Susan_xian

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I post this thread! I went to Mika's 1st gig in Beijing last week! It was my 1st Mika show and it was just amazing! Now my feeling is really complicated as I know he has to cancel the following 2 shows in China after having 2 shows at one night in Beijing. He could simply cancel the show that night if he is not allowed to play for all audience as planned. Really hope he could get better soon! Well in Beijing and Hangzhou, he spoke quite a few Mandarin Chinese. He made REALLY cute mistakes actually. Before singing Elle Me Dit he told us he spoke French and ask do we spoke French?A little? Like his Chinese? But he use the wrong words We have different expression for French the language and French the people but he got confused. He said literally he spoke some French people, do you speak French people? In Hangzhou he confused the word for France the nation and French the language. He taught fans to sing "elle me dit danse" and then praise the audience french is good but he literally said France the nation is good. it is really cute and funny! I still remember last time he came to China he could pronounce 123456 in Chinese with perfect tune, which is actually pretty hard for English speakers. This time it seems all the tunes are gone If someone like Mika's Chinese is still this cute after 9 years' study, I think I could forgive myself for my terrible French!

I'd been to Mika's first gig in Beijing. Now my feeling's really complicated. I've been a fan of his since his 1st album and knowing he'd come to China to perform just sounds to good to be true for me! A small gig like that of Mika's is actually on my bucket list. I still can't believe it happened! it is really sad to know that he didn't feel well after he has to play 2 shows in Beijing that night. He could just cancel Beijing if suddenly he is told that he can't play at that venue for 1000 people,not mention that he's already not feeling well at that time. But he chose to play 2 shows instead just not to disappoint every single one! I just want to tell Mika that we had plenty of time waiting for him to come back. We concern much more about his voice and health than if some gigs are canceled.

:naughty: It is just toooo funny!

Glad you enjoy the interview. Yes the Chinese fan mentioned that they are majored in fashion design. Zuleika mentioned that both her mom and sisters make and design clothes but they are not professional. Well if the girl know about Mika and the family as much as we do now she must get suspicious! Well we are now talking about Stephen King. Don't know much about him just watch some movie. But I think he do share much in common with Mika although their work seems completely different. I mean the imagination, the drama, well my english is too poor to describe it.

