A war child with a displaced childhood, avant-garde visual artist, film maker, album designer, painter, rapper, Internet music star, political activist and charismatic stage performer; MIA has transformed her creative vision to a global phenomenal. Her musical career happened as an accident yet her visual arts influence

M.I.A – The Asian Hip Hop Gal!

“The Third World deserves freedom of speech just like everyone else. We want to fight the battle to say what we want, whether to be serious or just make fun of ourselves.” – M.I.A

From Hell and Back

A war child with a displaced childhood, avant-garde visual artist, film maker, album designer, painter, rapper, Internet music star, political activist and charismatic stage performer; MIA has transformed her creative vision to a global phenomenal. Her musical career happened as an accident yet her visual arts influence and politically conscious lyrics have MIA worldwide acclaim.  Her second album broke into the Top 20 at the US charts and the single “Paper Planes” became No.1 on the US dance charts.

Commercial success aside, her genre bending natural style uses urban sounds, jungle, rap and hip-hop. MIA’s originality and her Internet driven underground marketing has changed the way music is distributed in the future. MIA’s electrifying stage performances and funky outrageous outfits with her visual arts as background has created a worldwide storm. Her collaboration with legendary Indian composer for the soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire got her an Oscar nomination.

The War Child

MIA real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, was born in the UK but the family relocated to Sri Lanka her native country as her father wanted to be a part of the Tamil independence in Sri Lanka. A very difficult childhood saw MIA and her family live in war torn Sri Lanka, Chennai in India and as refugees in England. She did not learn how to speak in English until the 80s and somehow managed to put her self through a London Art college. She graduated with a degree in fine arts, film and video.

The Alternative Artist

Combining colorful Tamil street art, war pictures and urban London life, her paintings started to find an eclectic audience. Her exhibitions on the famed Portobello Road  in 2001 featured alternative graffiti and visual chaos.

She connected with Justine Frischmann of the punk-rock band Elastica who commissioned MIA to design the cover image for their second album The Menace in 2000. MIA also went to direct the video “Mad Dog God Dam". Elastica invited MIA to tour in the US to film a documentary of their US tour. As legend would have it, MIA got a drum machine from one of the support acts of the tour to try and work our drum beats.

Underground Revolution

MIA started recording her music on the drum machine and created a six song demo tape. One of the songs “Galang” gained a lot of public interest. The song style mixed various genres such urban free style, jungle, electro and world music. In 2003, the song started to be widely downloaded. MIA citing the opportunity also presented herself along various social networking sites and college radio. Even before she had an actual record label or performed the song on stage she was already an underground sensation.  

The video for “Galang” truly defines MIA’s artistic vision. Her own art of tanks, explosions tigers wee animated with various colored lights strewn across. A truly original style which could be inspired as much from the Jamaican Rastafarian to Asian underground in the UK. She signed her first record deal with XL Records

Her first album was released in Feb 2005, after several delays. She toured America to promote the album and lyrically it is considered a diverse amalgamation of war, protest, poverty and revolution. Her unique multi-language slangs were creating its own counter culture. The critical acclaim was unanimous. Her guerilla styled music, themes, imagery and lyrics were praised in mainstream media. The tour to promote the album saw MIA perform all over the world.

The Second Revolution

After almost a year long tour which received widespread acclaim MIA started to record her second album. The album “Kala” was released in 2007 and the single “Paper Planes”, “Bird Flu” were widely acclaimed. She mixed Hindi film music in her songs which she had got used to while growing up in India. She also sampled songs from Red hot Chili Peppers, the Clash and the Pixies. Her music just cannot be defined and her focus on experimentation saw her record the album in Australia, India, Liberia and England.

The Kala tour again saw her perform all over the world. Her charismatic stage presence, raw energy is just perfect for the songs. The tour saw her play many festivals and MIA was now a cross-over international star.

She has started her own record label NEET and its first release was the soundtrack to the motion picture, “Slumdog Millionaire”

MIA’s story is truly inspirational. Her childhood to where she is now as highly influential global artist. MIA is also now a mother and plans to take a break before issuing her new album.

• MIA was nine months pregnant when she performed with Jay-Z at the Grammy Awards

• Time magazine named MIA in the 2009 list of the World’s Most Influential People

• MIA’s first album is titled Arul, named after her father who studied in Moscow and is considered a part of the Tamil struggle in Civil War in Sri Lanka

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