File:MIA_press_photo_2016.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
M.I.A.
Sign in to saveAlso known as Mathangi Arulpragasam, Maya Arulpragasam
British singer and rapper (born 1975)
OverviewAI-generated
M.I.A. is a female singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer born in Hounslow in 1975. She holds citizenship in Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom and was educated at Central Saint Martins. Her musical work, which began in 2000, spans genres including alternative hip-hop, dance music, world music, and electronica. She has released music through Interscope Records, XL Recordings, Roc Nation, and Polydor.
Her discography includes the track "Paper Planes." M.I.A. has received the Member of the Order of the British Empire award. She has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Grammy Award for Record of the Year, MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year, and MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video. She speaks English and identifies as Christian.
Synthesized by Vinony from 34 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 1
Top works
- Paper Planes
via Open Library + Wikidata
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Female
- Country
- England
- Active from
- 1975
Discography
- Galang2003
- Piracy Funds Terrorism, Volume 12004
- Sunshowers2004
- Arular2005
- Bucky Done Gun2005
- Hombre2005
- Live Session EP (iTunes Exclusive)2005
- Pull Up the People2005
- U.R.A.Q.T2005
- BirdFlu2006
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 3,400,546
- Total plays
- 104,068,645
Tags
There are five known artists under this name: 1. Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam also known as M.I.A., (born 18 July 1975 in Hounslow, London, U.K.) is a British artist of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. As a baby she moved with her family to their native Sri Lanka, where her father became increasingly politically active in militant activities. As the Civil War escalated the rest of the family was forced to flee as refugees, first to India and then the UK. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/M.I.A.">Rea
via Last.fm · M.I.A.
Quotes
- “Who the hell is huntin' you? In the BMWHow the hell they find you? 1 4 7'd youFeds gonna get youPull the strings on the hoodOne Paranoid youBlazing through the Hood.”
- “I bongo with my Lingo,Beat it like a wing yoFrom Congo to Columbo,Can't sterotype my thing yo”
- “Can I get Control?Do you like me Vulnerable?I'm armed and I'm equalMore fun for the people...”
- “I think I'm the edge finder”
- “I'm more of a realist, than a theorist”
- “Kala is about my mum and her struggle–how do you work, feed your children, nurture them and give them the power of information?”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Mathangi Arulpragasam (Tamil: மாதங்கி அருள்பிரகாசம்; born 18 July 1975), known as Maya and professionally as M.I.A. (Tamil: எம்.ஐ.ஏ.; an initialism for both "Missing in action" and "Missing in Acton"), is a British singer, rapper, 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".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “M.I.A.” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.