One of the most heavily hyped artists in recent times, flamboyant Lebanese-born singer Mika had been declared a star long before he released his first single.

But despite his appearance in just about every one of those "ones to watch in 2007" lists, the fickle world of the media moves so fast now that in some quarters the murmurings of a backlash against him have already begun.

Luckily for Mika, though, his success - which recently saw him sell his 500,000th copy of his album Life In Cartoon Motion - is not dependent on being thought cool, groundbreaking or edgy by socalled tastemakers, since in truth, he is none of those things.

No, Mika's massive popularity is built on a far more solid foundation of a repertoire of gloriously lifeaffirming songs, a bucketload of charisma and a fantastic voice. All of these were very much in evidence at last night's spectacular show, and Mika's fans lapped it up.

Opening, as he usually does, with debut single Relax, Take It Easy, Mika displayed a breathtaking falsetto. The crowd - whose gay-and-female-heavy demographic, with plenty of silly fancy dress thrown in, seemed to confirm the idea that Mika's stealing the Scissor Sisters' fans - reacted with abandon to this high-energy opener as the gangly star pranced and strutted in a fabulously camp skin-tight white outfit that brought to mind the man with whom he's most often compared: Freddie Mercury.

I harboured the uncharitable suspicion that such perfect, strong high-notes must have been the result of miming. But I was wrong.

It soon became clear, as his band took a back seat and he sat at his piano to perform the gentler My Interpretation, that Mika's voice really is as extraordinary as it seems.

Lacking enough of his own material to fill the show, Mika made the sensible decision to sing a few songs by other people. The excellent Ring Ring was followed by a masterful rendition of The Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams that had bums flying off seats. Another successful cover was The Jackson Five's I Want You Back.

As he followed these up with the crowd-pleasingly jolly Love Today, a carnival atmosphere prevailed as the audience entered an even more intense frenzy. Don't ask me why, but he performed the track dressed as a chicken while his keyboard player struggled manfully on, despite the clear discomfort caused by his rabbit costume.

It was a suitably theatrical end to a spectacular performance that clearly owed more to the traditions of musical theatre than to those of rock'n'roll.