14 Jun 2007

Mika Goes Out

Arjan: Mika continues to surprise me. He is featured in the upcoming issue of Out and according to reports he stays mum about his sexuality.

It is one thing not wanting to discuss your sexuality (which I completely respect), but teasing your gay fans with it takes it to a whole new level.

Mika appears to go to great lengths to continue to feed the rumors and innuendo about whether he is straight, gay or bisexual. He does not have the critics and bloggers do the work for him. Instead, he does it himself by going on the cover of Out and keeping it vague in the accompanying interview.

This cover Out was carefully timed. I know first-hand that his PR team refused interview requests from gay publications prior and around the time of the release of his album in the U.S. because it would potentially mark the singer as a gay artist, which could hurt his mainstream appeal. The interview I did with him back in December slipped through the cracks of his handlers.

I wonder how his gay fans will respond to this latest move by Mika. Will it gain the respect of the gay community or will it turn into a backlash? The latter would be really unfortunately, simply because he is such fresh voice in pop music.