Thursday, August 19, 2010 5:42am ET by  

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Why Mika does what he does

Mika has revealed that music gives him a "sense of identity".

The singer, who was forced to flee war-torn Lebanon as a child, revealed that moving to different countries left him feeling unsure of who he was.

Discussing his childhood with the Daily Telegraph, he said, "When the shells came in we’d hide in the basement of the garage - with the cars, which all had full tanks of petrol. But west Beirut was deemed the safer part of the city - there were no snipers."

Mika continued, "I was kicked out of (private) school many times, for not being able to pay the bills - and my parents still refused to put me in state school, probably because I would have been pulverised. I don’t feel like I belong to any country. It’s why I do what I do. It gives me a sense of identity."

Last month on July 24, the Beirut-born singer performed his very first concert in Romania, at the H2O beach in Mamaia.