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MIKA as a judge at "THE VOICE" France 2014


Sweetieval

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Hm, we could discuss it without ending but for what? Someone said; maybe I'm a bad fan. I don't think so. But what is a good and what is a bad fan? In my opinion no-one is a bad fan because he or she said, that he is not happy about Mikas plans. A fan should support, indeed, but it doesn't mean to say Amen to all but also a fan can't decide what is good or bad for his career. To be fan doesn't mean that we own Mika. He decides for himself, not for us and that's okay:thumb_yello:

 

I'm still convinced - as for XF Italy - that from those low charts' positions for TOOL, one can't refuse a proposal of that kind. So was it a choice of his?

Well, maybe, but maybe more an obliged one.

Maybe his positions against the snobism of certain musicians about talent shows are another eccentric way of be against the clichés, maybe he was honest about this, I personally believe this, but in my opinion it's also true that it was a choice he HAD to do.

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Hm, we could discuss it without ending but for what? Someone said; maybe I'm a bad fan. I don't think so. But what is a good and what is a bad fan? In my opinion no-one is a bad fan because he or she said, that he is not happy about Mikas plans. A fan should support, indeed, but it doesn't mean to say Amen to all but also a fan can't decide what is good or bad for his career. To be fan doesn't mean that we own Mika. He decides for himself, not for us and that's okay:thumb_yello:

 

Basically, the format is this. I know this because it is Dutch and it was very innovative back then:mf_rosetinted::

 

- You have blind auditions in which coaches only hear a voice and have to turn around based on the voice alone. After these rounds each coach will have a team of contestants. In the UK it was 10 but in Holland for example it is 16.

- The contestants will then have to battle against each other. So, Mika would have 2 of his contestants battle with each other while performing at the same time. He then picks one contestant who will go through to the next round, the other will be out. Mika will have a team of people he likes to work with who will help him decide which contestant to pick. Let's say Doriand is his second advisor here.

- Then you have the live shows. The coaches will work with each of their contestants and pick a song they have to perform. The audience votes who has to go. Then of each team, two contestants will go to the 'sing-offs'. The coach then has to pick one of them to go through to the next round.

- In the last phase, every coach will have 2 contestants left. In this phase, the vote of the coaches is 50% but the votes of the public count for 50% as well. Then each coach will have 1 contestant left and then we'll have the finals.

 

I saw the first edition of The Voice Italy.

I found it very boring, except the blind audition phase.

The mechanism you illustrated is very well organized, and I already imagine Mika's faces in hearing the voices without looking at the face or look, and the moment the red chair turns...

 

The interesting mechanism is also that in case two judges or more choose the candidate, then it's he/she who chooses the coach.

 

Really will be anyone who wil decide not to choose him?

:naughty:

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So he answered... he doesn't know how long they work "for the show", but

with the contestants... he says about one hour/week per participant!

 

 

I asked him another question, waiting for the answer.

 

:thumb_yello:

When we want to discover something, we're really dangerous :aah:

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I saw the first edition of The Voice Italy.

I found it very boring, except the blind audition phase.

The mechanism you illustrated is very well organized, and I already imagine Mika's faces in hearing the voices without looking at the face or look, and the moment the red chair turns...

 

The interesting mechanism is also that in case two judges or more choose the candidate, then it's he/she who chooses the coach.

 

Really will be anyone who wil decide not to choose him?

:naughty:

 

I actually wish they would never get to see what the person looks like, til the end. I know it's impossible, but I think it influences them later on. :teehee:

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I'm still convinced - as for XF Italy - that from those low charts' positions for TOOL, one can't refuse a proposal of that kind. So was it a choice of his?

Well, maybe, but maybe more an obliged one.

Maybe his positions against the snobism of certain musicians about talent shows are another eccentric way of be against the clichés, maybe he was honest about this, I personally believe this, but in my opinion it's also true that it was a choice he HAD to do.

 

I'm sorry, but these musicians aren't being snobbish at all.

They are defending the musicians who go out and do the circuit, who play to small audiences in pubs and clubs, who go around to the record companies with their demos, mostly getting rebuffed, a few may get their music taken and played to a wider audience, if they are lucky. But the majority don't, but they keep going and carry on playing smaller audiences, and build their own little fanbases.

This is what Mika himself did, and he did get lucky, and I'm disappointed in him taking that stance that musicians who defend the talent out there who choose not to go on these shows and get moulded into a corporate pop act are being "snobbish", when back in 2007, he was as much against it as these musicians he talks of now.

And I don't believe he HAD to go on these 2 shows at all.

