Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam

M.I.A is a British songwriter, director, painter and recording artist. Mathangi ‘ Maya Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ Arulpragasam, her birth name, was born on 18th July 1975 in Hounslow, London. Her father is Arul Pragasam, an engineer, activist and writer and her mother, Kala, is a seamstress. She has a brother named Sugu. When she was six months old, they moved to Jaffna, Tamil northern Sri Lanka; it was the cultural, political and economic capital. There her father took part in the ongoing conflicts and was also the founding member of EROS (Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students), a political Tamil group which is connected to LTTE. Her childhood went through the Sri Lankan Civil War. She has both the memories, happy and the struggling time, of her stay of first 11 years in Jaffna. She did her schooling from Holy Family Convent, Jaffna. In school, her liking turned to art skills as painting. For the safety reasons, her mother took both the children to Madras, Tamil Nadu and later in 1986 shifted to the United Kingdom; here her father became an independent peace mediator of the civil war (1980-2010). She went to Ricards Lodge High School in Wimbledon. She took a degree in fine art, video and film from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London in 2000. In 2000, during her college years John Singleton John Singleton, also known as John Daniel Singleto >> Read More... , the director, approached her to work on a film in Los Angeles. She declined the offer and worked on her departmental honors thesis on the movie CB4 for her degree. In 1999, at an Air concert, she met Justine Frischmann, front woman of the British brand Elastica. Frischmann gave her the contract for the creation of cover art of the band's album, The Menace.

In 2001, she returned Jaffna to make a documentary on the Tamil youths; but unfortunately, she was not able to complete the project as she faced harassment. The first painting exhibition of Arulpragasam took place in 2001 after her graduation at Euphoria Shop on London's Portobello Road. The exhibition included graffiti art and spray paint canvasses; the art was a compilation of Tamil political street art and images of London life and culture. In 2002, the monograph book of the paintings was published; it was named M.I.A. The show also received a nomination for Alternative Turner Prize. Among the early buyer of her art was Jude Law Besides bagging nominations for two Screen Actors >> Read More... , the actor. In 2001, she designed the last cover of Elastica's single 'The Bitch Don't Work' and also video documented the tour of the band. During this tour she was introduced to Roland MC-505 by the electroclash artist Peaches; by this meeting, she was encouraged to make music. During this time she took her stage name, M.I.A (Missing in Action). She chose this name after her brother who was missing in the ongoing action in Sri Lanka. Her first album was named Arular, it released in 2005 and was acclaimed by the mass; she kept the name in her father's name. Her next single, 'Sunshower' released on 5th July 2004; its other side showed guerrilla warfare and asylum seeking. M I A first featured on the cover of the ‘The Fader’ in September 2004; it was its 24th issue. MIA made her debut in North America in Toronto in the year 2005. Later, the singles 'Galang', 'Sunshowers', 'Hombre' and the 'Bucky Done Gun' which was inspired by funk-carioca, were released as singles from the album Arular.

The single 'Bucky Done Gun' became the first funk-carioca inspired song to air on radio and music TV in Brazil. For Arular, she was shortlisted for Mercury Music Award. In 2005, Arular became the seventh most reviewed album of the year. It was also the second most albums in music critics which featured. MIA's second studio album came in 2006, which she named on her mother, ‘Kala’. The album recorded in India, Jamaica, Australia, Japan, and Trinidad and finished in the US. Kala was a compilation of live instrumentations and shades of traditional dance and folk styles as the rumen drum of galena, soca, rave music and Tamil film music's bootleg tracks. The first song from the album which became public in February 2007 was 'Bird Flu'. Her single ' Paper Planes Click to look into! >> Read More... ' created a lot of buzzes. In the digital era, it became the 29th most downloaded song and also earned the Grammy nomination for Record of the year. At present, it is seventh best-selling single by the British artist. This song received the rating of 87 out of 100 in Metacritic. Kala popularity made her do tours in America, Europe and Asia. The publications 'Rolling Stone' and 'Blender' named Kala the best album of the year 2007. In 2008, she collaborated with the director Spike Jonze to film a documentary in Woolwich, South London. In mid-2008, she took a break from music performances to concentrate on her other art projects and making films.

In 2009, she was nominated for Best British Female Artist at BRIT Awards. The same year she collaborated with the bands like Blaqstarr, Sleigh Bells and Jaime Martinez. She also started recording her third studio album in Los Angeles. In 2012, she co-wrote a song with Madonna and Nicki Minaj Nicki Minaj took birth as Onika Tanya Maraj on Dec >> Read More... ; the song was titled ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ and the album was MDNA, it was performed at Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show. She was also part of ‘B-day Song’ from the album MDNA. M.I.A is an avid philanthropist; she has helped monetarily many organizations. She provided help to the Youth Action International to take out the African communities from the pit of violence and poverty. She has funded the Pablove Foundation to help the cancer patients and families. For the Tamil victims of war crimes, she made a donation from the Roskilde Festival Charity. M.I.A was involved with American DJ Diplo for five years. After that in 2008, she got engaged with Benjamin Bronfman, an environmentalist, musician. The couple has a child, named, Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman. They got separated in February 2012.

