M.I.A.
Birth Name: Mathangi Arul Pragasam
Place of Birth: Hounslow, Middlesex, England, U.K.
Date of Birth: 18 July, 1975
Ethnicity: Tamil Sri Lankan
M.I.A. is a British rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, fashion designer, visual artist, director, model, photographer, and activist. She came to prominence through music file sharing over the internet in 2004. She is also known as Maya.
M.I.A. is the daughter of Kala (Kathirithamby) and Arul Pragasam, “Arular,” an engineer, writer, and activist. Her parents are Tamil Sri Lankans, who were involved in the Tamil independence movement. Her father co-founded the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students, EROS, in 1975 in Wadsworth, England; the group was affiliated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
M.I.A. spent part of her childhood in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Her name, M.I.A. (Missing in Action or Missing in Acton), is after a cousin, Janna, who went missing in Sri Lanka. M.I.A. has strong political views and voices them in her lyrics. Around 1986, her family returned to the U.K., where they were housed as refugees.
M.I.A. has a son with her former partner, Benjamin Bronfman, an environmentalist, who founded the Green Owl record label (his sister is DJ, model, and entrepreneur Hannah Bronfman).
Source: http://www.rollingstone.com
She’s beautiful. Lol
I never knew she was Sri Lankan, not a lot of Sri Lankan artists that are on here, I’ve always thought she was a black British when I first heard her song Paper Planes.
she was engaged to Benjamin Zachary Bronfman who is of African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish Background.
She gave birth to a Son, who makes him Tamil on his mothers side and African-American/Ashkenazi Jewish on his fathers side.
M.I.A, Ben Bronfman & Son
http://msdramatv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/fp_5389579_mia_letterman_cjny_071310.jpg
* tamil sri lankan , sorry…
son , i’ve heard about MIA and didn’t know what she looked like until today and whole time i thought she was Black ;o
She is a black Indian aka Dravidian indian
She’s not even Indian.
Alright. Someone needs to tell me what is Sri Lankan because I’m very confused about what this debate of MIA’s ethnicity is about. are Sri Lankans different genetically from the Indian diaspora from India?
No they just the same people.She’s a ethnically black indian aka dravidian Indian.