Mika on new album and sister’s accident as inpiration; teaches Soledad O’Brien how to sing

Singer and songwriter Mika joins Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien to talk new album “Origin of Love” out today and the inspiration behind it. Mika later teaches Soledad how to sing.

Mika says, “I had done my second album, I was on the road for four and half years. And then I stopped and I didn’t know how to write again. Anyway, life happened. Things happened in life which kind of set off the writing process. And my sister, one night, on the first night that she moved into her new apartment, she was born disabled on one side and she’s weak on her left side. And she finally got her own place, and on her housewarming night, she had a horrific accident at three o clock in the morning.”

O’Brien says, “She fell out of the window.”

Mika continues, “Out of the fourth story. But she got caught by railings. So, it was pretty brutal because she got impaled on railings but that’s what saved her life. And I witnessed it, and I saw her at four AM and I just remember this silence, you know, an accident like that. All you remember is hush. That kind of woke me up and it kind of deconstructed by ego in almost every single way. Bizarrely, an album like The Origin of Love, which is this new album that is so joyful, is actually born out of, it started with something that was so tragic and dark. But she is doing well now. She spent a year and a half in hospital and she’s learning how to walk again.”

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs weekday mornings from 7-9am ET on CNN.