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in England as, at only 6 months old, her parents moved the family back to their native Sri Lanka. When the Civil War in her homeland escalated, Maya escaped with her mother to India and then finally back to London, where they were housed as refugees. There, Maya was exposed to western radio for the first time from her neighbors and grew an affinity to hip-hop and rap. She also studied art, and while working on an album cover for a musical act was introduced to the Roland MC-505 sequencing machine and soon began experimenting, working up a series of six songs onto a demo tape which became her calling card to the industry. The tape found its way into the hands of Steve Mackey and Ross Orton who then re-worked "Galang" into what critics would call "an addictive mashed-up recipe of dancehall, electro, grime and world music" that would be embraced by DJs the world over. After a bidding war, M.I.A. wound up signing a contract with XL, which re-released the single and, eventually, her debut album, Arular, to international acclaim in 2005. That summer, M.I.A. was short-listed for the Mercury Music Prize for Arular. In December, Arular was the second most featured album in music critics' Year-End Top 10 lists for 2005, and named best of 2005 by publications such as Blender, Stylus and Musikbyrån. M.I.A. ended 2005 briefly touring with Gwen Stefani and the Big Day Out festival, further raising her profile.



In 2006 M.I.A. wrote and recorded her second studio album, Kala, named after her mother. Despite censorship issues, it, too, met with near universal acclaim. In December 2007, Kala was named the best album of 2007 by publications including Rolling Stone and Blender. M.I.A. released Paper Planes - Homeland Security Remixes EP digitally in February 2008. In early 2008, she DJed at the Marc Jacobs fashion show after party, and modeled for "Marc by Marc Jacobs" in Spring/Summer 2008, finally signaling her arrival as a mainstream artist.