Background and career
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (Tamil: மாதங்கி அருள்பிரகாசம்; born 18 July 1975), known professionally as M.I.A. (Tamil: எம்.ஐ.ஏ.; an initialism for both "Missing in action" and "Missing in Acton"), is a British rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. Her music combines elements of alternative, dance, electronic, hip hop and world music with electronic instruments and samples. Born in London to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, M.I.A. and her family moved to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka when she was six months old. As a child, she experienced displacement caused by the Sri Lankan Civil War, which made the family return to London as refugees when M.I.A. was 11 years old; the war had a defining influence on M.I.A.'s artistry. She started as a visual artist, filmmaker and designer in 2000, and began her recording career in 2002. One of the first acts to come to public attention through the Internet, she saw early fame as an underground artist in early 2004 with her singles "Sunshowers" and "Galang".
M.I.A.'s first two albums, Arular (2005) and Kala (2007), received widespread critical acclaim for their fusion of hip hop, electronic, and world music influences. The latter's single "Paper Planes" (co-produced by at-the-time partner Diplo) peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. Her third album, Maya (2010), was preceded by the single "Born Free" and an accompanying controversial music video/short film. Maya debuted within the top ten of the album charts in the United States, Finland, Norway, Greece and Canada. Her fourth studio album, Matangi (2013), spawned the single "Bad Girls", which won accolades at the MTV Video Music Awards. Her fifth album, AIM (2016), was met with a critical and commercial decline. She guest performed alongside Young Thug on Travis Scott's 2020 single "Franchise", which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, and released her sixth studio album Mata (2022) two years later, which spawned the single "The One".
M.I.A.'s accolades include two American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awards and two MTV Video Music Awards. She is the first person of South Asian descent to be nominated for an Academy Award and Grammy Award in the same year. She was named one of the defining artists of the 2000s decade by Rolling Stone, and one of the 100 most influential people of 2009 by Time. Esquire ranked M.I.A. on its list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century. According to Billboard, she was one of the "Top 50 Dance/Electronic Artists of the 2010s". M.I.A. was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for her services to music.
1975–1999: Early life M.I.A. was born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam on 18 July 1975, in Hounslow, London. She is the daughter of Arul Pragasam, a Sri Lankan Tamil engineer, writer and activist, and his wife, Kala, a seamstress. M.I.A.'s first name is derived from the Hindu goddess, Matangi. When M.I.A. was six months old, her family moved to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, where her brother was born. There, her father adopted the name Arular and became a political activist and founding member of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), a political Tamil group affiliated with the LTTE. The first 11 years of M.I.A.'s life were marked by displacement caused by the Sri Lankan Civil War. Her family went into hiding from the Sri Lankan Army, and she had little contact with her father during this period. She has described her family as living in "big-time" poverty during her childhood but also recalls some of her happiest memories from growing up in Jaffna.
How M.I.A. makes money
Her third album, Maya (2010), was preceded by the single "Born Free" and an accompanying controversial music video/short film. She guest performed alongside Young Thug on Travis Scott's 2020 single "Franchise", which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, and released her sixth studio album Mata (2022) two years later, which spawned the single "The One".
