Keisha Castle-Hughes recording her debut single

Kiwi Game of Thrones star Keisha Castle-Hughes has teamed up with home-grown entertainer Mika to record her debut single. The pair recorded a track in Los Angeles this week for a big-budget Hollywood movie. The song was written specially for Castle-Hughes by Mika, who has been impressed with the actress' voice. "She is a good singer," Mika told the Herald on Sunday from LA. "She hit the spot straight away. It wasn't a case of working with her for 14 hours until she hit the right notes." Mika said the song was inspired by a track called Paris Paris, recorded in the 1990s by legendary French film star Catherine Deneuve and British punk rock guru Malcolm McLaren. The tune will be on the soundtrack for an as yet unnamed US block-buster set for release sometime this year. "I wrote it with Keisha in mind and I knew it would suit her voice," Mika said. "She has been a big supporter of women's work with my charitable foundation in New Zealand and it has been great to finally get in the studio with her. It's an impressive debut." He revealed a deal for the recording was signed this week but said at this stage he was not allowed to disclose the title of the song or the movie it will be part of.

 Mika is in the middle of a busy six-week trip to the United States and Canada. He recently attended a star-studded event at the Edison Ballroom in New York for the Michelle Obama-backed Hip Hop Public Health organisation. His Mika Haka Foundation is a New Zealand partner. "I met everyone from Ice T to Ashanti and Chuck D. Even the Surgeon General was there. I was speaking alongside all these heavyweights and it felt like some validation for the work my foundation has been doing down the years." On Friday, Mika was a guest of honour at the Native American Music and Film Festival in California. And next week, a web series he created called the Aroha Project will launch at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto. The series highlights examples of young people overcoming bullying and alienation. The New Zealand-made string of six-minute episodes will also be available online and as part of Maori Television's healthy lifestyle programme, Matika. Mika hoped people would "download and share them, get the message out there. "This is an important issue that needs wider discussion and a higher level of awareness," he said.