesn't just sip wine at fancy parties, as when she dissed New York for its lack of gun violence compared to her war-torn childhood in Sri Lanka. Maya, we urge you, just let the music speak for itself. Quotes from a recent Spin interview in this morning's New York Post suggest she should have quit while she was ahead.When it comes to her inner turmoil between her anti-establishment roots and the decadent wealth of her her new in-laws-to-be, M.I.A. explains how exactly she reconciles the two: "I've always had that [bleep]-the-system mentality, and his dad is so 'the system.' But then, they're the most liberal family - they bootlegged alcohol, for God's sake. They're rich because they threw big, illegal parties, so I don't mind." She's referring, of course, to the Bronfman's old old family business, liquor company Seagram. So basically the system is awesome when it's netting her $100,000 to play MTV after parties, but otherwise, she's still an iconoclast. Oy. We love the music, but does she know she's making herself harder to like?

The hip hop star MIA on marrying Ben Brewer, the son of Edgar Bronfman Jr.: "I've always had that f**k-the-system mentality, and his dad is so 'the system.' But then, they're the most liberal family—they bootlegged alcohol, for God's sake. They're rich because they threw big, illegal parties, so I don't mind." [Page Six]

Kickass British-Sri Lankan performer and former refugee M.I.A. doesn't seem like a diva, but her tour rider—recently procured by the Smoking Gun—indicates otherwise. Her "2008 Hospitality Rider" demands a very specific assortment of cheeses, as well as various "ORGANIC" foodstuffs and those gold-foil-wrapped Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Things, we might add, you'd have trouble finding in the middle of a life-affirming war. But, hey, she's pregnant, so we'll chalk it up to weird cravings rather than stocking her backstage with the most yuppie selection of snacks ever.

When musicians hit the road for a tour, they send ahead a rider to a venue so that the promoters will be aware of all the artist's needs. The lengthy Rihanna tour rider leaked to The Smoking Gun details, as to a four-year old, Rihanna's many needs, including a healthy supply of Fanta, cheese doodles, 24 buffalo wings, and hard-boiled eggs at any time of day or night. Click for the extensive details.Nothing will ever top the epic Foo Fighters tour rider from May of this year, but we are somewhat amused by Rihanna's preferences. Hey, when you know what you want, you know what you want. From the list of what should appear in her dressing room:

When you get engaged to the son of a billionaire, it's only to be expected that you'll develop expensive tastes. The Smoking Gun has copy of M.I.A.'s tour rider, which stipulates that the singer be provided with a long list of cheeses, including cave-aged Gruyère. [TSG]

Transplanted UK songstress M.I.A. interviews visual artist Kehinde Wiley in this month's Interview, but as usual she ends up with the more interesting quotes. Despite the fact she lives in Bed-Stuy with her fiancé Ben Brewer, she calls New York a wasteland for young artists, and looks back nostalgically on her time in her native war torn Sri Lanka. Is she about to piss off her considerable fanbase again?The visual artist and musician tells her friend Wiley that, "Manhattan seems pretty developed, you know what I mean? Like it has peaked in culture. The Village Voice called it McHattan. It's just become impossible for young, creative artists to live in New York." Should she finish that sentence with "and afford to buy my concert tickets?" Considering the rising hype from this cultural wasteland is what brought the multi-talented musician and artist to prominence in the first place, her subsequent crack that she detects an overwhelming "feeling of entitlement" from the city's denizens is bound to turn off some of her unemployed, struggling supporters. She recalls attending a recent event at the MoMA:

A few months back, M.I.A, the Brooklyn-by-way-of-London singer who derives her enthusiastically touted cred from her father's former existence as a Tamil Tiger terrorist, was thinking about abandoning our fair shores. Thank goodness she didn't, because we need brave cultural vanguardists like her to remind us that rich people are ruining the creative heart of New York! In an interview with artist Kehinde Wiley, M.I.A.—who also says she misses "being a real human," like when she lived in Sri Lanka "in the middle of a war and I was getting shot at"—bemoans the fact that "it's just become impossible for young, creative artists to live in New York."

