M.I.A. Biography

Birth Name : Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam

Famous as : Singer, producer, songwriter

Birth Date : July 17, 1977

Birth Place : Hounslow, London, England

M.I.A. was born on July 18, 1977by the name Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam. The first eight years of her life in Sri Lanka was a frightening one. There was civil war in the country back then and her contact with her father was strictly limited as he went to the battle field. As the environment became unsafe, she and the rest of the family moved to India with sporadic visits from her father. In 1986, she was moved again, this time around to London as a refugee along with her family. During this period of time, she started learning English and then enrolled to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, with a degree in fine art, film, and video.

Maya was a talented and creative student, eventually winning a place at London's Central Saint Martins Art School, where she studied fine art, film and video. Here, for the first time, she began to piece together some of the different strands of her life experience. In an early incarnation of what was later to become M.I.A., she learnt how to play off her different cultural personae against each other; layering rap iconography with the warfare pictures from her youth, Asian Britain with American new-wave film making style and St. Martin's fashion sense with refugee outlooks.

Her debut album, Arular , is set for release in February 2005. Titled in acknowledgment of her father's past, it follows the same philosophy that unites all strands of the M.I.A. project - cut and paste. The mix of production credits on the album all feature forays into new territory for the collaborators, with ex-Pulp member Steve Mackey doing dancehall and pop-maestro Richard X working with Sri Lankan nursery rhymes; and from her hand-sprayed artwork on the record sleeves, lyrics that mix Tamil, cockney and American slang to her tracksuits and hoodies specially sewn from the brightest, boldest African print fabrics, or Mowgli dance moves for ragga beats - M.I.A. creates culture clashes that work. - Courtesy of XL/Beggars.