Mika was trained by Alla Ardakov (Ablaberdyeva), a Russian opera professional. His public performances and jobs have varied from classical performances in the Royal Opera House to writing in-flight music for British Airways and creating an Orbit chewing gum jingle. His debut radio appearance was on Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show in September 2006, Later with Jools Holland and on The Friday Night Project on 19 January 2007.[citation needed] While he is rumoured to have a vocal range of five octaves, he claims that it is actually closer to three and a half octaves.

In January 2007, Mika was at the top of the BBC News website's Sound of 2007 poll.
--From Wikipedia