Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (M.I.A.)
A Grammy winning rapper, musician
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (born 18 July 1975) better known by her stage name M.I.A., is a British Grammy winning rapper/musician, painter and director. She left Sri Lanka as a refugee from an ongoing civil war, when she was nine, and moved to a housing project in London. After art school in Britain she began making music that was simple and handmade but had a staggering, far-reaching ambition, with flirty yet brutally evocative lyrics set against whip-crack electro beats, dancehall reggae and Brazilian baile funk. She became world famous with her song Paper Plane used in the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Resources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/7cf0ea9d-86b9-4dad-ba9e-2355a64899ea,
http://unhcr-cyprus.blogspot.com/2009/09/prominent-refugees.html,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/arts/music/19sisa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.