What he could have done was get the new album done, and done solid promo, instead of the hit and miss promo that happened for the last album.

Being on these shows may get him noticed in their respective countries, but he has a worldwide fanbase, and some countries haven't even had gigs yet (Mexico and S.Africa, where he is VERY popular, I've been told his music is played there A LOT!) while some haven't seen him since 2007/08 (Australia, S. America).

I fear all this will do is turn him into a celebrity, something he said in the past he wasn't interested in becoming.

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What he could have done was get the new album done, and done solid promo, instead of the hit and miss promo that happened for the last album.

.

 

i doubt he really has this choice. good promo needs good staff who know the important people in radio, tv,... and it needs money. i'm sure he can't expect any support there from his record companies in countries like the uk or germany. unfortunately record labels nowadays only invest in new artists, new hypes, and expect that someone whose 1st album sold well won't need more promo than a few radio interviews to sell the 2nd, 3rd... album just as well. and no album success means no tour success, which means also that tour promo companies will think twice about inviting him again, after all for them it's simply an investment of money that has to be worth it.

 

and who knows what choices he really has of hiring freelance promoters, for example - his record contracts might not allow this. or if they do, i'm sure it's pretty expensive - so maybe he needs the money from the casting shows to promote his next album? :dunno:

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I'm sorry, but these musicians aren't being snobbish at all.

They are defending the musicians who go out and do the circuit, who play to small audiences in pubs and clubs, who go around to the record companies with their demos, mostly getting rebuffed, a few may get their music taken and played to a wider audience, if they are lucky. But the majority don't, but they keep going and carry on playing smaller audiences, and build their own little fanbases.

This is what Mika himself did, and he did get lucky, and I'm disappointed in him taking that stance that musicians who defend the talent out there who choose not to go on these shows and get moulded into a corporate pop act are being "snobbish", when back in 2007, he was as much against it as these musicians he talks of now.

And I don't believe he HAD to go on these 2 shows at all.

What he could have done was get the new album done, and done solid promo, instead of the hit and miss promo that happened for the last album.

Being on these shows may get him noticed in their respective countries, but he has a worldwide fanbase, and some countries haven't even had gigs yet (Mexico and S.Africa, where he is VERY popular, I've been told his music is played there A LOT!) while some haven't seen him since 2007/08 (Australia, S. America).

I fear all this will do is turn him into a celebrity, something he said in the past he wasn't interested in becoming.

 

I agree about Australia and South America, if he has got a lot of fans there, and for sure you have more information than I can have, it's strange not to do some dates there, for the same reason that you have to do “customer retentions” with old fans, and hopefully gather new ones.

 

Regarding the choices of the strategy, the one you describe for certain musician is certainly an alternative, but I consider the participation at talents as another one, and personally a valid one, but everyone has his personal opinion.

The thing I can confirm to you that during the last meetings with Italian fans for the Italian XF auditions, I met several people who discovered Mika just through XF, and joined us after the “usual” steps, like:

“wow, what a voice, but who is he?”“ah, was he the one of Relax”?“Oh, so he writes his stuff?”“But his lyrics are… wow!” after what (“top it with a cherry”), they began to download everything and began to search if he would come nearby.

I can assure that at least one person I met, having discovered him after his concerts in Italy, and conceiving that the acoustic tour in a small venue was a great opportunity to “discover” him live too, bought a flight to USA.

She began her adventure in Mikaworld, just thanks to that scene with Chiara at the piano (the one like “there are lot of rats in the music industry”), and she is actually one of the most passionate fan I ever met.

And I’m sure she’s not the only lonely one.

 

That’s why I can’t be against this, for me it’s an opportunity for him.

I don’t think that he’s only trying to gain celebrity and stop, I just think that a great venue of people jumping and singing your words are a stardust one aims to see from the stage, and obviously filling an arena gives you the opportunity to carry on other projects like the one he mentioned for Paris, for instance.

I’m not super happy of this overexposure of talents, don’t get me wrong, but in a general way, I don’t see any crime in his choice, for the reasons I tried to expose.

Obliged or not, we’ll never know.

:fisch:

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i doubt he really has this choice. good promo needs good staff who know the important people in radio, tv,... and it needs money. i'm sure he can't expect any support there from his record companies in countries like the uk or germany. unfortunately record labels nowadays only invest in new artists, new hypes, and expect that someone whose 1st album sold well won't need more promo than a few radio interviews to sell the 2nd, 3rd... album just as well. and no album success means no tour success, which means also that tour promo companies will think twice about inviting him again, after all for them it's simply an investment of money that has to be worth it.

 

and who knows what choices he really has of hiring freelance promoters, for example - his record contracts might not allow this. or if they do, i'm sure it's pretty expensive - so maybe he needs the money from the casting shows to promote his next album? :dunno:

In the UK, he would need to be invited onto important shows. I'm hoping that, if he is a success on XFI, he will be mentioned on XFUK, or maybe they'll ask him to come and sing on it. The same with The Voice in France.

The shows he's on atm are very insular, because of the language problems for international fans, but I hope he makes waves which wash up in the UK somehow.

The thing with a UK tour, as I mentioned on The Oldlings, is that he needs the publicity first, otherwise he won't even fill his own living room. It's no use doing tiny gigs like he did last year. He has to make an impact and that means, at least, a theatre tour.

I still say, it's his record company's fault. They are supposed to get him the spots on TV and get him played on big radio stations like Radio One. They didn't even advertise his album on TV. It's not Mika's job to get himself out there. It's his publicists job to book the spots, and Mika's job to turn up, smile and sing. He's not even played now on the big radio stations so no one knows he's still around making new music.

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I agree about Australia and South America, if he has got a lot of fans there, and for sure you have more information than I can have, it's strange not to do some dates there, for the same reason that you have to do “customer retentions” with old fans, and hopefully gather new ones.

 

Regarding the choices of the strategy, the one you describe for certain musician is certainly an alternative, but I consider the participation at talents as another one, and personally a valid one, but everyone has his personal opinion.

The thing I can confirm to you that during the last meetings with Italian fans for the Italian XF auditions, I met several people who discovered Mika just through XF, and joined us after the “usual” steps, like:

“wow, what a voice, but who is he?”“ah, was he the one of Relax”?“Oh, so he writes his stuff?”“But his lyrics are… wow!” after what (“top it with a cherry”), they began to download everything and began to search if he would come nearby.

I can assure that at least one person I met, having discovered him after his concerts in Italy, and conceiving that the acoustic tour in a small venue was a great opportunity to “discover” him live too, bought a flight to USA.

She began her adventure in Mikaworld, just thanks to that scene with Chiara at the piano (the one like “there are lot of rats in the music industry”), and she is actually one of the most passionate fan I ever met.

And I’m sure she’s not the only lonely one.

 

That’s why I can’t be against this, for me it’s an opportunity for him.

I don’t think that he’s only trying to gain celebrity and stop, I just think that a great venue of people jumping and singing your words are a stardust one aims to see from the stage, and obviously filling an arena gives you the opportunity to carry on other projects like the one he mentioned for Paris, for instance.

I’m not super happy of this overexposure of talents, don’t get me wrong, but in a general way, I don’t see any crime in his choice, for the reasons I tried to expose.

Obliged or not, we’ll never know.

:fisch:

Sorry for the extra post, but I just read your post, and I adore what you just said.

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I tried to read comments about the articles from non fans and almost everybody says most contestants will want to go with him :naughty:

 

Of course they will :naughty: I would not hesitate either :teehee: But I'll rely on my colleagues who watch the programme to tell me about Mika and the candidates he has chosen because this kind of programme is not my cup of tea. I would have rather seen Mika preparing album n°4 and promoting it. I hope he can still do this while doing 'the Voice' :mf_rosetinted:. If he can't, I'll put the blame on TF1 :fisch:.

The candidates trained by Mika will be very lucky :wink2:

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i doubt he really has this choice. good promo needs good staff who know the important people in radio, tv,... and it needs money. i'm sure he can't expect any support there from his record companies in countries like the uk or germany. unfortunately record labels nowadays only invest in new artists, new hypes, and expect that someone whose 1st album sold well won't need more promo than a few radio interviews to sell the 2nd, 3rd... album just as well. and no album success means no tour success, which means also that tour promo companies will think twice about inviting him again, after all for them it's simply an investment of money that has to be worth it.

 

and who knows what choices he really has of hiring freelance promoters, for example - his record contracts might not allow this. or if they do, i'm sure it's pretty expensive - so maybe he needs the money from the casting shows to promote his next album? :dunno:

 

:thumb_yello: I'm with you in these thoughts :wink2:

 

Love,love

me

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Sorry for the extra post, but I just read your post, and I adore what you just said.

 

:wink2:

Me too I loved what you said about his management

("It's his publicists job to book the spots, and Mika's job to turn up, smile and sing. He's not even played now on the big radio stations so no one knows he's still around making new music.")

It's so sad that in UK there are people who don't know yet that his third album was released...

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We can say whatever we want but I think money is the main reason he decided to do this. I'm not a fan of this decision but I hope he will surprise us with good music anytime soon. What would be a good idea is to do a Lady Gaga and rerelease TOOL with an ep of 5 to 8 songs. Then he won't be forgotten while working on a 4th album and still rides the waves of his popularity on the show.

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We can say whatever we want but I think money is the main reason he decided to do this. I'm not a fan of this decision but I hope he will surprise us with good music anytime soon. What would be a good idea is to do a Lady Gaga and rerelease TOOL with an ep of 5 to 8 songs. Then he won't be forgotten while working on a 4th album and still rides the waves of his popularity on the show.

 

sounds like a very good idea! :thumb_yello:. Hopefully he will do a Thing like that :wink2:

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I think Mika actually touched on the truth when he said that his record company does not back his songs so he needs a beer company to do it. I don't know what is wrong with just saying that in regards to these talent shows. It is better than playing the public (and by extension his fans) for fools by saying totally non credible things like that he chose to do Italian X Factor because somehow Italy and X Factor are exceptional cases. He even used rejecting a similar show in France as a comparison to demonstrate how Italy was different. :doh:

 

I don't know if this is like the question of Mika's sexuality years ago where he knew that his fans understood the truth and expected us to look the other way while he tells the press what he wants them to hear. But I think there is a way to be essentially truthful about this without it sounding "bad". Because once it comes to light you are not being entirely truthful then people will assume the worst possible motivations anyway.

 

Whatever his motivations are I don't believe Mika had "no choice". There is always a choice. Mika's original "story" was that he made a choice between staying true to himself or doing whatever is necessary to be a commercially successful pop star. That choice is always available to him. I am sorry for him and angry with various players in the music industry that he needs to make that choice, but it remains a choice nonetheless.

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Sometimes I actually feel bad for him because he deserves so much better :( But he does seem happy nowadays so, hmm... Maybe he does have some big plans for the future to give his career a boost? We'll see I guess.

 

I hope so too. He is one of the few truly talented artists left.

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Sometimes I actually feel bad for him because he deserves so much better :( But he does seem happy nowadays so, hmm... Maybe he does have some big plans for the future to give his career a boost? We'll see I guess.

 

I think that everyone hopes it... It's weird that nowadays go on people who do not have talent but have much publicity by radio or by the record companies while people with a talent as special as that of Mika have to sweat every last ounce of notoriety...

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Hello everybody, I'm new on the MFC and this is my first “serious” post. :) I just wanted to express my opinion too, and I apologize in advance for my English that isn't perfect. Let's start: I honestly still hope that it is just a rumour. There are a lot of things that don't convince me at all... First of all, I have to reply to those who see Mika's presence in the Italian Xfactor as a sort of “self-selling”, a way to earn money and popularity selling himself to something that is distant from his anticonformist approach on music. The thing is that most of you have a wrong idea about the Italian XF, 'cause you probably have in mind the english or the american ones (that's not your fault! ;). However, as I've said in my introduction thread, it's not that I'm a fan of the talent-show “mentality”, but I have to admit that Italian XF is different, and I'm personally very, very proud of the fact that Mika has undestood exactly the atmosphere of the show: it is not just a singing competition where melodramatic girls try to reach the highest notes of “I will always love you”, or where the judges are singers who were successful in the past and who are yearning for popularity and argue for the sake of the show. Italian XF, mostly thanks to the judge Morgan, is a show that-of course- has its television aspects, but whose aim is to get some good, not mainstream, often not well-known music on tv, and where the judges and the contestants like to be creative, not just “perform a song”. When Mika appeared as a guest judge last year he listened to Chiara who was singing a beautiful song written by an old Italian songwriter who is almost unknown today, and the judge who had chosen it had worked himself on the musical base, and even asked Mika if he recalised that he had tried to recreate the rhythm of the Bowie song “Can you hear me?” (Poor Mika :D). Then again, a few years ago, Marco Mengoni sang “My baby just cares for me”, by Nina Simone, or “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads, and I don't think that getting a wider audience of people to know music like this can be anything but a good thing. What I am trying to say is that it is different because it is very honest, as Mika said “free, not controlled”, everyone says what they want and the judges (except for Simona Ventura -.-) are all clever people and good musicians who care for music and not for the show. As Mika himself said (more or less)“Is this show businness? Yes. Is it art? No. Can art come from a show like this? Yes.” What I mean is that his partecipation on the show is not a mainstream choice, but the confirmation of his total unconformity, and that's why I'm happy with his choice, because it can stimulate him even artistically, it is something he can put his creativity and originality into. That's what doesn't convince me in this The Voice thing, the fact that he had even said that he refused to accept last year, the fact that he said in several interviews that he liked being on the italian xf because the judges had “a good energy, but a clever energy, and funny, not like the other music programmes” (Radio Deejay Interview). As I've said before these things that he said are not made up, I confirm that they're true because I know the italian xf and I know what he is talking about. And his partecipation on the voice sounds so weird to me, it doesn't look nor like a thing he would enjoy, nor like a challenge, nor something that may stimulate him. Then I don't know, he may have the best reasons in the world, but I'm not convinced at all. Anyway if this is true I hope he has a good time,I'm happy for the French people, and I hope he has the time to record the 4th album!! (I don't think time would be a problem , they say Freddie Mercury wrote “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” while he was having a bath XD). Well, sorry if I have gone off-topic somehow but I've wanted to say these things for a long time. :)