Another version of this bio...

M.I.A is a British songwriter, director, painter and recording artist. Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam, her birth name, was born on 18th July 1975 in Hounslow, London. Her father is Arul Pragasam, an engineer, activist and writer and her mother, Kala, is a seamstress. She has a brother named Sugu. When she was six months old, they moved to Jaffna, Tamil northern Sri Lanka; it was the cultural, political and economic capital. There her father took part in the ongoing conflicts and was also the founding member of EROS (Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students), a political Tamil group which is connected to LTTE. Her childhood went through the Sri Lankan Civil War. She has both the memories, happy and the struggling time, of her stay of first 11 years in Jaffna. She did her schooling from Holy Family Convent, Jaffna. In school, her liking turned to art skills as painting. For the safety reasons, her mother took both the children to Madras, Tamil Nadu and later in 1986 shifted to the United Kingdom; here her father became an independent peace mediator of the civil war (1980-2010). She went to Ricards Lodge High School in Wimbledon. She took a degree in fine art, video and film from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London in 2000.

In 2000, during her college years John Singleton, the director, approached her to work on a film in Los Angeles. She declined the offer and worked on her departmental honors thesis on the movie CB4 for her degree. In 1999, at an Air concert, she met Justine Frischmann, front woman of the British brand Elastica. Frischmann gave her the contract for the creation of cover art of the band's album, The Menace. In 2001, she returned Jaffna to make a documentary on the Tamil youths; but unfortunately, she was not able to complete the project as she faced harassment. 
The first painting exhibition of Arulpragasam took place in 2001 after her graduation at Euphoria Shop on London's Portobello Road. The exhibition included graffiti art and spray paint canvasses; the art was a compilation of Tamil political street art and images of London life and culture. In 2002, the monograph book of the paintings was published; it was named M.I.A. The show also received nomination for Alternative Turner Prize. Among the early buyer of her art was Jude Law, the actor. 
In 2001, she designed the last cover of Elastica's single 'The Bitch Don't Work' and also video documented the tour of the band. During this tour she was introduced to Roland MC-505 by the electroclash artist Peaches; by this meeting, she was encouraged to make music. During this time she took her stage name, M.I.A (Missing in Action). She chose this name after her brother who was missing in the ongoing action in Sri Lanka. Her first album was named Arular, it released in 2005 and was acclaimed by the mass; she kept the name on her father's name. Her next single, 'Sunshower' released on 5th July 2004; its other side showed guerrilla warfare and asylum seeking. M I A first featured on the cover of the ‘The Fader’ in September 2004; it was its 24th issue. 
MIA made her debut in North America in Toronto in the year 2005. Later, the singles 'Galang', 'Sunshowers', 'Hombre' and the 'Bucky Done Gun' which was inspired by funk-carioca, were released as singles from the album Arular. The single 'Bucky Done Gun' became the first funk-carioca inspired song to air on radio and music TV in Brazil. For Arular, she was shortlisted for Mercury Music Award. In 2005, Arular became the seventh most reviewed album of the year. It was also the second most albums in music critics which featured. 
MIA's second studio album came in 2006, which she named on her mother, ‘Kala’. The album recorded in India, Jamaica, Australia, Japan, and Trinidad and finished in the US. Kala was a compilation of live instrumentation and shades of traditional dance and folk styles as the rumen drum of galena, soca, rave music and Tamil film music's bootleg tracks. The first song from the album which became public in February 2007 was 'Bird Flu'. Her single 'Paper Planes' created a lot of buzzes. In the digital era, it became the 29th most downloaded song and also earned the Grammy nomination for Record of the year. At present, it is seventh best-selling single by the British artist. This song received the rating of 87 out of 100 in Metacritic. Kala popularity made her do tours in America, Europe and Asia. The publications 'Rolling Stone' and 'Blender' named Kala the best album of the year 2007. 

In 2008, she collaborated with the director Spike Jonze to film a documentary in Woolwich, South London. In mid-2008, she took a break from music performances to concentrate on her other art projects and making films. 
In 2009, she was nominated for Best British Female Artist at BRIT Awards. The same year she collaborated with the bands like Blaqstarr, Sleigh Bells and Jaime Martinez. She also started recording her third studio album in Los Angeles. In 2012, she co-wrote a song with Madonna and Nicki Minaj; the song was titled ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ and the album was MDNA, it was performed at Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show. She was also part of ‘B-day Song’ from the album MDNA.
M.I.A is an avid philanthropist; she has helped monetarily many organizations. She provided help to the Youth Action International to take out the African communities from the pit of violence and poverty. She has funded the Pablove Foundation to help the cancer patients and families. For the Tamil victims of war crimes, she made a donation from the Roskilde Festival Charity. 
M.I.A was involved with American DJ Diplo for five years. After that in 2008, she got engaged with Benjamin Bronfman, an environmentalist, musician. The couple has a child, named, Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman. They got separated in February 2012.