Words: Ash Pritchard

He prefers rice to potato, and tours the world as a prophet of pop. DS catches up with Mika.

Since breaking into our consciousness in 2007 with his breakout hit Grace Kelly, Mika’s unapologetically catchy tunes have resonated with a generation of queer boys and girls. His flamboyance and nouveau-dandy persona have set many tongues wagging as to whether he may indeed bat for our team, and last year he told Dutch magazine Gay & Night: “I’ve never limited my life, I’ve never limited who I sleep with.” But whether he’s gay, straight or bi, one thing that is clear is that his stage shows are one of the highlights of the Hong Kong calendar. And as he prepares to come back to our shores for his third official visit, he’s in the mood to talk.

This spring Friday afternoon sees him fielding calls from the press while lounging in his London apartment. He admits to wearing a mismatched outfit of green trousers, a bizarrely white-blue t-shirt and a pink cashmere sweater, he conceding that it would be fair to say he looks terrible, “but the good news is there’s no-one here to see me.” One can’t help but think of the music video for the first single from his second LP, “We Are Golden”. Wearing just a pair of boxer shorts, he dances alone around his bedroom to a chorus backed up by shouting children and a gospel choir. The perfectly crafted slab of pop is an anthem for the defiant outsider, a theme followed in-kind by his latest song, the title track on the soundtrack for the teen superhero movie Kick Ass.

For Mika, his own troubled teenage years were instrumental in shaping his personality and his music. Having been expelled from school at an early age because of learning difficulties caused by dyslexia, he found himself an loner in a hostile classroom. “I used to fantasise when I was at school and I used to hate people in my class. First I would think, I wish I could liquidise all these people, and then I think no, the best thing would be to be able to stop time. Then, if there was somebody that you hated, you could just stop time and take off their clothes. Especially if that person were vain, you could throw their clothes out the window and everybody would be wondering what just happened.”

For queer teens coping with their sexuality, the experience of being different can be particularly strong. It can also have positive effects. The feeling of being on the outside led Mika to fully embrace his creative side. “I just thought: I’m going to forge my identity without any labels, whether it was sexual identity or personality or professional identity.” Being bullied and beaten up by his peers, the route he took to do this was by creating his own reality around him. “I didn’t want to be afraid, I wanted to create my own world, to write my own songs and stand on stage and perform them and people will start to listen and it will give me a platform to a) not be abused and b) not be afraid.”

So, looking back, what advice does he have for youngsters who feel ostracised by their contemporaries? “Although I figured this out for myself, I just wish somebody had told me when I was younger that you don’t have to change. You may look like a freak or a loser now, but in the future you are going to be cooler then everybody. I wish somebody would say that and I think when you’re young you need to hear that, especially if you’re an outsider whether it’s because of the way you look or because you like boys or like girls.”

Although best known for commercial pop songs, Mika’s songwriting is eclectic. His music blends a number of diverse elements and influences, from gothic fairytales to opera. This is one of the reasons he spends so much time on the road. “In order to explain to people what it is that I do and why I do it I have to tour. You can put everything into to context when you see me perform live. That is why I tour so much. To me, it’s really important not to just show up every two and a half years, do one show and disappear.” Since he released his second album, he has doubled ticket sales, and his latest tour has seen him visit countless cities all over the world, from Asia and the US to Eastern Europe and Australia.

So what can people expect from a Mika concert? “My fans come to my shows to be assimilated into my world. They want to lose themselves in this world for two hours, where a pop single becomes as important as a storytelling song, and fits very comfortably next to a piece of opera. It’s a total coming and going, visually and also musically, that makes up who I am as an artist. I think that in a normal pop show that would fall on its face, but I took a risk and for the first time I really went all the way in making the show with as many influences as I have in my life. It works, and that’s why I am so proud of it.”

Mika enjoys spending time in Hong Kong, a place he describes as “insanely cool, from the artist studios to the collectives, to the amazing restaurants.” So besides visiting our fast-paced, high-density city, and dancing around in his underwear, what makes Mika happy? “Feeling like I’ve achieved something creatively. Never repeating myself, that’s what makes me happy. And also, things like tomato sauce. That makes me really happy.” Mika’s fans will be happy to see him return to Hong Kong on June 19th to perform live for the second time in less than one year at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre.