Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, known professionally as M.I.A., is a British rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. Her music combines elements of alternative, dance, electronic, hip hop and world music with electronic instruments and samples.
real name: Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam
labels: Interscope Records, XL Recordings, Roc Nation, Polydor Records, Mercury Records, N.E.E.T. Recordings, Virgin EMI Records
genres: alternative hip-hop, dance music, world music, electronica, pop music, progressive rap, experimental hip-hop, alternative rock
awards: Member of the Order of the British Empire
plays: percussion instrument, voice
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
M.I.A. was born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam on 18 July 1975, in Hounslow, London. She is the daughter of Arul Pragasam, a Sri Lankan Tamil engineer, writer and activist, and his wife, Kala, a seamstress. M.I.A.'s first name is derived from the Hindu goddess, Matangi. When M.I.A. was six months old, her family moved to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, where her brother was born. There, her father adopted the name Arular and became a political activist and founding member of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), a political Tamil group affiliated with the LTTE. The first 11 years of M.I.A.'s life were marked by displacement caused by the Sri Lankan Civil War. Her family went into hiding from the Sri Lankan Army, and she had...
M.I.A. cites the radio broadcasts she heard emanating from her neighbours' flats in the late 1980s as some of her first exposures to her earliest musical influences. From there, she developed an interest in hip-hop and dancehall, identifying with "the starkness of the sound" in records by Public Enemy, MC Shan and Ultramagnetic MCs; and the "weird, distinct style" of acts such as Silver Bullet and London Posse. In college she developed an affinity for punk and the emerging sounds of Britpop and electroclash. M.I.A. cites The Slits, Malcolm McLaren and The Clash as major influences.
M.I.A.'s music features styles such as electro, reggae, rhythm and blues, alternative rock, hip hop, grime, rap ballads and Asian folk and references to her musical influences such as Missy Elliott, Tamil film music, Lou Reed, the Pixies, Timbaland, Beastie Boys, and London Posse. She was a childhood fan of Boney M, composer A. R. Rahman and pop artists Michael Jackson and Madonna, also she has cited Björk as an inspiration and has been influenced by The Slits, Public Enemy, Malcolm McLaren and The Clash. Noting her early inspirations, she said "When I would go to bed, I'd listen to the radio and dream about dancing and Paula Abdul and Whitney Houston, and that's how I fell asleep. When my radio was burgled, I started listening to hip...
M.I.A. cites guerrilla art and fashion as major influences. Her mother works as a seamstress in London. An early interest in fashion and textiles–designing confections of "bright fluorescent fishnet fabrics"—was a hallmark of her time at Central Saint Martins College. M.I.A. was a roommate of fashion designer Luella Bartley and is a long-time friend of designer Carri Mundane. Clothes from her limited-edition "Okley Run" line—Mexican and Afrika line jackets and leggings, Islamic-inspired and water melon-print hoodies, and tour-inspired designs–were sold in 2008 during New York fashion week. She commented, "I wanted to tie all my work together. When I make an album, I make a number of artworks that go with it, and now I make some clothes...
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Paper Planes" is a song by British recording artist M.I.A. from her second studio album Kala (2007). It was released on 11 February 2008 as the third single from the album.
It is produced and co-written by her and Diplo. It appeared in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire and on its soundtrack album.
M.I.A. (Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam) released her debut studio album Arular in 2005 to critical acclaim. The album, inspired by her father Arul Pragasam's involvement in the Tamil independence movement in Sri Lanka, heavily incorporates themes of conflict and revolution into dance songs. While M.I.A. wanted to work with American producer Timbaland for Arular's follow-up album Kala (2007), her application for a long-term US work visa was rejected. This was allegedly due to her family's connection to the Tamil guerrillas, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, a claim M.I.A. denied. Her visa problems were also attributed to her criticism of the Sri Lankan government's discrimination and alleged atrocities committed against the Tamils, with...
"Paper Planes" is a downtempo alternative hip hop and electro hop song with a duration of three minutes and 24 seconds. The song takes a musical approach which incorporates elements of hip hop and African folk music. "Paper Planes" follows what M.I.A. characterised as the "nu world" music style of Kala. It contains a sample of the Clash's song "Straight to Hell". According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Universal Music Publishing Group, it is written in the time signature of common time with a moderate tempo of 86 beats per minute. The song is composed in the key of D major while M.I.A.'s vocal range spans one octave, from the low-note of F♯3 to the high-note of F♯4. The musical composition incorporates verse-chorus...
