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The most, uh, challenging part of covering entertainment with anything resembling integrity is figuring out how to toe the fine line between being fair to your subject and audience and pissing off publicists so much you never get to talk to any of their clients ever again.
When Out put Mika on our cover last July, the singer declined to pick any of the labels of the rainbow for his own personal use, and we allowed any number of people to take aim at him in response. That was nothing in comparison to the comments leveled at both him and us as the article was torn apart by fans and foes, many of whom bluntly asked how a magazine called Out could put someone on its cover who sounded like he was ashamed to be gay.
We were a little surprised to find ourselves still on his guest list after that, though senior editor Matthew Breen told me then, "I got the very clear sense that he wasn't being fed lines by handlers, and that his take on his sexuality was the product of his own thoughtful consideration. He's not a puppet."
Now, as Mika launches another North American tour, playing clubs that pale in comparison to the kind of venues he's routinely booked into in Europe and the UK, I got to test that theory out myself. In the 20 minutes we spent on the phone checking in on his big year and future plans, I didn't get the sense he said a single word he didn't mean to -- and, trust me, celebs are generally no more immune to babbling incoherently than you are. He also insisted on answering my final questions about the criticism of his cover story, even when given an easy excuse to dodge as a publicist called time.
He didn't say he was gay, of course, or that he wasn't, so you can take this how you will:
Labels are the one thing that I've never agreed with -- simply because I just don't fit into them in my own personal life. And yes, if someone's willing to have an interesting conversation and take the time and patience to go into stuff like that, then yeah, I think it's fascinating. But I write songs -- that's what I do first. I don’t politicize myself or my life, and I am who I am. If you know my lyrics and if you know my songs, you probably know a lot more about me than if you just read an article about me.
We also talked about the Grammy meat market, what it would take to become a household name in the States, and the ongoing bias about who's supposed to sing flamboyant pop music.
Read the full interview at Out.com.
Previously > Still the king of Europe? > The outsider > Post-Out
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