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Mika (singer)
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Mika (singer)
Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr. (born 18 August 1983), known professionally as Mika (/ˈmiːkə/ MEE-kə, stylised in all caps), is a singer-songwriter born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Paris and London. Mika rose to prominence after the release of his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday. Mika released his first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, on Island Records in 2007. It sold more than 8.3 million copies worldwide and helped Mika win a Brit Award—Best British Breakthrough act—and receive a Grammy Award nomination. He topped the UK Singles Chart in January 2007 with "Grace Kelly" and has since gone on to record four more platinum-selling studio albums (most recently My Name Is Michael Holbrook released in October 2019), as well as serve as judge/mentor on both French and Spanish versions of The Voice, and the Italian version of X Factor.
Mika also starred for two seasons in his own television variety show in Italy, Stasera Casa Mika, which won the 2017 Rose d'Or Award for Entertainment, and has hosted his own BBC Radio 2 show, The Art of Song. In 2022, he co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest alongside Italian singer Laura Pausini and Italian television presenter Alessandro Cattelan.
In addition to his musical career, Mika has worked as a visual artist and designer on various projects, among them sunglasses for the Italian eyewear company Lozza, a clothing line for Belgian retailer JBC, pens for the 100th anniversary of Pilot, and (along with his sister Yasmine) three watches for Swiss company Swatch.
On 18 August 1983, Mika was born in Beirut, the third of five children—he has two older sisters, Yasmine and Paloma, a younger sister Zuleika, and a younger brother, Fortuné. His parents are an American-born Lebanese-Syrian mother (Mary Joan "Joannie", née Mouakad, daughter of John Mouakad and Odette Farah) and an American father (Michael Holbrook Penniman, son of William Frederick Penniman III and Dorothy Dyar). Mika's father was a banker born in Jerusalem. His paternal grandfather William Frederick Penniman III was a diplomat. Mika's maternal grandfather John Mouakad was Syrian (from Damascus). He is also the second-nephew of writer William Peter Blatty, best known for his 1971 novel The Exorcist, the second cousin of photojournalist J. T. Blatty, and the great-great-nephew of Melkite bishop Germanos Mouakkad.
When Mika was a year old, his family was forced to leave war-torn Lebanon and moved to Paris, France.
The family lived for a time in Paris. "I was brought up as a Parisian boy, you know," Mika said in an interview. "With the pencil-striped trousers and the hat that I had to wear to school. It was very traditional..."
The first piano piece the young Mika learned to play was "Les Champs-Élysées", by Joe Dassin. At the age of 7, he wrote his first song, a piano instrumental called "Angry", which he describes as "awful".
In 1990 Mika's father went on a business trip to Kuwait and became trapped in the U.S. embassy for about eight months when the Gulf War broke out. When the elder Penniman returned home, he was forced to take a new job, which meant a move to London.
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Mika (singer)
Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr. (born 18 August 1983), known professionally as Mika (/ˈmiːkə/ MEE-kə, stylised in all caps), is a singer-songwriter born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Paris and London. Mika rose to prominence after the release of his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday. Mika released his first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, on Island Records in 2007. It sold more than 8.3 million copies worldwide and helped Mika win a Brit Award—Best British Breakthrough act—and receive a Grammy Award nomination. He topped the UK Singles Chart in January 2007 with "Grace Kelly" and has since gone on to record four more platinum-selling studio albums (most recently My Name Is Michael Holbrook released in October 2019), as well as serve as judge/mentor on both French and Spanish versions of The Voice, and the Italian version of X Factor.
Mika also starred for two seasons in his own television variety show in Italy, Stasera Casa Mika, which won the 2017 Rose d'Or Award for Entertainment, and has hosted his own BBC Radio 2 show, The Art of Song. In 2022, he co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest alongside Italian singer Laura Pausini and Italian television presenter Alessandro Cattelan.
In addition to his musical career, Mika has worked as a visual artist and designer on various projects, among them sunglasses for the Italian eyewear company Lozza, a clothing line for Belgian retailer JBC, pens for the 100th anniversary of Pilot, and (along with his sister Yasmine) three watches for Swiss company Swatch.
On 18 August 1983, Mika was born in Beirut, the third of five children—he has two older sisters, Yasmine and Paloma, a younger sister Zuleika, and a younger brother, Fortuné. His parents are an American-born Lebanese-Syrian mother (Mary Joan "Joannie", née Mouakad, daughter of John Mouakad and Odette Farah) and an American father (Michael Holbrook Penniman, son of William Frederick Penniman III and Dorothy Dyar). Mika's father was a banker born in Jerusalem. His paternal grandfather William Frederick Penniman III was a diplomat. Mika's maternal grandfather John Mouakad was Syrian (from Damascus). He is also the second-nephew of writer William Peter Blatty, best known for his 1971 novel The Exorcist, the second cousin of photojournalist J. T. Blatty, and the great-great-nephew of Melkite bishop Germanos Mouakkad.
When Mika was a year old, his family was forced to leave war-torn Lebanon and moved to Paris, France.
The family lived for a time in Paris. "I was brought up as a Parisian boy, you know," Mika said in an interview. "With the pencil-striped trousers and the hat that I had to wear to school. It was very traditional..."
The first piano piece the young Mika learned to play was "Les Champs-Élysées", by Joe Dassin. At the age of 7, he wrote his first song, a piano instrumental called "Angry", which he describes as "awful".
In 1990 Mika's father went on a business trip to Kuwait and became trapped in the U.S. embassy for about eight months when the Gulf War broke out. When the elder Penniman returned home, he was forced to take a new job, which meant a move to London.
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