Audrey Mika Armacost (born July 28, 2000), known professionally as Audrey Mika, is an American singer and songwriter.

Early life

Audrey Mika Armacost grew up in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She grew up listening to

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

artists including

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

and

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, and was trained in

vocal jazz Vocal jazz or jazz singing is an approach to jazz using the voice. Vocal jazz emerged in the early twentieth century, with its roots in Blues. Popular blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey had a great deal of influence of jazz vocalis ...

throughout her childhood. Prior to starting her music career, Mika danced competitively for 14 years until quitting in 2018. She posted her first video, an original song, to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

at the age of 15.

Career

Mika released her debut studio album, ''Are We There Yet'', in September 2018, through

Spinnup Spinnup was a digital music distribution service owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 2013 in Sweden. Spinnup is a signed distribution platform that offers an aggregator service to musicians and artist who are not signed to major labe ...

. Following this release, she began posting covers of songs by artists such as

Billie Eilish Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( ; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single " Ocean Eyes", written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, with whom ...

and

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...

to YouTube using a toy microphone from her bedroom. Her second studio album, ''Level Up'', was a

bedroom pop Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

effort made entirely using

GarageBand GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software s ...

, and released in February 2019. In June 2019, she released the single "Y U Gotta Be Like That", which went viral on the video-sharing platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. Her debut

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

, ''5 A.M.'', was released in February 2020 through

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. In April 2020, she released a remix of "Y U Gotta Be Like That" with featured vocals from rapper

Kyle Kyle or Kyles may refer to: Places Canada * Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada Ireland * Kyle, County Laois * Kyle, County Wexford Scotland * Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshir ...

, along with a music video for the track. She appeared as a featured vocalist alongside

Tate McRae Tate Rosner McRae (; born July 1, 2003) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. At the age of thirteen, she gained prominence as the first Canadian finalist on the American reality TV show ''So You Think You Can Dance''. McRae cau ...

on a remix of

Saygrace Grace Sewell (born 8 April 1997), known professionally as SayGrace (formerly Grace), is an Australian singer and songwriter. She is best known for "You Don't Own Me", a cover version of the 1963 Lesley Gore song, produced by Quincy Jones, Parker ...

's song, "Boys Ain't Shit", released in April 2020. The remix spawned a music video, filmed by each of the singers remotely at home. She released the single "Just Friends" in May 2020, subsequently releasing a music video. In September 2020, she released the single "Red Gatorade". Her collaboration with American DJ

Gryffin Dan Griffith (born September 29, 1987), known by his stage name Gryffin (often stylized in all caps), is an American musician, DJ, songwriter, and record producer. He gained recognition for remixing some well-known songs such as Tove Lo's " Ta ...

, "

Safe With Me "Safe with Me" is a song by British singer Sam Smith, from their debut EP ''Nirvana'' (2013). It peaked at number 86 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was written by Sam Smith and Two Inch Punch, the latter also producing the song. Track listin ...

", was released in November 2020.

Artistry

Mika has listed

Imagine Dragons Imagine Dragons is an American pop rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, consisting of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman. The band first gained exposure with the release of their sing ...

, and

MARINA A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

as influences on her music during her childhood, and listed

Jhené Aiko Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo (; born March 16, 1988) is an American singer who embarked on her music career contributing vocals and appearing in several music videos for R&B group B2K. In an effort to promote Aiko and cultivate a following for he ...

Dominic Fike Dominic David Fike (born December 30, 1995) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. Fike first received recognition after releasing several popular songs to the website SoundCloud. Following the release of his debut extended play, '' Don't ...

Omar Apollo Omar Apolonio Velasco (born May 20, 1997), known professionally as Omar Apollo, is an American singer and songwriter. After signing a record deal with Warner Records, his debut album, ''Ivory'', was released in 2022 to positive reviews for his ...

, and

Daniel Caesar Ashton Dumar Norwill Simmonds (born April 5, 1995), known professionally as Daniel Caesar, is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After independently building a following through the release of two critically acclaimed EPs, ''Praise Break'' (201 ...

as influences as well.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mika, Audrey American singer-songwriters American women singer-songwriters 2000 births Living people 21st-century American women