Mika – Live Review – Millennium Square, Leeds

By Graham Clark, July 2025

This year’s series of summer concerts at Millennium Square in Leeds features a stellar line-up of bands, kicking off with pop royalty in the shape of Mika, with strong support from Scouting for Girls.

With a solid back catalogue of hits, Scouting for Girls were always going to go down well. The band can easily headline shows themselves, such is their popularity – but as a warm-up act, there couldn’t have been a finer band to charm the crowd.

Frontman Roy Stride has a knack for audience participation – whether asking the sold-out crowd to get on their feet or become the band’s honorary fifth member, he and the rest of the group held the Leeds audience in the palm of their hands.

“Infectious”

Bolstered by the addition of versatile band member and session guitarist Nick Tsang, the hits flowed like a strong river. ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’ and ‘She’s So Lovely’ resonated with the fans – even their cover of Busted’s ‘Year 3000’ sounded like it could have been one of their own.

Flamboyant, fantastic and fascinating, Mika was back in Leeds after a long absence. Arriving on stage in a turquoise jacket with wings attached, this was never going to be an ordinary gig.

The singer – whose popularity shows no sign of waning thanks to his role as co-presenter of TV’s The Piano – drew fans from Ireland, Scotland and Wales to his Leeds show, such is the rarity of seeing Mika perform in the UK. The multilingual star is arguably even more successful in France and Italy – the latter being where he’s a judge on The Voice.

By the time he launched into ‘Lollipop’ – only the second song in – he was already standing on top of his piano. His energy was infectious, his demeanour friendly, and his talent undimmed, as he made his way through the audience while performing ‘Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)’.

“Effervescent”

A new track, ‘Spinning Out’, seemed more tailored to his French fanbase than this side of the Channel, blending Euro-pop with his trademark effervescent style.

“When was the last time a song was sung in French in Millennium Square?” he asked by way of introduction to ‘Elle me Dit’. Hearing the Yorkshire audience sing the chorus back in French, you could have been fooled into thinking you were in Lyon, not Leeds.

Naturally, his biggest hit to date – ‘Grace Kelly’ – was saved for the very end. As Millennium Square became one big dancefloor, few would have argued that this hadn’t been a brilliant start to this year’s summer concert series.

images: Graham Clark