British-Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. has been named by Time Magazine as among the 100 most influential people in the world. She is joined by the Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman, underlining the big impact impact Slumdog Millionaire has made in the United States.

The US magazine publishes the list annually, mixing politicians with entertainers, policy makers, thinkers and scientists. 33 year old MIA was praised by director Spike Jonze.

In a short profile for the magazine, he said: I met her right before she put out her first record, in 2005, and she insisted she wasn’t a musician. To this day, she doesn’t consider herself a musician. She has this wide range of talents and influences — she’s a Sri Lankan refugee who didn’t speak a word of English before she was 10, yet she’s also a child of Chuck D and the Pixies and Fight Club and MySpace.”

“There are no borders for her. She made me realize that you don’t have to be from the West to have a favorite Biggie song. We are all listening to the same music.”

A heavily pregnant MIA was recently seen performing at the Grammy Awards with Kanye West and other rappers. She gave birth soon after.

In a behind-the-scenes video made by Time, she said: “It’s almost like my music has been a way to smoke out the hatred that’s been bubbling underneath what’s going on in Sri Lanka. If there’s 300,000 people who are trapped and they’re dying, it should be talked about. It should be brought to the table.”

“I can sing about songs with gunshots in the background because I’d heard them,” she said.

“The journey for me shows that you can make the jump for being a refugee to being whatever you want to be,” she added.

In the same entertainers category, the Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman shared in the limelight.

The actress Padma Lakshmi paid tribute to AR Rahman for Time Magazine saying that despite being a shy and quiet man, his music had “emotional force”.

“Renowned for his immense range, he’ll do a traditional score for a conventional film, then blend exotic vocals with Japanese music and Western classical arrangements in his next project. A veritable Pied Piper, he has no competition, yet he makes it a priority to discover new talent and promote it. He has shaped modern India’s music for more than a decade.”

“Now the ‘Mozart of Madras’ has the world’s foot tapping along with him,” she added.