In case you can't open the interview. I post it here. Source: http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Magic-Mika-Singer-talks-Twitter-bullying-and-drinks/42139.html British singer Mika is bringing it back stateside in a return tour that is more acoustic and intimate than past sold-out shows. The artist who released his third album The Origin of Love last year has continually stepped up his game with his impressive vocal range while selling 8.5 million records in the process. This has developed into a large catalogue of work over the years, with songs such as "We Are Golden" and "Grace Kelly." His lead-off single and collaboration with Pharrell Williams, "Celebrate," was a highlight from his latest album. He then went Broadway using music inspired by the musical Wicked for "Popular Song," featuring Nickelodeon star Ariana Grande. The composer, Stephen Schwartz, was so moved by his rendition that it's the only time he's authorized its usage. Mika takes on bullying, Twitter and The Brady Bunch in this interview. Windy City Times: Hey, Mika. You are coming back to Chicago again. Mika: Yes, It's quite cool. I love Chicago. People dance and lose themselves there. It's fun. WCT: I noticed at a past concert of yours that people dressed in bright colors and jumped around. It's a big party. Mika: Yeah, which I find is funny because often the local crew at some of these places don't know who I am or don't know the live show so they are not prepared for what happens. Over the course of two hours the security staff is going, "What the heck?" WCT: The inflatable balls are flying in the air! Mika: Exactly. This show is different though. It is shrunk down to me and two other musicians. We are all swapping instruments so you have us all singing, there is a clarinet, trombone, sax, marimba, and tons of different sounds. But it is just three of us and I wanted something that was a lot more focused and dynamic that could go from acoustic to very big sounding. I thought that was really important. For the first time really across the United States I will show people how I make my music, and by seeing it in this setting you can kind of get it. What is amazing is that I have done shows with the piano and people still kind of jump up and down, while singing as loud as they possible can. I love the energy but this is a totally different vibe than the show we just did in Chicago. WCT: I knew the show would sell out, with such a small intimate space. Mika: It did quite fast, actually. I know my friends in Chicago were waiting to buy them in the morning. They waited like an hour too late because they didn't wake up and buy them in time. They were pissed. I said, "You see? Who are my real friends? My fans are my real friends!" I wasn't going to give them any tickets then a half hour later I asked, "How many do you want?" WCT: You have always been good to your fans. I know many people who wait until late to meet you but always come out and say hello. Mika: I always go out and talk to people. I come from nowhere and I try to make my music like I come from somewhere. If someone says they like what I do or relate to it in some way then it is inevitable that I meet them and hear what they say. I want my fans to become a part of my world too. I find that it's a really nice thing to come across. WCT: Your lyrics are very relatable to people. Tell me about the song "You Only Love Me When I'm Drunk." Mika: No, it's "I Only Love You When I'm Drunk" that's the song. [both laugh.] WCT: Oh, I got it mixed up. What was it inspired from? Mika: It was written completely as a message to someone I was hanging out with at the time. I was turning into the worst good-time lover. I wanted to look at somebody and have them look at me like they are drunk without having to drink anything. That is what I want out of the person that I am looking at. Some people have to actually be drunk to feel like they are going anywhere with someone. I would never have the courage to say it in real life, but I can in a song. WCT: I heard it playing at a gay bar recently. Mika: Really? That's ****ing cool! WCT: Do you have a favorite drink? Mika: An old-fashioned. I was with a friend in Miami at a club with all of these rich people and it was ****ing horrible. They were all party people who wanted to take drugs for the weekend to forget their lives. It was so incredibly loud. I decided to have a drink and leave. This was one of those most expensive places. When I asked the waitress for an old-fashioned she said, "What the ****? Do you think this is the 1920s?" I was like, "Listen up, bitch—this is why people don't come to your **** hole!" WCT: Well, we will have one after the show! Mika: Definitely. WCT: Is Wicked your favorite musical? Did that make you want to have your own take on "Popular?" Mika: I think it's a brilliant musical mainly for the writing. It has been masterfully written. The engineering of how it is written is absolutely amazing. I love the use of the Greek chorus. They have the maddening crowds in the classical theater way. I thought it was really cleaver. I just really loved the song and there was a sweetness about that hook. I always look for things that have that sweet coinable quality to them. I think you put everything in them that is bitter, dark, twisted and you put it next to a hook like that it suddenly becomes palatable. Just like "Lollipop" when you put all of that dark, strange, surreal stuff around it then it's okay because it's a lollipop. When I read that it was one of Stephen King's favorite songs I felt very validated. It was the same for "Popular." I loved the song and the sweetness of that hook so I wanted to turn it around. Instead of the cool chick I wanted the loser to sing it to her own advantage. That is why I switched the roles around. WCT: It works well as an anti-bullying song. Mika: Definitely. That is what it's about but it is more than that. Part of it is about bullying but it also about the music industry. We strive to hard to create something but we are still that same thing that we started off as. It definitely has some of my favorite lyrics on the whole album. "Standing on the field with your pretty pom poms now you are working at the movies selling popular corn." WCT: I heard you were bullied when you were younger so it must be rewarding to make a statement about it. Mika: I was absolutely bullied every day, every hour on the hour. It was horrific. I hated school and most of my school life as a child. I was always being dumped on. What the **** was their problem? How stupid, ignorant and foolish do you have to be to pick on someone? Especially when it is something they haven't chosen or can't change. How much of an idiot do you have to be? Whenever teachers would try to help they would never try to alienate the bully or really them what they thought of them. It is a bull**** attitude. Why didn't they stand up and say, "You are a ****ing idiot and here is why…" It always has to be so soft and the bullying is never soft. All of that **** made me want to create my own world. I wanted to transform myself into something else. I wanted to get my own vengeance. I wanted to be something else, somewhere else,and someone else so I wrote songs that felt like I could be anything. WCT: So it made you into the musician that you are. Mika: Definitely. On one hand I don't like that part of my life but it has made me who I am. I like who I am right now so would I be the same if I didn't have that experience? That doesn't matter because I came out of it well. I had a good family and a support mechanism. Take that support mechanism away and you are just ****ed. WCT: You had a big family, didn't you? Mika: Yes, I had five brothers and sisters. WCT: So kind of like The Brady Bunch. Mika: A little bit but as dysfunctional as you could possible get. Well, now that I think about it The Brady Bunch is pretty dysfunctional, [laughs] minus the braces. We didn't have a budget for braces! WCT: How many languages do you speak? Mika: I speak French, Spanish, English and I am about to learn Italian. I am trying to get fluent and conversational in the next few months. WCT: That's awesome. Mika: Oh, that is nothing. My sister speaks Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, French and English. The advantage we had was we actually moved around a lot. Language wasn't the kind of thing that you gleaned off textbooks. You were surrounded by it. It was so much easier. WCT: What has been the reaction of your fans after coming out of the closet publicly? Do they tweet you with their stories? Mika: No, I have found on Twitter that no one says anything meaningful or very rarely. Usually, it is an inconsequential sound bite on Twitter, which is one of the reasons I have a real problem with it. It just trivializes everything. We get messages on Facebook and I read those. That gets really intense sometimes. When I meet people after shows and on the street people tell me their stories and how I play into their lives. Beyond on that it has been quite amazing. There has been no increase or decrease since I labeled myself. It wasn't really much of a coming out but more of an affirmation in a way. There has never been an increase to it because people have been telling their stories and relating to me with stories of their lives and stories of their sexuality from the very beginning because they saw that in my music and it was clear. It has always been a part of who I am and my music. It is not all of it but definitely a fabric of who I am as a person and a writer. It is undeniable. Magic Mika will be at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave., on Wed., April 3. Visit http://www.lincolnhallchicago.com or http://www.mikasounds.com for more information on this artist and show

