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Mica Penniman (born 18 August 1983), known as Mika, is a Lebanese-born, London-based, Grammy-nominated and BRIT Award-winning singer-songwriter, who has a recording contract with Casablanca Records and Universal Music. He rose to fame around the end of 2006 and the start of 2007. Pop magpie Mika's bright, kaleidoscopic music has drawn comparisons to everyone from Queen and Elton John to the Scissor Sisters and Rufus Wainwright. Born Michael Holbrook Penniman in Beirut to a Lebanese mother and American father, Mika and his parents moved to Paris while he was still a very young child, and eventually London by the time he was nine years old. The frequent moves, incidents like his father being taken hostage at Kuwait's American Embassy, and bullying at school affected young Mika to the point where he stopped talking and was taken out of school for six months. At this point, music became Mika's lifeline, and he soon began formal musical training, which included voice lessons. Along with studies at the Royal College of Music, in his teens and early twenties Mika also recorded with the Royal Opera House and created a jingle for Orbit chewing gum. He dropped out of school to concentrate on his take on pop music, inspired by freewheeling songwriters like Prince and Harry Nilsson. His debut single, Relax, Take It Easy, appeared in fall 2006, but it was its follow-up, Grace Kelly, that broke Mika in the U.K. Released in January 2007, the song hit number one on the singles chart thanks to heavy downloading, following in the footsteps of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Mika's full-length debut, Life in Cartoon Motion, did just as well when it was released that February, and was topping the U.K. charts around the time it was released in the U.S. that March. Mika was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the third of five children born to a Lebanese mother of Syrian-Lebanese descent and an American father. When he was a year old his family was forced to leave war-torn Lebanon and moved to Paris. After listening to Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box," he wrote his first song, which he describes as an "awful" piano instrumental called "Angry". The family moved to London when he was nine years old. There, he attended the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, where he experienced severe bullying. He also had problems with dyslexia. He experienced a break-down at age 11, and was home-schooled by his mother for six to eight months. He then attended St Philips School in Kensington. Later he attended Westminster School and the Royal College of Music, which he left to record his first album at Casablanca Records. He slightly altered his given name, Mica, changing the "c" to a "k," because he was frustrated by how often people would mispronounce it. Mika was trained by Alla Ardakov (Ablaberdyeva), a Russian opera professional. His public performances and jobs have varied from classical performances in the Royal Opera House to writing in-flight music for British Airways and creating an Orbit chewing gum jingle. His debut radio appearance was on Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show in September 2006, Later with Jools Holland and on The Friday Night Project on 19 January 2007. While he is rumoured to have a vocal range of five octaves, he claims that it is actually closer to three and a half octaves. In January 2007, Mika was at the top of the BBC News website's Sound of 2007 poll. His first single was a limited 7"/download release called "Relax, Take It Easy" (2006). It was play listed by BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom, and was also made Record of the Week by DJ Scott Mills. The Dodgy Holiday EP is also available for download. His song "Billy Brown" was available for free download for a week from the iTunes Store. Universal Music released his single "Grace Kelly" by digital download on 8 January 2007, and it reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on 21 January 2007. The CD, 12", and limited-edition 7" versions were released on 29 January 2007. The release features remixes by Tom Neville, Bimbo Jones, Linus Loves, and Pull Tiger Tail. Produced and mixed by Greg Wells in Los Angeles, with two songs co-produced by Jodi Marr and John Merchant, Mika's début album Life in Cartoon Motion was released on 5 February 2007, and has brought comparison with artists such as Freddie Mercury, Scissor Sisters, Elton John, Prince, Robbie Williams and David Bowie. He was the musical act for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 26 March 2007 and 14 February 2008 and for Jimmy Kimmel Live on 27 March 2007. Mika toured the United States and Canada in June 2007 with support from Sara Bareilles and Natalia. In 2007, Mika won three awards, the most of any artist, at the World Music Awards, the annual ceremony at which the most prestigious international music awards are presented. He is the first artist ever to win three World Music Awards in just one year. In September 2007, Mika began his Dodgy Holiday Tour, playing at venues across Europe. On November 17, 2007, Mika started the UK leg of his tour with support from Palladium. The North American leg of his tour began in January 2008 with support from