Ah, the first hype of spring! This time last year it was Arctic Monkeys. Now we have Mika. Virtually unknown before Christmas, the 23-year-old singer was declared the brightest hope for 2007 by just about every tastemaker prepared to venture an opinion. Such votes of confidence from those pulling the levers of power in the record industry tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies, and within a few weeks Mika’s debut single Grace Kelly and its parent album, Life in Cartoon Motion, had both topped the charts.

Whereas Arctic Monkeys were a grass-roots rock phenomenon — four working-class lads singing about life on the Sheffield streets — Mika’s persona has been cut from rather more exotic cloth. Born Mica Penniman in Beirut, he was brought up in Paris and London, where he studied at the Royal College of Music. His music is arch and flamboyant, and the brief show he put on at Koko was informed by a similar air of theatrical whimsy.

As his four-piece backing band eased into the disco beat of Relax (Take it Easy), Mika pranced on to the stage. Dressed in a jewelled hoody and tight green trousers, he wiggled his hips and pitched straight into a piercing falsetto melody line that recalled the singing style of Jimmy Somerville. Pink neon strips lit up during Love Today, another disco stomp with Mika’s emasculated vocal tone this time sounding a little like Justin Hawkins, of the Darkness.

Mika has declined to comment about his sexual orientation, which is his prerogative. But one’s “gaydar” did not have to be too finely tuned to pick up certain signals as the performance unfolded. Pink neon strips lit up during Love Today, while Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) — lyric inspired by Queen, music redolent of the Scissor Sisters — was the cue for two amply proportioned women in blue basques, frilly knickers and red cowboy hats to arrive on stage for a little pas de deux. A two-man horn section arrived for Billy Brown, a vaudevillian romp about a man who “fell in love with another man”.

This was one of several songs played with considerable gusto by Mika at the piano, and there was no doubting the fluency of his playing or the sheer exuberance of his personality. But apart from one number, when Mika was joined by a cellist and a harmony singer, in which he strived for something with a deeper emotional resonance, the touch of the performance seemed so light and fluffy that a high wind would have been enough to blow the whole thing away.

Still, it ended with a bang. During a comically over-the-top finale of Lollipop, purple confetti was blasted from cannon and balloons rained down, while girls in red dresses and people in monkey suits arrived on stage carrying three-foot-high polystyrene letters spelling out the word LOVE.

The tour continues at University of Northumbria, Newcastle, tonight; ABC2, Glasgow, Monday; Manchester University, Tuesday; Cockpit, Leeds, Wednesday. 28.

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