Unlikely (if perfect) collaborators M.I.A. and Julian Assange have been working together since last spring, when they teamed up for Assange’s TV show The World Tomorrow, for which M.I.A. composed some original music. The WikiLeaks founder returned the favor on Friday night with a surprise appearance at M.I.A’s Terminal 5 show. Kicking off an upcoming tour for her latest album, the singer introduced her “EPIC guest speaker” as a screen showing Assange was lowered. Speaking via Skype from London’s Ecuadorian embassy, Assange does his best Benedict Cumberbatch impression for nearly ten minutes, talking about freedom of the press and the state of modern privacy. While NSA chatter isn’t typical (or necessarily welcome) on a Friday night — least of all at Terminal 5 — M.I.A. fans have probably come to expect diatribes at her shows. See as much of Assange’s speech as you can handle below.
