Mika has spoken candidly about the discrimination he faced in the music industry, revealing that he was once told his songs were “too gay” to be played.
The “Grace Kelly” hitmaker, who rose to fame in 2007, said his sexual identity often eclipsed his musical talent in the eyes of industry figures. In a recent interview with i newspaper, Mika recalled: “We’d love to play this song, but it’s just a little too gay.”
Reflecting on that period, Mika said, “I think you wouldn’t be able to get away with some of those comments and articles today. I was accused of being brazen, but I think it was brazen homophobia.”
Now a household name in the UK as a host of Channel 4’s hit talent series The Piano, alongside Claudia Winkleman and pianist Lang Lang, Mika admitted it took years to feel comfortable being himself in an industry that made authenticity difficult.
“It always takes a while, but I’ve learned to be myself. Honestly, I don’t change very much anymore,” he shared. “The industry was not one of the most kind or conducive places for making you at ease with your own identity or sexuality back then.”
Press Pressure and Coming Out
Mika officially came out as gay in 2012, five years after his debut album Life In Cartoon Motion. Before then, he endured intense scrutiny and invasive questions about his sexuality from the media, which he now describes as exploitative.
Speaking to PinkNews in 2021, Mika recalled how journalists aggressively pursued a public declaration of his sexuality, even before he had come out to his own family.
“The interview part of it felt like a kind of exploitation in the wrong way,” he said. “It very quickly became this kind of searching for a defined label, or searching for a ‘scoop’ confirmation in the most cynical sense.”
“This being at a point in my life where I hadn’t even come out to my own mum – why am I going to do this with a journalist I’ve never met when I hadn’t come out to my mum?”
He added, “Looking back, I was really pressured a lot about labelling myself. I used to feel bad. I now realise that, actually, the journalists that put so much pressure on me should feel bad. It’s not healthy.”
More than a decade later, Mika’s experience is far from unique. The pressure for celebrities to disclose their sexuality continues today. In October 2022, Heartstopper star Kit Connor was compelled to come out as bisexual on Twitter following accusations of “queerbaiting” from fans.
Other stars, including Rita Ora and Rebel Wilson, have faced similar scrutiny, while celebrities like Harry Styles and Shawn Mendes continue to face persistent speculation about their sexual orientation.
