M.I.A.

Also 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

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 3,400,546
Total plays: 104,068,645

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: female
Citizenship: United Kingdom
Place of birth: Hounslow
Occupation: actor
Position held: Member of the Order of the British Empire
Languages spoken: English language
Religion: Christianity
Award: Member of the Order of the British Empire
Genre: pop rap
Instrument: voice
Record label: Virgin EMI Records
Discography: M.I.A. discography
Image: MIA press photo 2016.png

Show 13 more facts

Commons category: M.I.A.
topic's main category: Category:M.I.A. (rapper)
date of birth: 1975-07-18
Commons gallery: M.I.A.
nominated for: Academy Award for Best Original Song
start of work period: 2000-00-00
pseudonym: M.I.A.
medical condition: dyslexia
topic has template: Template:M.I.A.
social media followers: 709077
birth name: Mathangi Arulpragasam
unmarried partner: Diplo
name in native language: மாதங்கி 'மாயா' அருள்பிரகாசம்

Sources (8)

via Wikidata · CC0

~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.