Mika

United Kingdom, 2006–now

Lebanese-born British singer and songwriter (b. 1983), trained at the Royal College of Music and raised on opera before he ever wrote a pop song. Life in Cartoon Motion (2007) put a four-octave falsetto over 1970s piano pop; its first single 'Grace Kelly' was built on the melody of Rossini's 'Largo al factotum' and went to number one in the UK.

MusicRoots documents 12 artists who influenced Mika and 0 artists Mika influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Mika?

• Harry Nilsson — One of the artist-songwriters Mika kept returning to — the model of a pop record built around a voice nobody else has.
• Prince — Named with Nilsson, Elton John and Michael Jackson as the songwriters Mika was always drawn back to.
• Elton John — The piano-pop end of Mika's writing: melody carried by the keyboard, in songs staged rather than confessed.
• Michael Jackson — One of the four songwriters Mika names as the records he was drawn back to.
• Joan Baez — Part of what Mika grew up listening to, before the pop.
• Bob Dylan — Part of what Mika grew up listening to, at the folk end of a childhood that also held opera.
• Serge Gainsbourg — The French half of Mika's childhood listening — he lived in Paris until he was nine.
• Roxy Music — Glam as costume and pastiche rather than swagger — the presentation Mika built his own act out of.
• The Slits — An unexpected name on Mika's own list, and the dub-inflected end of it.
• Shabba Ranks — The dancehall on Mika's list of influences, audible in the rhythmic phrasing under the falsetto.
• Gioachino Rossini — 'Grace Kelly', Mika's first single and first number one, is built on the melody of Figaro's aria 'Largo al factotum' — the opera training turned into pop.
• Queen — Freddie Mercury is the persona Mika measures himself against — named in 'Grace Kelly' as an identity he could put on, and given a whole song, 'Last Party', nine years later.