M.I.A.

M.I.A. was in a relationship with American DJ Diplo for five years. Later, she got engaged with Benjamin Bronfman, an environmentalist, and on February 13, 2009, she gave birth to their son, Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman. In February 2012, she and Bronfman separated.

She attributes her success to the "homelessness and rootlessness" in her early life. She uses social networking sites like Twitter and MySpace to highlight the human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. She feels responsible to represent the Tamil minority. She was accused of being a "terrorist sympathizer" and "LTTE supporter". She and her son have also received death threats.

Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam was born on July 18, 1975, in Hounslow, West London, to Arul Pragasam, an engineer, writer and activist, and Kala, a seamstress. She has a brother Sugu.

When she was six months old, her family shifted to Jaffna in Sri Lanka, where her father became a political activist and founded Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), affiliated with LTTE.

During her early years, she shifted from one place to another due to the Sri Lankan Civil War, as her family went into hiding from the Sri Lankan army. They did not have any contact with her father during this time.

M.I.A. attended the convent school Holy Family Convent in Jaffna, where she developed her skills in painting. When the civil war was at its peak, her mother shifted to Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India, with the children. In 1986, when the civil war escalated further, her mother moved to London with the children, where they were given shelter as refugees.

The radio broadcasts she heard at her neighbors’ places in the 1980s were her first exposures to hip-hop music due to which she developed an interest in hip-hop and dancehall. In college she developed a natural liking for punk, and Malcolm McLaren, The Slits, and The Clash influenced her.

When Maya Arulpragasam was a student, she received a film proposal, which she rejected. In 2001, she started making a documentary film on Tamil youth in Jaffna, but could not complete it, as she was faced harassment. The same year, she designed the cover for the band Elastica's single ‘The Bitch Don't Work’.

Her first painting exhibition took place in London in 2001, which depicted Tamil political street art, and London life.

In 2001, she went on a tour with the Elastica band, where she met musician Peaches, who encouraged her to get into music. She began experimenting with Roland MC-505, and adopted her stage name, ‘M.I.A.’ (Missing in Action).

She started working with a simple set-up consisting a second-hand 4-track tape machine, Roland MC-505, and a radio microphone, and composed and recorded a six-song demo tape that included ‘M.I.A.’, ‘Lady Killa’, and ‘Galang’.

The British label XL Recordings signed her and released ‘Galang’ in 2004, which reached No. 11 on the US dance charts. Another single ‘Sunshowers’ was also released the same year.

M.I.A’s debut album ‘Arular’ reached No. 3 on the US Top Dance/Electronic Albums. It was the seventh best-reviewed album of 2005, and the 9th best-reviewed electronic/dance album on Metacritic of the 2000–09 decade.

Her album ‘Kala’ reached No. 18 on the Billboard 200 and was named one of the best albums of the year 2007. It was nominated for the 2007 Shortlist Music Prize and included in the book ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.’