Pop Quiz: Mika

Pop Quiz: Mika

Aidin Vaziri | Mika was born in Beirut, schooled in Paris and raised in London. All that moving around must have done the 23-year-old singer some good, considering that his heavily orchestrated debut CD, "Life in Cartoon Motion," is floating on top of the British album charts, while the hit "Grace Kelly" recently ruled the singles charts for five weeks straight. That might be the only thing straight about the singer who is alternately described as the sneaker-clad disciple of Freddie Mercury and all the Scissor Sisters rolled up into one. Up next? Oh, just a little thing called America.

Mika
Q: What was it like growing up in your house?
A: It was fun -- very eclectic, very loud, very flammable, very noisy, lots of visitors, lots of hangers-on, lots of food and lots of attitude. It was as equally enlightening as it was dysfunctional, and that's the way I liked it.
Q: It sounds like you might have had a trapeze in your living room once or twice.
A: We didn't, but it was filled with rolls of material and paintings and stuff like that. We used to rent a flat in our house to a Russian art dealer, and he would pay us with paintings. It was that kind of family.
Q: The best review I read of your song "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" said it sounds like the ultimate bachelorette party anthem.
A: I love that.
Q: Have you ever considered working at Chippendales?
A: No, I'm far too scrawny. But our show is veering toward that. My guitarist, we did a show in Glasgow yesterday, and he was wearing a kilt. I went and lifted up his kilt and he was wearing boxers. We got booed by literally about a thousand people. So he stands there in front of all these people and takes off his boxers. He mooned 2,000 people. They went mental.
Q: Are all your shows that good?