♦ Anna Wintour attended the presidential debate last night at Hofstra. In Hempstead. On Long Island. Also: Is it just us, or is her hair getting lighter and lighter? [The Cut]
♦ Next week, five hundred lucky students will attend Teen Vogue's Fashion University, where for three days they'll access the wisdom of Tory Burch, Phillip Lim, Peter Som, Nanette Lepore, Monica Botkier and Cynthia Rowley. [NYDN]
♦ No, the day could not pass without Marc Jacobs being in the news for some reason: He's inked a licensing deal for swimwear, which will launch in spring '09. [WWD]

Harvey Calls in Sick: The beleaguered Harvey Weinstein dropped out of his scheduled keynote interview today at the Dow Jones/Nielsen "Media and Money" conference in New York, reportedly deferring to brother Bob and Weinstein Company COO Lee Solomon while he attended to a "personal matter." On the agenda: "[W]hat is Weinstein's view on the future of the film business and his company?" We hear his proxies stayed positive in the face of Harvey's conspicuous absence, noting that they have a sure-fire Oscar hopeful on their hands for December and that charitable giving is up a million percent from 2007. [DHD]

♦ Not only did Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony renew their vows at 3:15 a.m. in Las Vegas on Sunday, they did it in a joint ceremony with Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran and his wife Jessica. [E!, People]
♦ Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson tell friends they're planning on dressing up as Todd and Sarah Palin for Halloween. [NYDN]
♦ Jay-Z couldn't get any London clubs to pay his $50,000 appearance fee this weekend. [This London Blog via E!]
♦ Is Suri Cruise lonely and sad because has no friends her own age? [P6]

Rumors have been circulating that singer M.I.A. had canceled her summer tour because she's pregnant with fiance Benjamin Brewer's baby. Well, here she is at Saturday night's Diesel concert at Pier 3 in Brooklyn. Congrats superbaby! [BrooklynVegan]

Do you live in one of those "second-tier" cities that seems woefully bereft of despicable and/or overprivileged and whatever the case self-promoting social climbing youngs? Ever find yourself reading, say, a blog…and feeling just a twinge or a pang or whatever of envy for New York's thriving industry of microcelebrity manufacture? [JUST SAY NO.] But Kate Carraway, a writer in Toronto reflecting on that lofty matter of Jessica Roy, actually claims she does. "We have no Julia Allison, the current Wired cover star, and centre of much debate on media celebrity; no Sloane Crossley…" [sic] she laments. Nor do they have a Keith Gessen nor an Emily Gould nor even much, like, blow! "The NY media circus is ordered and replenished by an anxious, aggressive, semi-twisted sense of value, but value nonetheless," she writes, calling for "a collective pursuit of something better and more worthwhile." Well, Kate Carraway, if this is what you deem "better and more worthwhile," allow me to get service-y with you for a minute and and share with you an abridged and hastily-told tale of a group of anxious, semi-twisted twentysomethings who tried to do exactly what you aspire to do in their own "lesser" city.

• After an uncharacteristic bit of good PR, Harvey Weinstein is behaving in comfortingly predictable ways, haranguing his wife and firing people. The creative director of Halston, the label bought by Weinstein a year ago, has been ousted after designing one collection. [WWD]

1) The New York City Ballet's 24th annual "Dance With the Dancers" party was sponsored by Elle and Ferragamo. Fabiola Beracasa, Zani Gugelman, Allison Sarofim, Robbie Myers, Joe Zee, and Olivia Chantecaille wore Roman-inspired outfits, while Tatum O'Neal had everyone wondering what was in her glass. [Elle]

British/Sri Lankan songstress M.I.A, who's made a career out of critiquing American imperialism and namechecking the PLO, is reportedly marrying into the mega-rich, and Jewish, Bronfman family. She's engaged to Ben Brewer, the son of Edgar Bronfman Jr. and his first wife Sherri Brewer, and the guitarist for rock band The Exit. M.I.A.—or Maya Arulpragasam—recently announced that her visa was about to expire and she'd either have to marry an American or move to Canada. She's landed the triple whammy now: Her future father-in-law isn't only a billionaire, he's also the chairman and CEO of Warner Music, which means that a fresh record contract may very well come with the marriage and the Green card. And just think of how much more amusing Passover seder at the Bronfmans will be next year.