MIA upsets Winehouse fans with ‘27’ tribute song

Rapper MIA wasted no time in releasing a musical tribute to Amy Winehouse following the death of the drug-addicted singer at her home in Camden. Within 24 hours of the news breaking, she had released an unfinished demo track.

MIA posted the song on her Twitter feed, explaining that she had actually recorded it last year - long before Winehouse's death. She added: "R.I.P. A.M.Y."

The song is a nod to the so-called '27 Club', the pantheon of rock legends who died at that age, and tells the story of a 27-year-old who dies after becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol.

While some lyrics are relevant to Amy Winehouse ('You blew that money on a mountain of drugs'), others are not and might even be labelled by some people as insensitive in a song touted as a tribute to the pop singer ('You befriended a rope and I found you both were hanging').

MIA - real name Maya Arulpragasam - is no stranger to controversy. Last year, she depicted a genocide of ginger-haired people in a music video to draw attention to the plight of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, of which she herself is a member. The video was temporarily banned from YouTube after the company received complaints.

Now it looks like she may have upset some fans of Winehouse.

Some on Twitter have accused her of exploiting Winehouse's death. While a commenter on the Huffington Post's report of MIA's new song wrote: "Poor Amy. At least she won't ever have to hear or know about the vultures swooping in and 'creating' memorial 'songs' in her name." While another called it "sleazy and opportunistic". ·