The Mercury/Michael spiritual lovechild
Freddie Mercury & George Michael had a baby and they named him Mika. As you would expect from an unholy pairing of Freddie/George, he’s ambiguous of gender and sexuality, has the voice of an angel, and he makes boingy, energetic, unapologetically catchy, juicy pop.
I hope — oh god I hope — that he doesn’t inherit his spiritual fathers’ love of drugs and risky behaviour, because I want at least 30 albums from him. I want him to be the Tom Jones of the 21st century, giving and giving for years, loving it all and never letting up.
I’m going to go on and on about his music in a bit. But here’s another fave thing ever — a gorgeous animated video by Lindsey Olivares, using the Mika song Happy Ending as the soundtrack.
I can’t actually watch this very often because it’s so gorgeous, romantic and heart-rending that it makes me weep like I’m at a funeral.
Whew. Okay, still with me? His first album Life in Cartoon Motion was released in 2007, and the second, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, came out in 2009. The first was a much bigger hit, but the second is (in my opinion) even better than the first. Of all those songs, there’s only one I can’t stand, and at least ten that I can happily listen to until death.
Here’s why Mika is my fave thing EVER:
1. He has a 24 carat voice. Professional opera training has given his the chops to sing pop and make it count. He admits to three and a half octaves, and his upper range is in castrato territory. His delivery is emotionally expressive, sincere, exuberant and not the least bit mannered.
2. He writes terrific pop. Catchy melodies, complex layered rhythms, a mix of styles from dance to bubblegum to turn-of-the-last-century music hall. Anyone who likes pop even a little will love this.
3. He’s geeky-outsider cool. Mika is so gawky and goofy looking that it’s nearly incredible he missed being a computer geek. He’s of mixed race, bisexual, often wears dresses in his videos, writes songs about gayness and wanting to be a girl. And also…
4. He writes songs about fat women being WAY sexy and backed it up with a video starring women with actual flesh. Dude, way to catch an audience. And thank you.
5. His drummer is really cute. Rowr.
6. Remember what I said about Freddie Mercury. We all know the man died way too young. Mika gives him back to us, a moment at a time. And just for that he deserves all the undying love a planet can give.
You have a limited amount of time, so why spend it reading about things that suck or are only kind of okay? Favorite thing EVER is not a review site. We're unrepentant fans, and this is the stuff we love. Hope you like gushing, because we're about to embarrass ourselves.
That freakin’ video made me cry like a little girl, and I was only watching it to make sure the video was embedded properly. DAMN YOU, joyous, beautiful animated short!
I know, me too. But ain’t the art superb?
He immediately downloaded the song, too. Awwwwww. (g)
This is just further proof (as if we needed it) of how awesome half-Lebanese guys are
Self-evident facts can always stand a little more proving!
I love Mika!!!