Mika mania

Seeing Mika at the top of the bill on day two of the Desert Rhythm Festival understandably raised questions about his
popularity over singers such as Joss Stone.

But it turns out the organisers had it all sewn up and the decision was in fact the right one.

Blow-up dolls

Kanye West got the screams and shouts, as you'd expect, and Stone had people singing and dancing along. But Mika - well, he entertained.

From giant blow-up dolls and pigs, to crocodile, duck and rabbit costumes, his crew certainly knew how to throw a party on stage.

He may have refused interviews and press conferences, due to an international ban he has going on, but what we didn't get to ask him he definitely made up for when he burst onto the stage from a giant blue bubble complete with wings and a white shirt-trouser combo.

And not only that but, born in Lebanon, he tried his hardest to remember as much Arabic as possible in a bid to communicate with his non-English speaking fans.

People of all ages rushed as near to the stage as possible to catch a glimpse of the showman. All the favourites made an
appearance including Big Girls, Love Today and Grace Kelly, which had the audience going wild.

Mika rose to fame around the end of 2006 and was trained by Alla Ardakov (Ablaberdyeva), a Russian opera professional.

He knows how to entertain, maybe due to the fact his public performances vary from classical performances at the Royal Opera House, writing in-flight music for British Airways and creating an Orbit chewing gum jingle.

Vocal range

But it's his rumoured-to-be five octave vocal range which seems to really win him points.

Mika is the first performer I have seen in a while who really looks like he is having fun on stage. He embraces every minute of his show and seems to almost feed off the audience for inspiration.

Jumping from front-of-stage microphone songs to tunes while seated at his piano, he literally ran everywhere for the entire performance.

The girls had their way as the singer whipped off his top before bounding back on stage to join his female drummer for a dustbin "drum-off".

Flowers of all colours were hanging from pretty much every microphone stand, amp and piece of equipment in sight, exuding a feeling of fun.

Suffice to say, Mika will always be welcome to return to the UAE - people loved him.