M.I.A. Named Member of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

She accepted the title in honor of her mother, who “spent her life in England hand sewing thousands of medals for the Queen”
MIA
M.I.A. photo by Jan Lehner

M.I.A. has been named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) as part of the annual Queen’s Birthday Honours, during which various British citizens are recognized for their service to the arts, medicine, philanthropy, and other sectors, as the BBC reports. Mathangi Arulpragasam’s MBE has been bestowed for her “services to music.” In a statement posted to Instagram, M.I.A. paid tribute to her mother, who was “one of the 2 women in England who hand stitched these medals for the last 30 years.”

“I'm honoured to have this honour, as it means alot to my Mother. I want to honour what my mum spent many hours of her life doing,” she wrote. “She spent her life in England hand sewing thousands of medals for the Queen. No matter how I feel or what I think, my Mother was extremely proud of the job she had. It's a very unique situation for me where I get to honour her most classiest minimum wage job ever.” Find the full statement below.

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Elsewhere in the list of honorees is Elvis Costello, who has been named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). “I’m pretty tickled to receive this acknowledgement for my ‘Services To Music,’ as it confirms my long held suspicion nobody really listens to the words in songs or the outcome might have been somewhat different,” he wrote in a blog post yesterday.

M.I.A.’s most recent album AIM was released in 2016. Last year saw her release the video for “Reload,” a song that appeared on the soundtrack to the documentary MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.