Where and when: West Holts stage, 10.15pm, Friday.

Dress code: Sartorial overstatement is the order of the day. Think Sun Ra raiding an extremely well-stocked Oxfam.

What happened: For someone whose on-stage antics (MIA is embroiled in a lawsuit with the NFL after giving the camera the middle finger during a Super Bowl half-time show) have overshadowed her recent creative output, you might think gimmickry and showmanship would be the order of the day. And it was.

Emerging dressed head-to-toe in gold, to a bashment version of the Rocky theme (what else), she proceeds to complain about the BBC not showing her set because she has dancers sporting T-shirts supporting Tamil immigrants. The thing is, the Beeb did transmit her set – which is a good job because if it hadn't, viewers would have missed a breathless hour-long journey through reggae, EDM, pop, kuduro and just about everything else in between.

On a stage that looks like someone has taken a random selection of neon signs from the Blade Runner set and nailed them together, MIA gives an ever-growing crowd a hyperactive headline slot.

The only real pause in proceedings comes when the singer takes time to talk about the Tamil campaigners. The interlude gets a muted response, until MIA leads the crowd in a chant of "fuck the BBC".

When Paper Planes drops, it's the first time the BPM has fallen below 130, and ultimately proved that although there's a lot of superficiality, MIA can seamlessly meld pop along with everything else in her arsenal.

High point: Relentless energy in a shiny gold suit.

Low point: The post-protest lull.

In a tweet: Tamil tiger roams a genre jungle.