Meet Mika, the next British music sensation.
Being different is a key trait if you want to make yourself stand out in the musical arena.
It is not a prized attribute, however, during those awkward adolescent years.
Mika, the latest singing sensation from England, found out both lessons at an early age. Beirut-born and Paris-raised until he was 9, he found himself an outcast after his family moved to London.
His interest in piano and singing, along with his dyslexia, distanced himself from classmates, and he became the prey of bullies. But away from school, he began to perform, and found his flamboyance was celebrated, not taunted.
No wonder his first single in the U.S., "Grace Kelly," celebrates his refusal to conform.
Like the musicians he idolized as a child - Prince and David Bowie among them - the 23-year-old does best when he stands apart from the pack. You got a lot of buzz in advance of your U.S. debut CD, "Life in Cartoon Motion." How has that affected you?
"I think I'm lucky. 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."
You got your start in an unusual way.
"From a very early age I used to gatecrash parties and just get to the stage and perform, or I would just kind of walk around and push my face into everyone's face. But then when I started to try and get a serious deal, up until about a year and a half ago, I was just going around and playing the piano just about everywhere.
Your first single, "Grace Kelly," kind of pokes fun at the idea of conformity. How do you resist the temptation to copy what is commercially viable?
"To me, it was never an option. I think I figured out that I would rather be a total failure but be myself and at least give it a shot than pretend to be someone else."
Were you surprised that you turned out to be so successful?
"I'm surprised at the speed in which I've been embraced ... I think anyone deluded enough to go into the music industry as an artist has to have some kind of self-belief. But at the same time I was surprised that I got to No. 1, I never expected to get to No. 1 in the U.K."
The sexually ambiguous songs on your CD have a lot of people asking about your sexuality. Were you hesitant to put records like that out for that reason?
"I have no taboos about what I can use to tell a story or what stories I can actually tell, so I kind of gave myself that freedom. I certainly didn't think about it. ... So as far as enabling myself to tell and use any kind of tool that I want to tell a story or use in my lyrics, I'm totally into that. As far as 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."
by
NEKSA MUMBI MOODY
Apr 02, 2007
Original Article in the commended LoHud.
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