OPEN MIKA SESSION (California Chronicle)

[greta]

OPEN MIKA SESSION ; Wandering pop star talks about his traumatic childhood years,homophobic abuse and dyslexia

By John Dingwall

 

As flamboyant male pop stars go, you would be hard pushed to find anyone who matches the colourful background of Mika.

 

Born in Beirut 26 years ago, Mika and his family were forced to flee Lebanon's civil war after their home was bombed.

 

They found a new life in Paris - where his parents realised he was dyslexic and unlikely to fit in with his peers.

 

And by the time he had relocated to London, aged nine, he'd grown used to the homophobic abuse that continued well into his teens.

 

Finally, Mika - born Michael Holbrook Penniman - realised the only chance he had of finding a way out of his torment was to invent an entirely new, outlandish persona. And it's one he admits some people still have a problem with.

 

The singer-songwriter revealed: "As a teenager, I got every type of abuse. It was mostly about the way I looked and a lot of it was homophobic.

 

"It was part of the fabric of my life and I braced myself for it leaving the house in the morning.

 

"I used to sit in the bath or shower and look at myself and think, 'Oh, God. I'm a weirdo. I'm a freak. How am I going to survive?' "I thought, 'I'll become an untouchable version of myself, then I'll be able to survive without being treated like s**tthe rest of my life'.

 

"I turned into an exaggerated version of myself, so bolshie that these people didn't need to criticise me because I wasn't competing with what they were trying to be.

 

"The logic was, if I differentiated myself from what they are, I wouldn't be a threat to their territory. I know that sounds slightly dour and animalistic but that's how I saw it as a kid - I still do, even now. In my head I still think the reason peopleattack you is because you're different or you're on their turf.

 

"I now live my life totally openly and unapologetically. But I don't divulge my private life and neither do I believe in labels.

 

"I could fall in love with anybody and have done in the past, so I don't operate from a position of fear. If I did, why would I write songs that discuss sexuality - probably more than any other artist in pop? "So much of what I do is based aroundidentity, sexuality and genderlessness. But I still get a hard time - especially in the UK."

 

Mika was just one when a bomb flattened much of his family's Beirut home. But, with help from the US Navy, his family fled to Paris.

 

He explained: "My parents were living in the middle of a 25- year, bloody and destructive civil war.

 

"They came home one night and one of the walls was missing from my sister's room.

 

"The American navy took us to Cyprus then on to Paris, where there was this transplanted community from Beirut."

 

Mika's seamstress mother quickly realised that effeminate Mika would be easy prey for bullies.

 

She enrolled him in a Russian music conservatory, where he studied opera and classical music - enduring daily piano lessons at a level normally reserved for child prodigies.

 

"She had this mother's sixth sense. She realised I was one of those kids who wouldn't necessarily have an easy time in real life," Mika said.

 

"I had a hard time at school. I would dress in very unique ways.

 

"My mother was a dressmaker so we were surrounded by thread. I used to pick out material and ask her to make me clothes.

 

"I really liked bow-ties and I'd wear them with matching shirts and trousers. I also liked to wear knee-high socks and knickerbockers until I was 10."

 

After almost a decade in the French capital, the family moved to London and Mika attended an exclusive French school - the Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle, in Kensington.

 

"When I moved to London, I discovered I was dyslexic and couldn't even write down the name of my school," Mika recalled. "My parents moved me to the English schools system, which was more accepting of people with learning problems.

 

"I still don't know my times tables and can't spell. Luckily, I work in a visual language now."

 

However, Mika's other talents were recognised and he gained a place at London's Royal College of Music - where, to his horror, he saw a succession of young musicians' dreams crushed.

 

He said: "There was a floor at the college I used to call the Hall of Tears as every other day there would be at least one person crying there.

 

"They were having to face the fact their career wasn't going the way they wanted or face rejection. That's very tough.

 

"It made me more determined to find a different angle and compete in a singular and not traditional way. It's something I've taken with me into my career - whether my albums are selling well or not."

 

His first album, 2007's Life In Cartoon Motion, spawned a string of hits and sold 6.5million copies.

 

And last year's follow-up - The Boy Who Knew Too Much - has already sold more than a million.

 

He has a new single, Blame It On The Girls, released on February 15 and also features on the Hope For Haiti single, Everybody Hurts.

 

And he will go on the road this month - with a gig at Glasgow's O2 Academy on February 22.

 

"I always wanted to write honest music that is about me and nobody else," Mika explained. "Every time I tried to imitate anybody, I sounded like a clown, so I realised if I felt like a freak, at least melody could give me power.

 

"That's why I turned to pop. If you look at people who write pop music, a lot of those people are outsiders.

 

"I come from so many different places and I am very much an unofficial member of the UK. No matter what I do and how long I stay here, I'll always be a mixed breed mutt."

 

© 2010 Sunday Mail; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

ooooh the drama!

