Mika left Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield shocked as he revealed the backstage drama that ensued prior to the Eurovision Song Contest airing to millions across the globe. The singer, who hosted the competition, appeared live on This Morning on Tuesday (July 5) to chat to the hosts.
While on the show to discuss his new music, including his new single Yo Yo, the presenting duo couldn't help but ask Mika about his biggest gig of the year back in May when he co-hosted Eurovision in Turin, Italy, alongside Italian singer Laura and Italian TV presenter Alessandro Cattelan.
He told Phillip and Holly: "They make you do the show six times, and you do three shows, and in the end, you have done a show 25 times. Each show lasts between three and four hours."
The Grace Kelly songmaker also explained that he was caught off guard by Laura's unexpected break from stage, when a line on the teleprompter appeared that had been labelled for her to read. "Where did she go?" Phillip, 60, asked, as Mika replied: "She fainted actually."
Phillip looked stunned while a surprised Holly exclaimed: "No!" Mika then carried on: "In fact, it was the beginning of Covid for her, she had Covid and she didn't know. So she collapsed backstage and she was exhausted and she was feeling unwell and we found ourselves in front of 200 million people making it up."
He said her sudden absence meant they found themselves "in front of 200million people making it up" which lead Holly, 41, to comment about how 'well' the hosts did to deal with the situation, saying: "From watching it, nobody would have been able to tell that there was anything like that going on backstage."
But Mika admitted: "There’s a couple of moments where you just see me kind of looking slightly to the side for help." Laura revealed herself a few days after the Eurovision final in a statement shared on Twitter that she had tested positive for the virus.
Mika himself sent fans wild as they tuned in to watch Eurovision back in May. Mika shot to fame here in the UK in 2007 with his number one song Grace Kelly from the debut album Life In Cartoon Motion and a string of hits including Love Today, Relax (Take It Easy) and Lollipop.
The Lebanese-born Brit Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated star is now best known for his work in Italy after being appointed as a judge on The X Factor Italy in 2013. Multi-lingual Mika was also chosen to be a judge and mentor on the French version of The Voice before being chosen as the co-host the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
And for many, this was first time they have seen Mika since he broke through in the 2000s with his versatile singing voice. But this year's contest proved to be a big night for the UK as well as war-torn Ukraine. The country's Kalush Orchestra ended up securing victory of the 2022 competition on the night followed in close second by the UK who was represented by TikTok sensation Sam Ryder.
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