M.I.A. (rapper)

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

M.I.A. was born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam on 18 July 1975 in Hounslow, London. When she was six months old, her family moved to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, where her brother was born. Her father adopted the name Arular and became a political activist and founding member of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS). The first 11 years of her 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. She attended Catholic convent schools such as the Holy Family Convent, Jaffna, where she developed her art skills. Due to safety concerns, her mother moved with the children to Madras, India, where they lived in a derelict house. The family resettled in Jaffna temporarily, only to see the war escalate further. When M.I.A. was nine, her primary school was destroyed in a government raid. A week before her 11th birthday in 1986, she returned with her mother and siblings to London, where they were housed as refugees. She spent the rest of her childhood and teenage years living on the Phipps Bridge Estate in Mitcham, south London, where she learned to speak English. Her mother became a Christian in 1990 and worked as a seamstress for the Royal Family. M.I.A. attended Ricards Lodge High School in Wimbledon, then Central Saint Martins, graduating with a degree in fine art, film and video in 2000.

Reader's Guide

M.I.A. is significant for being one of the first artists to gain public attention through the Internet and for her fusion of hip hop, electronic, and world music. Her first two albums, Arular (2005) and Kala (2007), received widespread critical acclaim. Kala'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. Her third album, Maya (2010), debuted within the top ten of album charts in the US, Finland, Norway, Greece and Canada. Her fourth 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. She released her sixth studio album Mata (2022) two years later, which spawned the single "The One". M.I.A.'s accolades include two 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. Rolling Stone named her one of the defining artists of the 2000s decade, and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people of 2009. Esquire ranked M.I.A. on its list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century. Billboard named her one of the "Top 50 Dance/Electronic Artists of the 2010s". She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for her services to music.

Did You Know?

• M.I.A.'s stage name stands for both 'Missing in action' and 'Missing in Acton'—she was living in Acton while looking for her cousin missing in action in Sri Lanka.
• Her first name, Mathangi, is derived from the Hindu goddess Matangi.
• She was one of only two Asian families on the Phipps Bridge Estate in Mitcham, in an atmosphere she described as 'incredibly racist.'
• Her mother worked as a seamstress for the Royal Family for much of her career.
• M.I.A. gained admission to Central Saint Martins by calling the head of the art department every single day, despite not having formally applied.