Rolling Stone's Artists to Watch: The Rockers and Rappers Who Will Dominate 2007

Somewhere in the cosmos, Freddie Mercury must be happy. His legacy lives on in the hands of Mika, the British hitmaker who brings his operatic vocals and grandiose piano theatrics to tracks like "Grace Kelly." Mika originally trained to be an opera singer. But at twenty-three, he's found his calling in pop music, bringing his flamboyant style to everything he does — even his live shows have featured circus performers. "I always knew I'd be part of this illusion-making profession," he declares. "If you're a freak, you have to build a circus around yourself. And then maybe other freaks will come and join your show."

THE FORMULA (Freddie Mercury x George Michael) + The Circus = Mika

SOUND Mika is not shy about showing off his multi-octave voice, letting his falsetto fly over piano ditties with a heavy flavor of music-hall camp. His U.K. Number One debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion, is packed with the kind of pop songs that Mika proudly calls commercial. "The advantage of commercial songwriting is there's no time-wasting," he says. "You have ten words to make a whole movie. You must build something different out of the same basic Legos."

MUST-HAVE TRACK "Grace Kelly"
An over-the-top piano ditty, full of giddy falsetto and music-hall-singalong spirit.

THE OUTSIDER Mika grew up in an artistic London household, with a Lebanese mother and an American father. He had endless trouble at school, suffering from intense dyslexia and bullying from the other kids. "I was this eleven-year-old who couldn't read or write, and songwriting was the first way I ever had to communicate," he says. "It became a refuge for me." He began a strict regimen of voice and piano. "My teacher was a martinet," he recalls. "Before I could even open my mouth to sing, I had to do an hour of breathing exercises and yoga." The fledgling opera singer eventually went to London's Royal College of Music: "By day, I was surrounded by snobs who thought that classical music was the only real music — if it wasn't written down, it didn't exist. Then at night I'd go to some indie show where everyone was just as big of a snob. Except they believed everything had to be jangly and grungy and British. I was a mutt — rejected by both worlds." ROB SHEFFIELD

Next: Lavender Diamond

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