M.I.A. Wins Best Female Hip-Hop Artist At The 2009 BET Awards

New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Interscope Records) - The BET Network crowned M.I.A. the Best Female Hip-Hop Artist at their annual awards show held Sunday at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. Recognizing the biggest icons in the music industry, the event also recognized Lil Wayne as her counterpart Best Male Hip-Hop Artist and dedicated much of the program to honoring Michael Jackson ("MICHAEL JACKSON the first 2 english words i eva spoke. the future sucx" - M.I.A. shared on Twitter upon hearing of his death).

Nominated for an Academy Award, two Grammy's, a Brit Award, an NME Award, an Ivor Novella Award, a MTV Award, an Independent Music Award and another BET Award (as Best New Artist) in 2009 alone, so far M.I.A. has walked with a Vogue "Best Dressed" Award and a Golden Pacifier Award from Babytalk Magazine ("for showing the world that pregnant woman rock").

Yeah, so the oft-recognized Sri Lankan rapper, producer, label-owner, artist, fashion designer, activist twittered "DID I WIN? 4 REEEEEEEELA" after being told (via a twitter) she had won. At the time M.I.A. was in the studio working on upcoming tracks from Rye Rye - the acclaimed Baltimore rapper who is the first artist M.I.A. is releasing on her label, N.E.E.T. - as well as moving on brand new M.I.A. material!

Tireless, M.I.A. has two festivals to headline, right around the corner: The San Diego Street Scene Saturday, August 29th, 10:30 pm., 5th Avenue & K Street in the Gaslamp Quarter and San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival Sunday, August 30th, Golden Gate Park, set time TBD. So expect, well, the unexpected - come on, it's M.I.A.

For encore telecasts of the BET AWARDS '09:

* Thursday, July 2 from 8:00-11:30 p.m.*
* Monday, July 6 from 8:00-11:30 p.m.*

BET Networks is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 98 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa.

www.miauk.com