M.I.A.

### Occupation

Rapper, singer, songwriter, director, visual artist, activist, record producer, photographer, fashion designer, model

### Family

Arul Pragasam, father
Kala Arulpragasam, mother
Kali Arulpragasam, sister
Sugu Arulpragasam, brother

### Romances

Diplo (2003 - 2008)
Benjamin Bronfman (2008–12)

### Associated Acts

Diplo, Cavemen, Rye Rye, Afrikan Boy, Switch, Blaqstarr, The Partysquad, Zayn Malik

### Website

www.miauk.com

**Mathangi** "**Maya**" **Arulpragasam** (born 18 July 1975), better known by her stage name **M.I.A.**, is an English rapper, director, visual artist, activist, record producer, photographer, fashion designer and model.

"M.I.A." is a play on her own name and a reference to the acronym of Missing in Action.

## Early Life

Arulpragasam was born on 18 July 1975, in Hounslow, West London, to Arul Pragasam, an engineer, writer and activist, and his wife, Kala, a seamstress. When Maya was six months old, her family moved to Jaffna, the cultural, political, and economic capital of the predominantly Tamil northern Sri Lanka, where her brother Sugu 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 eleven years of Arulpragasam's life were marked by displacement caused by the Sri Lankan Civil War. Her family went into hiding from the Sri Lankan army, and Arulpragasam 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. Maya attended Catholic convent schools such as the Holy Family Convent, Jaffna where she developed her art skills – painting in particular – to work her way up her class. During the civil war, soldiers would put guns through holes in the windows and shoot at the school, what she notes as "bullying exploitation." Her classmates were trained to dive under the table or run next door to English-language schools that, according to her, "wouldn’t get shot." Arulpragasam lived on a road alongside much of her extended family and played inside temples and churches in the town.

Due to safety concerns, Arulpragasam's mother, Kala, relocated herself and her children to Madras in Tamil Nadu, India, where they lived in a derelict house and received sporadic visits from their father, Arular, who was introduced to the children as their "uncle" in order to protect them. The family minus Arular then resettled in Jaffna temporarily, only to see the war escalate further in the northeast. During this time 9-year-old Arulpragasam's primary school was destroyed in a government raid. Kala then moved with her children back to London in 1986 a week before Arulpragasam's eleventh birthday where they were housed as refugees. Arular remained on the island and became an independent peace mediator between the two sides of the civil war in the late 1980s–2010. Arulpragasam spent the rest of her childhood and teenage years living on the Phipps Bridge Estate in the Mitcham district of southwest London, where she learned to speak English, whilst Kala brought the children up on a modest income. Arulpragasam entered the final year of primary school in the autumn of 1986 and quickly mastered the English language. Despite being the only Sri Lankan family in the area, the family were made welcome and faced no racial abuse during their time on the estate.

While living in the United Kingdom and raising her children, her mother became a practising Christian in 1990 and worked as a commissioned seamstress for the Royal Family for much of her career. She worked from her home in Tooting, which is at the south of London. Arulpragasam has had a difficult relationship with her father, due to his political activities in the 1980s and complete absence during much of her life. Prior to the release of the first album, which Arulpragasam had named after her father, Arular emailed her: "This is Dad. Change the title of your album. I'm really proud. Just read about you in the *Sri Lanka Times*. Dad." Maya chose not to change the album title. Arulpragasam attended the Ricards Lodge High School in Wimbledon. After leaving school, she completed a degree in fine art, film, and video in June 2000 from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Her initial application to the school was rejected, but she was finally admitted and received a scholarship, being told that she "had chutzpah".

## Musical Career

### 2015 - present

On 13 July 2015, M.I.A. released a five-minute video titled "Matahdatah Scroll 01 Broader Than a Border" which features two of her tracks: *Matangi'*s "Warrior" and a new track "Swords".The music is sampled from Yo Yo Honey Singh's "Manali Trance".The video was filmed in India and West Africa and shows different forms of dancing in those regions. On 27 November 2015, M.I.A. released "Borders" as her new single on iTunes, prior to that her new single was announced via her Instagram account. The track mocks first world problems and touches on some serious issues happening in the world. She introduced a music video with it which was also socially and politically motivated. In January 2016, the French football club Paris Saint-Germain sued M.I.A. for wearing a modified version of their club's T-shirt in her "Borders" video and changing the words "Fly Emirates" to "Fly Pirates" on it.

In late February 2016, she released "Boom ADD", an expanded version of the "Boom Skit", which appeared on M.I.A.'s fourth studio album *Matangi*; it is a diss-track to the NFL's lawsuit of her performance at the 2012 Superbowl. On June 1, 2016, she released "Poc That Still a Ryda", a lyrical mix of songs on her upcoming album. On 12 July, 2016, she announced the title of her upcoming fifth studio album was *AIM*, and on July 15, 2016, she released "Go Off" as the first single. The song was produced by Skrillex and Blaqstarr. She released a single named "Freedun", which included the collaboration of Zayn Malik, on September 2, 2016. Her album, *AIM*, was released on September 9, 2016.

## Discography

* *Arular* (2005)
* *Kala* (2007)
* *Maya* (2010)
* *Matangi* (2013)
* *AIM* (2016)

## Tours

* *Arular Tour* (2005)
* *Kala Tour* (2007)
* *People vs. Money Tour* (2008)
* *Maya Tour* (2010)
* *Matangi Tour* (2013-2014)

## External Links

* @MIAuniverse — Official Twitter
* @miamathangi — Official Instagram
* MIA — Official Facebook
* Official Tumblr
* Official Spotify
* Official Youtube