 

Is all this carrying around ~dark past & inner paranoia~ a strategy to get rid of the sticky *happy-poppy* label & conquer + ~little monsters~ followers?

 

I disapprove of these ~analyze meehks interviews..whatever the fecks, no music no partay

 

On the other hand, I'm glad Mika's hair are free of too much spray...granny curls bye bye!

 

[babspanky]

Turn it around any way you like people and I know it's only a marketing ploy really and a lot of people maybe haven't heard it before, but I have and it's boring me now.

Mika might have been bullied/had a hard childhood/feel he doesn't fit in, but he's a functioning adult. His experiences have moulded him and made him what he is today. Not everyone will like him, that's life. And if you are in the public eye, it's magnified, goes with the territory.

 

All of you that waste your time feeling sorry for Mika, do you think that's what he does of a night, sit in his flat sighing, sobbing and shaking his head over his sad childhood? No! He's out there getting on with life, like most of us.

He has a fabulous careeer, a supportive family and he's not short of a bob or two. It's worked out OK for him so far!

 

But hell, just to keep you company I'll do a bit of weeping for Mika's sad sad life.

:no: and bugger the poor of the third world, children that are sexually abused and the Haiti earthquake victims, Mika has it so much harder.

[foalbaby14]

Thanks for posting!

 

This interview is really sad:sad:

[Soaring Simpson]

I think almost all creative artists feel isolated (and they all ruddy insist on saying they do) because they have a passion for music or whatever that simply isn't shared by 99.9% of the people in any country.

[RAK1]

Turn it around any way you like people and I know it's only a marketing ploy really and a lot of people maybe haven't heard it before, but I have and it's boring me now.

Mika might have been bullied/had a hard childhood/feel he doesn't fit in, but he's a functioning adult. His experiences have moulded him and made him what he is today. Not everyone will like him, that's life. And if you are in the public eye, it's magnified, goes with the territory.

 

All of you that waste your time feeling sorry for Mika, do you think that's what he does of a night, sit in his flat sighing, sobbing and shaking his head over his sad childhood? No! He's out there getting on with life, like most of us.

He has a fabulous careeer, a supportive family and he's not short of a bob or two. It's worked out OK for him so far!

 

But hell, just to keep you company I'll do a bit of weeping for Mika's sad sad life.

:no: and bugger the poor of the third world, children that are sexually abused and the Haiti earthquake victims, Mika has it so much harder.

 

Trust me, I'm far from feeling sorry for him right now, more for myself if anything, the way things are right now!

I'm just observing and comenting on what he says in these interviews. His family dynamic right now is probably a lot stronger than mine is, he's a lucky boy as far as I can see, in that respect.

And, yes I know there are a lot of people worse off than any of us are here at the moment, and a few times in the last few weeks I've seriously thought of jacking things in here to go to Haiti to help with the relief effort, as I'm damn near useless doing things here with my own life, might be more use out there!

[mel_tinydancer]

Good, but sad interview. I love Mama P

[laura*]

She enrolled him in a Russian music conservatory, where he studied opera and classical music - enduring daily piano lessons at a level normally reserved for child prodigies.

 

Ok, this guy knows nothing about music! Another one!

[mellody]

i agree that mika certainly doesn't cry into his pillow every night about his sad childhood - he said several times that he doesn't regret anything. and that his childhood was mostly happy. but i wouldn't say either that he's saying those things purely out of marketing reasons. imo he's simply recalling memories from his childhood (or rather teenage years), nothing more and nothing less.

 

it's interesting that some of you are saying that everyone felt like that as a teenager, whether they got bullied or not. from the point of view of someone who did get bullied as a teenager, i only know what i was always thinking, that if i just had had one single friend at school, it all would've been so much easier. of course it's nice if your family believes in you, better than if no one does. but you can't help but thinking that something's wrong with you, if everyone your own age seems to hate you.

 

anyway, i don't mind mika talking about these things. and while i agree that he wouldn't share his deepest feelings with the public, i'm thinking that talking about this topic in public might serve him as some kind of therapy - BECAUSE it's not his deepest feelings, but instead something that he's over with to a certain extent, so he doesn't feel as sad and/or vulnerable as we might believe when reading this. does that make sense?

[babspanky]

i agree that mika certainly doesn't cry into his pillow every night about his sad childhood - he said several times that he doesn't regret anything. and that his childhood was mostly happy. but i wouldn't say either that he's saying those things purely out of marketing reasons. imo he's simply recalling memories from his childhood (or rather teenage years), nothing more and nothing less.

 

it's interesting that some of you are saying that everyone felt like that as a teenager, whether they got bullied or not. from the point of view of someone who did get bullied as a teenager, i only know what i was always thinking, that if i just had had one single friend at school, it all would've been so much easier. of course it's nice if your family believes in you, better than if no one does. but you can't help but thinking that something's wrong with you, if everyone your own age seems to hate you.

