Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr., better known as pop singer Mika, has carved out a career of catchy tunes over the years. His first album, Life in Cartoon Motion, debuted in 2007 and displayed his dynamic range with the lead single “Grace Kelly.” The second single from the same record, “Love Today,” was nominated for a Grammy and the record went to number one on the charts in the UK.
Born in Beirut and raised in Paris, Mika’s multicultural background has aided him in composing music in French. His signature falsettos have paired well with collaborations between him and iconic singers such as Ariana Grande for “Popular Song” and Madonna for “Gang Bang.”
The queer singer brings his commanding and friendly stage presence back to Chicago after many years in support of his latest endeavor Hyperlove.
The Spinning Out Tour stops at the Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave., on May 7, with two Chicago DJs slated to be his opening act.
The internationally acclaimed artist talked about transferring his tour to the United States and the obstacles he’s overcome in the process before his arrival.
Windy City Times: Today it’s raining in Chicago and like your song “Rain” says, “When it rains and rains, I hate days like this.”
Mika: I’m calling in from the studio in Italy and it’s very sunny. I got sunburned in Rome this morning.
WCT: You are finally coming back to Chicago. Has this been the first time since our interview in 2013?
Mika: Yes, since before COVID. I feel really happy about coming back. I am not showing up empty-handed and I have fabricated a show just for North America. It is based on current, modern times and constructivism, similar to what I had been doing in Europe.
A whole part of my family lives in Chicago and as you know, there are a lot of Lebanese in Chicago…
WCT: How did you scale down the spinning set from the UK dates of the tour?
Mika: We were trying to ship pieces of the set and the recent destabilization of prices has thrown all of it out the window. It was impossible, so I decided to make a new set in Toronto that I will be bringing with me. I will fit it in and adapt it to other venues along the way.
It was important to me to bring an aesthetic from the prior set and not just show up with nothing.
Live shows now are a challenge if you are not at an arena level and it’s very hard to tour these days.
It is all worth it. If I haven’t been somewhere in over 10 years, then I am going to do it properly.
WCT: I have seen you in concert several times over the years and they are always a celebration.
Mika: The people at my shows are all different types, as you have seen. Within about five minutes, everyone lets their guard down.
The show has evolved over the past few years. Musically, I try to keep making it better and this new show spans my whole career in terms of repertoire.
I got my first job when I was eight years old. When they kicked me out of school, I ended up joining the Royal Opera House in London. In going through this, there is a certain kind of candor, defenselessness, and freedom of spirit onstage that I have assumed in my forties. I feel that and so will the audience.
There are shows where I put myself in the middle of the pit, even at a festival of 30,000 people, I will go out into the crowd.
Freedom of expression always gives an intimacy to my shows and that is something I have preserved. I really want to keep that going in the future.
WCT: Will there be at least one French song on your set list?
Mika: Yes. I love the idea of bringing the fully eclectic version of who I am to every concert, no matter where it is. I just did the AO Arena in Manchester in February. I sang “Elle me dit” and they danced.
Do you know what that means? I stood up in front of Manchester to sing in French and they were all jumping up and down.
The head of the arena told me that the entire time he has worked there, no one has had the balls to sing in French to a bunch of Mancunians.
The audience gets it and is ready to be weird. Let’s be diverse in a world where using the word diverse is almost a crime.
WCT: Why did you choose “Spinning Out” from Hyperlove as the title for your tour?
Mika: I launched the whole tour before releasing any of the new songs. I loved the idea of losing control within music. When someone spins out, it can mean they are having problems and are destabilized. It can be a code word in therapy for everything going wrong.
I wanted to reappropriate that. It is also connected to queer culture, where someone spins out, but embraces it. It is about a dangerous loss of control where the artistic process is in full swing in the best way possible.
I am putting a positive spin on spinning out, where we can relish the fact that we are abandoning control in a world where we are obsessed with controlling everything, even our human interactions.
Just the idea of going in to have a beer and talk with someone you don’t know while giving into the beautiful chaos of life is far from the reality of our everyday lives.
WCT: What track are you enjoying playing live these days?
Mika: There are two songs that I love playing live. One of them is “Origin of Love.” It is like a snowball that gets bigger and bigger as the show goes on. It’s a show within a show.
The other song is “Happy Ending.” I get to transform every time because the version that I have prepared is completely different for the North American tour as compared to the earlier concert dates.
WCT: What track is the most challenging for you vocally on the Spinning Out Tour?
Mika: For some reason, I can never sing it offstage, but when onstage, maybe because of the tightness of my trousers, I can get it out is “Relax.”
Trust me, when a singer is 20 years old, they should think about how high they sing, because they will still have to hit the notes when they are 42 years old.
WCT: “Relax, Take It Easy” as the song says. [both laugh] How did John Waters wind up on “Interlude Everything’s Beautiful” on Hyperlove?
Mika: The “Pope of Trash” has had such an inspiring career for me. I am more interested in John Waters than Timothée Chalamet, like a thousand times over.
John’s work is kooky, weird and sometimes accidentally commercial without trying to be. It is a unique vision that he had of the world around him, which he interpreted and filtered, then presented back to the audience.
For a young person going into the industry right now, they should look at someone like John Waters. It’s a different perspective and a real one.
WCT: I interviewed John Waters once and he’s a stickler for being on time.
Mika: Absolutely and he was like that in the studio too. He arrives early and he doesn’t like doing too many takes unless there is a specific reason. He doesn’t leave things to chance and he’s meticulously precise. He’s the Mary Poppins of the queers!
WCT: Your career has meant a great deal to many people in the queer community and you came out of the closet when many musicians were not open about their identity.
Mika: That is kind of you to say. There was more to it than verbalizing, even though that was important, too, for me as much as anybody else.
I made the decision that I wouldn’t hide my colors from the age of a teenager onwards. I was finding a way not to let it destroy me or make me sad. I used it as my primary raw material and sculpted it into visuals and lyrics to create a whole world. I hoped that this internal world would help me gain confidence in the outside world around me to eventually assume verbally and politically the person I was born to be.
That was the journey I went on and I would encourage anyone to go on it in a sincere way where creativity, politics, love, sex and desire all come together. It is something with enormous privilege, but it is obtainable.
WCT: Did you think about rereleasing your “Popular Song” with Ariana Grande for the movie Wicked?
Mika: I am not a chaser. I am always happy with the way things evolve. I remember that first encounter with Ariana and hearing her voice on that. We filmed the video in Toronto and she showed up with black hair for it. She dyed it red to go back and finish filming the Nickeleon series. She said that she could hardly wait to stop dying her hair red.
I told her the girl with the black hair would be the only one around in about three months and sure enough, the show was over right after that.
I am connected to how Ariana first touched Wicked and I was honored to be allowed to rewrite the song. No one was allowed before or after that to touch that song and I think Stephen Schwartz will keep it that way.
WCT: Is there one fun fact about yourself that might surprise your fans?
Mika: If I am not making music or performing onstage, then I am learning to fly a plane. If I am not flying a plane, then I am riding a horse. If I am not riding a horse, then I am listening to vintage radio.
Learning to fly a plane has been my dream since I was a kid. I basically fell in love with Tintin and I want to be him.
Find tickets for Mika’s Spinning Out Tour North America inChicago on May 7 with Greg Haus B2B Greg Corner at the Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave. here.
Singer Mika spins out in the Windy City