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Hello everybody, I'm new on the MFC and this is my first “serious” post. :) I just wanted to express my opinion too, and I apologize in advance for my English that isn't perfect. Let's start: I honestly still hope that it is just a rumour. There are a lot of things that don't convince me at all... First of all, I have to reply to those who see Mika's presence in the Italian Xfactor as a sort of “self-selling”, a way to earn money and popularity selling himself to something that is distant from his anticonformist approach on music. The thing is that most of you have a wrong idea about the Italian XF, 'cause you probably have in mind the english or the american ones (that's not your fault! ;). However, as I've said in my introduction thread, it's not that I'm a fan of the talent-show “mentality”, but I have to admit that Italian XF is different, and I'm personally very, very proud of the fact that Mika has undestood exactly the atmosphere of the show: it is not just a singing competition where melodramatic girls try to reach the highest notes of “I will always love you”, or where the judges are singers who were successful in the past and who are yearning for popularity and argue for the sake of the show. Italian XF, mostly thanks to the judge Morgan, is a show that-of course- has its television aspects, but whose aim is to get some good, not mainstream, often not well-known music on tv, and where the judges and the contestants like to be creative, not just “perform a song”. When Mika appeared as a guest judge last year he listened to Chiara who was singing a beautiful song written by an old Italian songwriter who is almost unknown today, and the judge who had chosen it had worked himself on the musical base, and even asked Mika if he recalised that he had tried to recreate the rhythm of the Bowie song “Can you hear me?” (Poor Mika :D). Then again, a few years ago, Marco Mengoni sang “My baby just cares for me”, by Nina Simone, or “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads, and I don't think that getting a wider audience of people to know music like this can be anything but a good thing. What I am trying to say is that it is different because it is very honest, as Mika said “free, not controlled”, everyone says what they want and the judges (except for Simona Ventura -.-) are all clever people and good musicians who care for music and not for the show. As Mika himself said (more or less)“Is this show businness? Yes. Is it art? No. Can art come from a show like this? Yes.” What I mean is that his partecipation on the show is not a mainstream choice, but the confirmation of his total unconformity, and that's why I'm happy with his choice, because it can stimulate him even artistically, it is something he can put his creativity and originality into. That's what doesn't convince me in this The Voice thing, the fact that he had even said that he refused to accept last year, the fact that he said in several interviews that he liked being on the italian xf because the judges had “a good energy, but a clever energy, and funny, not like the other music programmes” (Radio Deejay Interview). As I've said before these things that he said are not made up, I confirm that they're true because I know the italian xf and I know what he is talking about. And his partecipation on the voice sounds so weird to me, it doesn't look nor like a thing he would enjoy, nor like a challenge, nor something that may stimulate him. Then I don't know, he may have the best reasons in the world, but I'm not convinced at all. Anyway if this is true I hope he has a good time,I'm happy for the French people, and I hope he has the time to record the 4th album!! (I don't think time would be a problem , they say Freddie Mercury wrote “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” while he was having a bath XD). Well, sorry if I have gone off-topic somehow but I've wanted to say these things for a long time. :)

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain italian XF...

 

And I agree that there are a few things that don't add up with the "french escapade" as someone said.:wink2:

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MTV let Ariana sing 2 songs on their VMA pre-show, I really wish Mika had been there to sing their popular song Popular. Really, he should be in the US promoting this song, which is doing so well on it's own.

 

I know. If and when they release it as a single from her album he is going to have a window of a few weeks to get in there and capitalize on it. If he is chained to these TV shows it will have all been for nought. What was the point of doing this song with her if he's not going to ride her wave.

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