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M.I.A.

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam - better known by her stage name, M.I.A. - had quite the childhood. Born in London in 1977, she spent her formative living in Sri Lanka, a war torn island nation off the coast of southern India. Due to her father’s position as a rebel leader with the Tamil militancy (a rebel group opposing the majority Sinhalese ethnic group), her family was forced to move around the island often, shifting from safe house to safe house. Eventually the conditions in Sri Lanka became too dangerous, forcing Maya and her family to relocate back to England where they received government housing in London as political refugees. A naturally talented artist, Maya excelled at school, graduating from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with a degree in film.

She found work as an artist and graphic designer after leaving college, garnering some critical acclaim as early as 2001 when she began to host public exhibitions of her work, mostly paintings. Her style - characterized by its juxtaposition of violent imagery with bright neon colors - made waves in the London art scene, developing a wide local fan base. She made ends meet as a painter before branching out into music around 2002, when she began messing around with a drum machine and an aging four-track tape recorder in her room. She produced her first recording in 2003 (an early version of her hit single "Galang"), which began to receive heavy rotation in local clubs and on college radio stations, eventually reaching an even larger audience when it became a hot commodity on internet file sharing networks.

The runaway popularity of M.I.A.’s early work - similar to the media frenzy surrounding the Arctic Monkeys’ rise to fame - caught the attention of executives at XL Recordings (Basement Jaxx, Sigur Ros), an influential UK independent label. XL signed M.I.A. to their roster in 2004, releasing her debut album Arular in early 2005. Recorded mostly in her bedroom, Arular received massive praise for its unique sound, combining elements of hip-hop and dancehall with sparse electro backbeats, stripped synthesizers, socially conscious lyrics, and a variety of tribal percussion. The success of Arular put M.I.A. on the fast track to international superstardom, securing her performances alongside the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Gwen Stefani throughout 2006. Arular spawned a total of three singles: "Bucky Done Gun", "Sunshowers", and a re-recording of "Galang".