Michael Holbrook Penniman, Jr., born on August 18, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon, better known by his stage name Mika, stylised as MIKA, is a British singer, songwriter and producer.

When Mika was a year old, his family was forced to leave war-torn Lebanon and moved to Paris where he learned to play piano. At the age of seven, he wrote his first song, a piano instrumental called “Angry”. The family moved to London when he was nine years old.

Mika has one younger brother and one younger sister along with two older sisters. His sister Yasmine, who works as an artist under the name DaWack, painted the cartoon art for his two albums Life in Cartoon Motion and The Boy Who Knew Too Much.

His given name was Mica but, frustrated at how often it was mispronounced, he changed the ‘c’ to a ‘k’.