He's just won a Brit for breakthrough act, but Mika played this sold-out show as if he still had something to prove. Indeed, he beamed a perfectly white smile and bounced around excitedly for almost the entire 80 minutes.

Although he opened the Brits ceremony and took home an award, Mika lost out in the best British male category to Mark Ronson, a non-singing producer who's lived in New York for 25 years.

However, there were no complaints from the Beirut-born and Kensington-based singer during this show, which was rescheduled from December due to illness.

Instead, he enthused about "what a crazy year it's been" and unleashed his fearsome falsetto on Relax, Take It Easy.

After once describing himself as "musical Marmite", Mika has become a sensation across Europe and has global sales of four million for his debut, Life In Cartoon Motion. He could be cashing in, but claims his expensive stage show barely breaks even.

It began with a woman dressed as an angel bursting out of a balloon and featured glitter cannons, a string section-and a bizarre scene in which Mika embraced a giant skeleton puppet during a snowstorm.

Overall, though, it was not an especially bold or original production. But it held the interest of hundreds of children, while their parents sang along happily to the gaudy disco-pop.

Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) featured a couple of larger ladies in tutus dancing on stage. Mika then switched to his keyboard for the Robbie Williams-style ballad My Interpretation and stayed there for Billy Brown, a flamboyant song about a man who leaves his wife to live on the Mexican coast with another man.

If that went unnoticed, the scene where Mika and his band dressed in teddy bear and bunny costumes and simulated sex behind a screen probably did require some awkward explanations from parents on the way home.

After a year of touring, Mika has established a live show with strong production and capable musicians.

Yet for all the effort that went into his performance, including a frantic drumming session with dustbins, it only really soared on pure pop anthems such as the fizzing Love Today and the No 1 Grace Kelly.

He tried out a new song, the Eighties-sounding How Much Do You Love Me?, and the playful Lollipop confirmed his primary school appeal.

But while Mika is undoubtedly talented, watching him perform can sometimes be an exhausting experience.

Brixton Academy, tonight and Thursday, returns only. Info: 0207 771 3000