Mika says 2000s media coverage of his sexuality wouldn't be tolerated now

Mika has reflected on how journalists covered his sexuality in the 2000s, saying those attitudes would not be acceptable today. The singer-songwriter, who now lives in Italy and Hastings with his partner, has a new English-language album, Hyperlove, due on 23 January.

Born in Beirut in 1983 and raised in Paris and London, Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr attended the Royal College of Music before breaking through in 2007 with Life in Cartoon Motion and its No 1 single, Grace Kelly. He has sold some 20 million records and worked as a presenter and judge on TV shows including Eurovision and The Piano.

He described a childhood marked by evacuation from Beirut during the civil war, his father being taken hostage during the Gulf war, and a move to London. Dyslexia and a clash with a teacher led to a year out of school, after which his mother trained him intensively in music. He said Grace Kelly was written in a moment of anger after being rejected by a management company, and later recalled being accused of being “brazen” by the press in the 2000s, a reaction he called cowardly.

Mika said he is in a creative period of “fun and mess-making”, with no plans to soften with age; he recently worked on a symphonic film soundtrack involving 260 musicians and has also made a French-language pop album. He paid tribute to his mother, who worked with him until a few months before her death in 2020, and remains focused on the new album release.

Key Topics

Culture, Mika, Hyperlove, Grace Kelly, Beirut, Hastings