The Midway State and continued through February with a stop in Los Angeles for the 50th Grammy Awards. His debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion, has a coming of age theme and deals with his transition from childhood to the present. His songs often deal with difficult topics. For instance, in "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" the theme of larger women suffering from discrimination is explored. Mika has said that the fact that his mother was a big woman, and that he had seen the prejudices against her, helped him to write the song. In keeping with the theme of dealing with difficult subject matter, in the song "Billy Brown", Mika writes about a man who has a homosexual affair. He has stated that not all of the songs are autobiographical. Life in Cartoon Motion is the début album by pop singer Mika, produced by Greg Wells and Mika, mixed by Greg Wells, with co-production on two songs by Jodi Marr and John Merchant, released on Island Records on February 5, 2007 in the UK, and on Universal/Motown Records on March 27, 2007 in the U.S.. The single "Grace Kelly" stayed at #1 in the UK for seven weeks straight and became a #1 hit in many countries. The album debuted at #1 in the UK, selling 5.7 million copies worldwide since its release and counting. The album cover of Life in Cartoon Motion has since been used in an iPod Touch commercial. Prior to obtaining his record deal, Mika sent demos to many record companies in Britain, but was never signed. One record label in particular claimed that Mika had a good voice, but insisted he write more conventional songs like Robbie Williams in order to become more commercial. Mika rejected this advice. The song "Grace Kelly" was inspired by these problems. In 2006 Mika signed with Island Records and began recording his debut album. His musical influences are based in classical music. Before Mika released his debut album he promised the media that "It was a magical world that you could live in. A parallel universe for people that is illusory and enchanting and amazing." Some songs on the album are sexually ambiguous, prompting some questioning regarding Mika's sexuality. On this, Mika comments that he has no taboos about what he can use to tell a story or what stories he can actually tell. He believes that sexualizing music is great, but politically sexualizing music and making the artist's sexuality the defining point of someone's music is "boring". He says about his own sexuality: "...laying myself out on the table to almost a tabloid level and kind of sharing my entire personal life, I'm really not into that." The songs on the album have different subjects. "Grace Kelly", as stated before, is about the struggle of getting a record deal. Mika stated that the song is a very important song on the album mostly because:"...it's a flagpole for the record in terms of lyrical content and the whole pop vision I wanted to get across." In March 2007 the album was released in the United States. Before its release there was much publicity about the album, mainly due to its success in Europe. Mika commented on the hype by saying: "I think I'm lucky. Hype can be good and hype can be bad. The good thing that's happening to me is that the hype is about the project, it's about the music ... I'm not the son of anyone famous, I haven't really slept with anyone particularly well known ... it's really just about music, and that's something I think is very healthy.". The cover for the album and it's inside booklet was designed by Mika's sister (who works under the pen name DaWack) and Mika himself. On 20 February 2008, Mika opened the 2008 BRIT Awards with a live performance of "Love Today," "Grace Kelly," and a duet, "Standing in the Way of Control," with Beth Ditto. He was later awarded the BRIT Award for Best British Breakthrough Artist. Mika's second album will feature "How Much Do You Love Me" and "Holy Johnny," two songs he has performed live since mid-2007. Mika has been very secretive about his next album, which he is currently recording in the US. Mika comes from a family of three girls and two boys. He has one younger brother and one younger sister along with two older sisters. His sister Yasmine, who works as an artist under the nom de plume Dawack, painted the cartoon art for his album Life in Cartoon Motion. Although his "camp" performances have led to speculation that he might be gay, in response to media speculation he has been quoted as saying, "I never talk about anything to do with my sexuality. I just don't think I need to. People ask me all the time. But I just don't see the point." The quotation continues, "In order to survive I've kind of shut up different parts of my life, and that's one of them, especially this early in my career." He denied allegations that he is steering clear of sexual taboos in order to appeal to the US market, pointing to the song "Billy Brown", which is about a man who has a homosexual affair. He is quoted as saying, "If I was worried about sexual taboos I certainly wouldn't have made the record I made. It has nothing to do with that. It has more to do with self-respect." In an interview in the US gay magazine Out he stated that there "is a way of discussing sexuality without using labels." |
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