"Paper Planes" is the eleventh track on Kala, which was released in August 2007 by XL Recordings in Europe, Oceania, and through Interscope Records in the US. On 11 February 2008, an extended play (EP) containing "Paper Planes" and five remixes of the song, titled Homeland Security Remixes EP, was released digitally in Europe through XL Recordings, and physically (in 12-inch vinyl format) in the US through Interscope Records. The following day, the remixes EP was made available online in the US. The song was released as a digital single on 15 September through iTunes Stores in Europe. Another EP containing three tracks was released in the UK on 13 October. On the same day, "Paper Planes" was re-released as a two-track CD single in the UK...
"Paper Planes" received widespread acclaim from contemporary publications. The Stranger's Eric Grandy selected the song as Kala's highlight, calling it the album's "most exciting synthesis of the political and the pop, a playful dig into the real, dirty business of rump shaking". Andy Kellman of AllMusic, Michael Hubbard of musicOMH, Jon Pareles of Blender and Emma Warren of The Observer named it a standout on the well-received Kala. Stylus Magazine's Ewen McGarvey described the song as "narcotic, gorgeous". Alex Miller from NME commented that "Paper Planes" was Kala's only radio-friendly track, but still reflected M.I.A. as "the inheritor of true rebel music in an era of corporate punks". The Houston Chronicle's Joey Guerra complimented...
"Bad Girls" is a song by British recording artist M.I.A. from her fourth studio album Matangi (2013). It was released by Interscope Records on 31 January 2012 as the lead single from the album.
The song was written by M.I.A., Marcella Araica and Danja, and produced by the latter. It was her first release with Interscope following her departure from XL Recordings in 2011.
"Bad Girls" first appeared on M.I.A.'s self-released mixtape Vicki Leekx (2010), shortly following the release of her third studio album Maya earlier that year. Recording sessions for the song transpired in Miami, Florida; M.I.A worked with Danja, a producer who previously collaborated with recording artists such as Madonna and Nelly Furtado. The artwork for "Bad Girls" was released on 25 January 2012, while photos taken by Bernard Coulter of M.I.A. with cowriters Danja and Marcella, who were listening to the record's main mix in a Jeep, were revealed on the rapper's official website and her Twitter page.
"Bad Girls" is a midtempo hip hop song with elements of Middle Eastern and Indian hooks with influences of dancehall and worldbeat music. The song's structure is focused on careening beats, synths inspired by Eastern sounds and syncopated drums and an SOS signal rhythm. Nick Levine of NME commented that the song's chorus was one of those "boffo pop choruses" that M.I.A. could toss off when she wanted to, while commending the chorus as being in the same vein as that of "XXXO", a track from M.I.A.'s third studio album Maya (2010). Rolling Stone thought that "Bad Girls" was the catchiest song the singer had released since "Paper Planes" from Kala (2007). The song's instrumentation consists of background bleeps and blorps mixed down, and the...
M.I.A. announced via Twitter that she had shot an accompanying music video for the song, directed by Romain Gavras. This is the second time the two have collaborated, following the 2010 video to "Born Free". Two photos from the set of the video were uploaded by the artist onto M.I.A.'s official website in February 2012. The video for "Bad Girls" premiered on Noisey, Vice's new music channel on YouTube, on 2 February 2012 at a total length of four minutes and twelve seconds. Principal photography for the video was done in Ouarzazate, Morocco over a period of four days.
The setting of the music video features crumbled architecture, sustained over years of attack; smouldering oil tankers; young men in kaffiyeh, standing around bored; mysterious women covered from head to toe, with only their kohl-lined eyes flashing out. M.I.A. joked to Noisey in a YouTube comment response interview that she shot the video in Morocco because she "didn't want to go to jail!". M.I.A. deadpans to the camera about having sex in cars while vamping in front of those tanker fires. M.I.A. rides atop a drifting car, filing her nails, and in a see through glow-in-the-dark car custom-made for the shoot. Her idea for the vehicle was inspired by the scene of actor Prabhu Deva dancing atop a see-through bus in the song "Urvasi Urvasi"...
"Galang" is the debut single by British musician M.I.A. from her debut album Arular. It was released in 2003 on Showbiz Records which pressed 500 vinyl copies, gaining immediate international recognition via radio airplay, fashion shows, club rotations and internet filesharing.
