Arular

Background Information "I was thinking about [the way sexuality is expressed in London], and I felt like, you know, it was just so in your face all the time, and being a woman, you really have to use it and put it in people's faces to get ahead. And I wondered what that was doing to - like, in Sri Lanka, sexuality is a whole other ballgame, you know what I mean? And it's so naive and it's so basic, and people have no outlet for meeting people and young people don't have anywhere to hang and stuff Read more on Last.fm.

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam also known as M.I.A., (born 18 July 1975 in Hounslow, London, U.K.) is a British artist of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. As a baby she moved with her family to their native Sri Lanka, where her father became increasingly politically active in militant activities. As the Civil War escalated the rest of the family was forced to flee as refugees, first to India and then the UK. “M.I.A.” [“Missing In Action”] references both her London neighborhood (Acton) and her politically tumultuous youth. Her style contains elements of hip-hop, reggae, alternative, dance hall, electro and baile funk and is strongly inspired by her Sri Lankan background. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.