I'll post the whole interview. It is a Q&A interview. So I thought it was kind of trust worthy. For Chinese language, it is just too different from any other language in the world, which make it difficult for foreigners to learn and make our native speakers difficult to learn any other foreign languages. I never realize it's difficult until recently I try to teach the language to a british Yes. And Mika has been to Beijing at least 6 times and visit Zuleika a lot. I guess it is kind of an international school. Not sure how long she stayed in Beijing. That fan is preparing for her oversea study in US at that school and her oral English is better than average classmates so they became friends. She said Zuleika is really a nice person. Later due to some visa issue Zuleika go back to UK. All Mika's visits to China are private and very low profile except one time attend an award ceremony in HK to present a prize to a local singer. Not many people know him in China but all fans all hardcore ones. Just a pity that he come here so often and seems like the country but never had a concert in Mainland China. I'll go to Hong Kong anyway if he had gigs there but not in Mainland China. Well we don't have many sources about him here in China. We have to really search on purpose with proper key words on internet to find pictures of his family back that time (I think it is 2008). She said that Zuleika insist her to go to the dinner but she had some urgent work reaching deadline. So we guess maybe Zuleika want it to be a surprise. While if anyone interested and understand Chinese, here it is. http://tieba.baidu.com/p/497019439?pid=4995906544&cid=0#4995906544

Well. I think it's really only us get confused. What about Possible in You're making me more ordinary in every possible way in Rain? Yes that's the verse I'm talking about. I'm pretty sure that all Mandarin speakers hear Mika pronounce k will Chiara pronounce more like g in our language. So that's REALLY only my problem!! Do you know that we've been told in English lessons t after s in a English word the t will be pronounce like d sound like in student, mistake? I realize it's not correct years after but that's what I got from high school. I think maybe it's because it is a easy way to explain to English starters. Wow, you are just amazing to speak so many languages! Seems a mission impossible for me. Here is the source when Mika mentions his sisters language ability. http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Magic-Mika-Singer-talks-Twitter-bullying-and-drinks/42139.html We have a Chinese fan who has been Zuleika's classmate and very very close classmate in Beijing and she didn't know it until check Mika's family picture online later. She said that Zuleika speaks pretty good Chinese. She told us that Zuleika had all Mika's songs on her cell phone and always told her how cute his brother is! She never realize she was talking about Mika. And what more interesting is that once Mika visit Zuleika and this fan is invited to have dinner but she refused because she has too much work to do at that night!!She is really upset when later she know it was Mika. BTW we know Zuleika's talking about brother Mika not Fortune because in Chinese we have separate words for younger brother and elder brother.

Anyone can help this or at least notice this? Or am I the only one mess this up? You all think the consonants are the same in french and english? I do think mika pronounce P in purple, possible, people in the record a little like b. Never see Americans do that at the beginning of a word.

I remember Mika said that his sisters could speak English, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Chinese. The whole family are just crazy!

Has anyone heard his mom speaking french?

Really？ That's new to me. So both of the parents are US citizens and they just move to Lebanon together？ I remember Mika, Yasmin and Paloma are all born in Beirut?

I don't know much about Italian but have some knowledge in French and Spanish. Maybe it is as I said, it is just a problem for Chinese so you never really notice. We can never pronounce cadeau and Gâteau correctly:aah: Anyone could help? Have you noticed that in Stardust Mika and Chiara pronounce that Italian verse, which I don't understand, a little bit different? The k (or c, ch) sound？

In a Chinese website someone says when he speaks French, he has a Arabic accent. What is an Arabic accent? Speaking of Quebec, I still don't understand why they have to subtitle The Voice when a Canadian candidate's family member speaking. Is it that difficult for French people to understand Canadian English? My french is poor but to me it sound not that different.

Do you think in Italian language the t, p, k sound are exactly the same as those in English? If so, I think it is just our Chinese speaker's problem. I can never tell the difference of t,p,k and d,b,g in French, Spanish and Italian:sneaky2:...But of course English is never a problem.

Thank you very much! The website works for me. I can't go into this thread just to avoid spoiler. Can't wait to watch it!