M.I.A has been awarded an MBE on the Queen of England’s Birthday Honors List for her “services to music.”
An MBE stands for “The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” and honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the arts and sciences. On her birthday, the Queen of England awards a selection of magnificent people to receive the honor. This year, the British Sri-Lankan rapper M.I.A. made the list.
Sharing her pride on Instagram, M.I.A. wrote: “I’m honored to have this honor, as it means a lot to my Mother. I want to honor what my mum spent many hours of her life doing! She is one of the 2 women in England who hand stitched these medals for the last 30 years. After receiving asylum my mum and cousin took this job in 1986, because it was the only non English speaking manual labor she could find.
“She spent her life in England hand sewing 1000s 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 honor her most classiest minimum wage job ever.”