 

anyway, i don't mind mika talking about these things. and while i agree that he wouldn't share his deepest feelings with the public, i'm thinking that talking about this topic in public might serve him as some kind of therapy - BECAUSE it's not his deepest feelings, but instead something that he's over with to a certain extent, so he doesn't feel as sad and/or vulnerable as we might believe when reading this. does that make sense?

 

I don't disagree with anything you've said here. When I say everyone feels like this, I didn't mean necessarily because of bullying. Things happened to me that alienated my from my peers during my younger years, but it wasn't bullying. I think a lot of people have something in their past which they found hard to deal with.

And really, you know, I don't that much mind reading about it again and again. Like Violet says, it's just another form of "I was born in Beirut in 1983"

 

What I don't really like is how people don't think about it and paint Mika as a sad victim. He's far from that.

[Fmbm]

 

What I don't really like is how people don't think about it and paint Mika as a sad victim. He's far from that.

 

You don't know he's happy.

[babspanky]

You don't know he's happy.

 

No I don't. But he's far from the sad victim people seem to be taking him for.

[Fmbm]

No I don't. But he's far from the sad victim people seem to be taking him for.

 

When he victimizes himself like this, it's hard not to

[jemmalee]

You don't know he's happy.

 

And you don't know if he is a manic depressive

 

We can't prove anything

[Fmbm]

And you don't know if he is a manic depressive

 

We can't prove anything

 

Exactly, so we should all stop acting like we know what he's thinking.

[marian538]

Exactly, so we should all stop acting like we know what he's thinking.

 

Is the most intelligent sentence I've read in this forum in a long time

[suzie]

No I don't. But he's far from the sad victim people seem to be taking him for.

 

I don't think people take him for a sad victim. I don't even think he was ever a sad victim, and he is definitely not one now. I think victims do not know how to handle things whilst he is good at coping with things.

However, that does not mean that the things he keeps saying in interviews never happened to him. I am pretty certain all this bullying happened the way he describles it and it did hurt him deep. Of course these stories are part of the package he presents himself to the public with but calling it a mere marketing plot is a bit strong since it suggests that it is all made up whlist I don't think any of us doubts that it is all true.

[Guest cliffpat]

i think it all just depends on what mood he is in when the reporters catch him. some days he's in a great mood and he's happy and the articles are upbeat and fun and you can tell he's genuinely happy. other times their just normal. and every once in awhile you get an article like this where he's obviously in a down. his personality just fluctuates like any other person. some days we're happy, other days we're sad, and other days we're just fine. i know if i did interviews mine would reflect how i was feeling that day. some really happy good ones and other really heavy whoa is me ones. plus he's a leo and not to mention creative and creative people like him tend to not be very good at controlling their emotions. he tends to wear his heart of his sleeve and his interviews just reflect how his heart feels that day. idk why we have to debate on whether he is actually happy or depressed. it changes. every day! the day this article was posted he was obviously depressed so let the ones who see him as depressed and want to talk about it when he is depressed talk about it. it's not like they are doing it on the happy articles.

[Mika4Life13]

You don't know he's happy.

Yeah, exactly nono.

[suzie]

i think it all just depends on what mood he is in when the reporters catch him.

 

I think it all depends on WHO cathes him..... I mean, it depends on the personality and professionalism of the particular journalist...

[Guest cliffpat]

I think it all depends on WHO cathes him..... I mean, it depends on the personality and professionalism of the particular journalist...

 

 

well of course that as well. but imo i still think it mostly just depends on how his mood is. the journalist of course can choose how to ultimately present him in their article but they are still working with what he gives them.

[Mika4Life13]

well of course that as well. but imo i still think it mostly just depends on how his mood is. the journalist of course can choose how to ultimately present him in their article but they are still working with what he gives them.

I agree, Some people make him seem overly geeky, some people make him seem like some sexbomb, others making him seem really awkward, and some make him seem perfectly normal.

[suzie]

well of course that as well. but imo i still think it mostly just depends on how his mood is. the journalist of course can choose how to ultimately present him in their article but they are still working with what he gives them.

 

I actually meant that if he does not like them or their questions, he takes them for a fool and that's when he comes up with his made-up stories, I think.

[Guest cliffpat]

I actually meant that if he does not like them or their questions, he takes them for a fool and that's when he comes up with his made-up stories, I think.

 

 

oh i absolutely agree with you! if he's bored or put off by them he entertains himself very quickly. i'm just saying that in this article. he is obviously depressed. i'm definitely not saying he's always depressed. he is happy a lot of the time. but this article he is obviously down. i think he actually trusted this reporter because he opened up about a few more things.

[Soaring Simpson]

Of course these stories are part of the package he presents himself to the public with but calling it a mere marketing plot is a bit strong since it suggests that it is all made up whlist I don't think any of us doubts that it is all true.

 

I don't doubt that he thinks its all true enough- but that's not quite the same thing, is it?

[babspanky]

Exactly, so we should all stop acting like we know what he's thinking.

 

I don't think I do. I know what I think though.