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Mika: still pining for Lebanon Ìý | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
He's been described as 'the breakout superstar of the next few years' but Mika took time out to talk to Outlook about his continuing attachment to the land of his birth: Lebanon. "My mother is Lebanese," he told presenter Fred Dove, "Anyone who is partly Lebanese will know that even if it's only a half - or even a quarter - that quarter will most certainly take up the entire cultural background of your family life." Mika was born in Lebanon in 1983 but, with the Civil War becoming increasingly violent, was evacuated by the US Navy to Cyprus in 1984. From there he went with his family to Paris where he was to spend 8 years - but his family life was again disrupted when his father found himself in Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded the country in 1991.
"He had four hours to get out," recalled Mika, "Some friends actually tried to get some Bedouin to sneak him out through the desert but it was too risky - so he ended up seeking refuge at the American embassy." His father ended up being stuck at the embassy for about seven months. When he was eventually released, Mika remembers being shocked that his father had lost a lot of weight and had grown "a hideous beard". "He was so skinny," he said, "I think he was living off fruit juice and tuna fish." Once reunited, the family set off for London and Mika was sent to London's French Lycee where he remembers that he had difficulty settling in: difficulties that were compounded by his dyslexia. "I started to have particular problems with one teacher that got completely out of control," he said, "I stopped talking for a while and was asked to leave the school. "I left and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I started doing music."
In fact, however, Mika had been "doing music" for sometime before that. He'd been making cassette tapes for his own enjoyment. "The tapes were not categorised by the type of music or by who did it," he said, "They were categorised by melody: happy melodies, angry melodies, different types of melody. "It sounds banal but when you actually sit down to write your own, you realise it's a lot more complicated than you think." Mika's hit Grace Kelly went to number one in the UK singles charts in January of this year. He appeared on Outlook to promote his new album Life in Cartoon Motion. He said that he would love to return to Lebanon to sing. "I want to spend more time there," he said, "I like the prospect of going back there to play live - maybe at one of those amazing places like Balbec." At the end of the interview Fred Dove announced that there was a CD of Life in Cartoon Motion to give away - to the person who comes up with the best suggestion as to what Mika and he might be saying to each other in the following photograph. The funniest or cleverest caption gets the CD.
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Picture caption entries
ÌýI like the prospect of going back to Lebanon to play live - maybe at one of those amazing places like Balbec
