M.I.A.

From art school to a groovebox

M.I.A. is the name used by Maya Arulpragasam, born in Hounslow, London, in 1975. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2000 with a degree in fine art, film and video. She began as a visual artist, filmmaker and designer. The name stands for both Missing in Action and Missing in Acton.

Music came through Elastica. In 2001 she designed the cover of the band's last single and went on the road with them to film their tour. Their support act, Peaches, introduced her to the Roland MC-505 groovebox, and she began experimenting on Justine Frischmann's own machine. Back in west London she recorded a six-song demo with a second-hand four-track tape machine, the MC-505 and a radio microphone. It included Lady Killa, M.I.A. and Galang.

In 2003 the small label Showbiz Records pressed 500 vinyl copies of Galang. File sharing, college radio, club play and fashion shows did the rest. She began posting songs on MySpace in June 2004 and signed to XL Recordings in mid-2004. Sunshowers became her first single for the label.

Arular

Arular, named after her father, reached shops in the United States on 22 March 2005, after delays the label put down to problems getting permission to use an unspecified sample. She wrote or co-wrote every song and sang all of it herself, having hoped for guest vocalists but lacking the budget. The backing tracks started on the MC-505.

The sound ran from hip hop and electroclash to dancehall, baile funk and punk. Diplo brought baile funk into Bucky Done Gun, whose release and rotation on MTV Brasil marked the first time a funk carioca-inspired song reached mainstream radio and music television in Brazil. In December 2004 she and Diplo had already put out the mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism as a teaser.

Arular holds an average of 88 on Metacritic from 33 reviews. Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef called it "a taut, invigorating distillation of the world's most thrilling music". It was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, appears in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and peaked at 98 in the UK and 190 on the Billboard 200.

Kala

For her second album she had planned to work mostly with Timbaland, but his part came down to one track, Come Around. She recorded instead in numerous countries, including India, Trinidad, Jamaica and Australia. Kala, named after her mother, was written and produced mainly with Switch, with guests including Afrikan Boy and the Wilcannia Mob. She likened the process to making "a big old marble cake with lots of different countries and influences".

It came out in August 2007 on XL, with Interscope handling the United States, and debuted at 18 on the Billboard 200 and 39 in the UK. Pitchfork's Mark Pytlik called it "clattering, buzzy, and sonically audacious", and Robert Christgau wrote of an "eclectic world-underclass dance amalgam". Rolling Stone and Blender both named it the best album of 2007.

Paper Planes, built on a sample of the Clash's Straight to Hell, was the breakthrough. After the Pineapple Express trailer and the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. On 8 February 2009 she performed it at the Grammy Awards with Jay-Z, Kanye West, T.I. and Lil Wayne, in a medley with their song Swagga Like Us, which had sampled it.

After Kala

Maya (2010), made largely at her house in Los Angeles with Blaqstarr and Rusko, brought industrial elements into her sound for the first time. It became her highest-charting album, at 21 in the UK and nine in the US, and drew a mixed to positive reception. The Observer's review called it "a headache-inducing patchwork of ideas that's actually rather brilliant".

Matangi (2013), produced mainly with Switch, was delayed repeatedly, and she said she had been told the finished record was "too positive". It entered at 23 on the Billboard 200 and topped the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart. AIM followed in 2016 to mixed reviews, and Mata in 2022. Rolling Stone named her one of the defining artists of the 2000s, and in 2019 she was appointed MBE for services to music.