Mika Bio
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. ~ Heather Phares, All
Music Guide
Written by Heather Phares
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