Mika (musician)
Mika [miːkə] (* 18th August 1983 as Michael Holbrook Penniman in Beirut ) is a Lebanese - British singer , composer and producer . His debut album Life in Cartoon Motion , released in 2007, sold around 5.6 million copies. The songs he wrote are influenced by pop music of the 1970s and 1980s.
Life
Michael Holbrook Penniman was born in Beirut, the third of five children to a Lebanese mother and an American father. His family fled the civil war in Lebanon in 1984, first to Paris and then to London. As a dyslexic he had problems at school and was teased by his classmates, so his mother taught him at home for a year. During this time he began to be interested in music. At the age of eleven, Mika appeared on the stage of the Royal Opera House in the Richard Strauss opera Die Frau ohne Schatten . At 19, he left home to study geology at the London School of Economics . However, he changed his mind on the day of enrollment and registered with the Royal College of Music two weeks later .
In 2006 Mika landed a huge hit on British broadcasters with the single Relax, Take It Easy, and hit the charts across Europe. In January 2007 he was voted the most promising musician for 2007 by the British television broadcaster BBC . His single Grace Kelly , released in the same month, went straight to number 1 on the UK download charts and a week later number 1 on the UK pop charts. His debut album Life in Cartoon Motion, which also entered the charts at number 1, was just as successful . Mika is under contract with Casablanca Records and the parent company Universal Music . In December 2007 the fourth single Happy Ending was released in Germany , in March 2008 as another single Lollipop .
In the spring of 2009 his acoustic EP Songs for Sorrow was released. His second studio album The Boy Who Knew Too Much was released in September of the same year, previously the pre-single We Are Golden had already reached the international charts. 2010 Mika involved in the charity project Helping Haiti by Simon Cowell . In October 2012 he released his third studio album, The Origin of Love . The first single was Celebrate .
Mika was a juror for the Italian edition of X Factor from 2013 to 2015 . Since 2014 he has also been on the jury for the French version of The Voice . In 2016 and 2017 he hosted his own entertainment show Stasera Casa Mika at Rai 2 . In September 2017, the program was awarded the “Rose d'Or” prize by the European Broadcasting Union in the “Entertainment” category.
Mika has been with the filmmaker Andreas Dermanis for more than ten years.
Awards and reception
At the World Music Awards 2007 Mika received an award in the categories “Best Selling British Artist”, “Best Selling New Artist”, “Best Selling Male Entertainer” and “World's Best Selling Pop-Rock Male Artist”. In February 2008 he received both an echo in the “Newcomer international” category and a BRIT Award for best newcomer. In January he had already received an NRJ Music Award for best international newcomer. In 2010 he was named “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres ” by the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand . Mika's song Relax, Take It Easy has been used in television and radio advertising for the travel company Alltours for several years .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 2007 | Life in Cartoon Motion |
DE6th  (62 weeks)DE |
AT6th (48 weeks)AT |
CH1 × 2
(85 weeks)CH |
UK1 × 5
(94 weeks)UK |
US29 (26 weeks) US |
First published: February 5, 2007
|
| 2009 | The Boy Who Knew Too Much |
DE6 (6 weeks) DE |
AT9 (7 weeks) AT |
CH2  (25 weeks)CH |
UK4th (19 weeks)UK |
US19 (5 weeks) US |
First published: September 18, 2009
|
| 2012 | The Origin of Love |
DE43 (1 week) DE |
AT31 (1 week) AT |
CH15 (9 weeks) CH |
UK24 (2 weeks) UK |
US47 (1 week) US |
First published: September 16, 2012
|
| 2015 | No place in heaven |
DE70 (1 week) DE |
AT74 (1 week) AT |
CH4 (16 weeks) CH |
UK19 (3 weeks) UK |
US117 (1 week) US |
First published: June 12, 2015
|
| 2019 | My name is Michael Holbrook | - | - |
CH10 (9 weeks) CH |
UK57 (1 week) UK |
US184 (1 week) US |
First published: October 4, 2019
|
Web links
- Mika website (English)
- Mika in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mika at Discogs (English)
- Mika in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
Individual evidence
- ^ A Rising British Pop Star Revives a Mercurial Style , New York Times, March 31, 2007
- ↑ Julie Mccaffrey, Adam Luc: Mika teenage prodigy of the Royal Opera. In: Mirror.co.uk. Paul Hood, January 29, 2007, accessed March 7, 2008 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2017 award winners, accessed on January 28, 2018.
- ↑ Paris Match: Mika: "Ma mère, ma force, mon héro" ( fr ). Retrieved October 21, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Alltours advertising: The title "Relax, Take It Easy" from the TV spot on musikradar.de, January 9, 2013. Accessed March 21, 2017.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mika |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Holbrook Penniman, Michael (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Lebanese-British singer, composer and producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 18, 1983 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Beirut , Lebanon |