Mika and Holly Johnson unveiled as Attitude’s latest cover stars – as they talk homophobia, HIV and Pleasuredome’s enduring legacy
Issue 368 of Attitude magazine is available to order now, alongside 15 years of back issues on the free Attitude app
By Callum Wells
Pop icon Mika and Frankie Goes to Hollywood legend Holly Johnson have been unveiled as Attitude’s latest cover stars, coming together for a rare, intergenerational conversation about queer pop, censorship, HIV and survival.
Ahead of the release of his new album Hyperlove, the Beirut-born chart-topper met one of his biggest heroes to reflect on the legacy – and ongoing impact – of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s gamechanging debut Welcome to the Pleasuredome, widely regarded as one of the most definitive queer pop albums of all time.
“To say that Welcome to the Pleasuredome was an important album to me would be such a huge understatement,” Mika says. “It did change my life and music; it has changed so many people’s perception of pop and how they approach it.”
“It wasn’t a worthy, right-on gayness,” Holly Johnson recalls of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s impact
The cover shoot and interview took place on World AIDS Day 2025, marking a poignant moment to reflect on Johnson’s legacy as one of the first musicians to publicly disclose his HIV status in 1993, and on the devastating shadow AIDS cast over a generation of gay men.
Alongside a striking joint photoshoot, the pair sit down for an in-depth discussion spanning everything from the BBC’s 1984 ban of ‘Relax’ and being told pop was “too gay”, to the music industry’s long history of sanitising queer artists.
“It wasn’t a worthy, right-on gayness,” Johnson recalls of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s impact. “It was an in-your-face, fuck-you-if-you-don’t-like-it gayness.”
“I never got work in America. Ever” – Mika on homophobia within the music industry
Mika also opens up about homophobia within the music industry, saying he overheard a label executive tell someone, “‘That shit’s too gay’… there’s just no point working this at radio or promoting it in America.” He adds bluntly: “I never got work in America. Ever.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, the artists discuss grief and loss, with Johnson speaking candidly about the death of his partner of 41 years earlier this year: “I already had a tour and two festivals to do. And I just had to carry on… It was a great distraction for me to go straight into that.” Mika reflects on channeling the loss of his mother into Hyperlove, which he describes as “alt weirdo psychedelic pop”.
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