M.I.A.

Mathangi Arulpragasam MBE's stage name, a wordplay on her name as well as a reference to the abbreviation for 'Missing In Action', M.I.A. is the first artist of Asian descent to be nominated for the Academy and Grammy in the same year. She has 49 award nominations to her credit so far. Her music combines elements of dance, alternative, hip-hop, world music and dance. She is of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her albums reveal her strong political ideologies. Her opinion and comments on the oppression of Sri Lankan Tamils, African Americans and Palestinians has drawn praise as well as criticism. She supports a number of charities and raises funds to help youth come out of violence and poverty in war-torn Africa. 'Time' magazine named her as one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2009.

Maya Arulpragasam designed the cover for 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 & started working with a simple set-up. Her debut album 'Arular', named after her father, was released in 2005. She named her second album after her mother, 'Kala,' which was released in 2007. It featured live instrumentation and traditional dance and folk styles like soca and gaana. Single 'Paper Planes' peaked at No. 1 on the UK R&B chart. In 2012, she released her autobiographical book 'M.I.A.' documenting five years of her musical career. Her fifth studio album 'AIM' was released in 2016. It received mixed reviews from critics, who argued that the album lacked focus. It was her first album not to reach the top 40.