"Galang" was re-released on 1 November 2004 via XL Recordings as the second single from the album released by the label and was released for a third time as "Galang '05" on 11 October 2005 by the label and in the US by Interscope Records. It is written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Justine Frischmann, Ross Orton and Steve Mackey.
Following her work as a photographer/graphic designer and music video director for the band Elastica, M.I.A. decided to video document the band's last tour together in 2001 to direct the music video for their single "Mad Dog God Dam". On the tour, she was introduced to the Roland MC-505 sequencer/drum machine by electroclash artist Peaches, whose minimalistic approach to music inspired her. She found Peaches' decision to perform without additional instrumentation to be brave and liberating and felt that it emphasised the artist. While vacationing together in Bequia in the Caribbean, M.I.A. began experimenting with Elastica singer Justine Frischmann's 505, having unexpectedly gaining access to it in London. She adopted her stage name,...
"Galang" is a moderately fast song, with a tempo of 101 beats per minute. It combines dancehall, jungle, electroclash and worldbeat with folk style chants, and is set in common time. The song features sparse instrumentation throughout, consisting primarily of minimal "jarring" polyrhythm beats written with a drum machine and "blaring" Moog synthesiser sounds as the song's riff. Its rhythms are influenced by traditional Sri Lankan songs, and feature beeps, bloops and electronic loops. It is in verse-chorus form before the fourth and final chorus and a vocal coda. Composed in London using a second-hand 4-track tape machine, the Roland MC-505, and a radio microphone, M.I.A. recorded "Galang" in the same vein as the rest of Arular, the song...
The single/demo was the first release for Jonathan Dickins' Showbiz Records, a label that operated through Dicken's uncle's record label Instant Karma. Upon pressing 500 12-inch vinyl copies of the single and demo, it made an immediate impact in dance clubs, college radio, fashion shows and record labels. On the vinyl, "Galang" appeared alongside acapella and instrumental versions of the song. "Galang" became popular with BBC Radio 1 DJs Gilles Peterson and Pete Tong, the latter including the song as part of his Essential Selection radio set in 2003. The success of the song led to a signing with XL Recordings and M.I.A. requesting Dickens to work as her manager, beginning Dickens career in music industry management. M.I.A. wanted to sign...
"Galang" earned massive critical success upon its release, with its novelty, genre amalgamation and lyrics highlighted as positive features of the song, and typical of the compositions on Arular. Michaelangelo Matos in the Seattle Weekly described the words "London calling, speak the slang now/Boys say wha' gwan, girls say wha' wha'," as "tempting" taunts "from the top," whilst appreciating the "jump-rope skip abetted with a flat-four stomp at the end of the second bar, great groaning wowing synth-bass, post-Diwali hand claps, and what sound like tuned bottles clinking along every so often." He continued "The lift-up-and-over moment comes at 2:30, when the beat subsides and an a cappella "Ya-ya-hey! Whoa-yay-oh-yay-ohhh!" so simultaneously...
"Bucky Done Gun" is the third single from musician M.I.A.'s album Arular. The song was composed in London in 2004 as one of the last compositions for her debut album and credited to Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Carol Conners, Bill Conti, Wesley "Diplo" Pentz, Ayn Robbins and Deize Tigrona.
It was released by XL Recordings in the UK, Interscope Records in the US and Remote Control Records in Australia on 11 July 2005 in 12-inch vinyl and CD single formats. The B-side of the release is the song "Pull Up the People" from Arular.
The music video for "Bucky Done Gun" was directed by Anthony Mandler. Filming took place in the Mojave Desert.
"Y.A.L.A." is a song by recording artist M.I.A. from her fourth album Matangi, released in 2013. It was released as the fourth single from the album.
The track was written by M.I.A. together with Ruben Fernhout and Jerry Leembruggen of the Dutch production team The Partysquad who also produced the track.
The music video for the track was commissioned by British magazine i-D and directed by German photographer Daniel Sannwald. It was premiered on 15 November 2013 on i-D's YouTube channel.
"Popular" is a song by British rapper M.I.A. It was released on 12 August 2022 as the second single from her sixth studio album Mata.
The official music video for the song was directed by Arnaud Bresson. It stars what was described as an "influencer-bot-in-training" named M.A.I. – a pun alluding to artificial intelligence. In the video, the singer trains her robot alter ego to dance to the title song. In the end, she kills it with a water gun. The video was released on 12 August 2022.