How popular/well known is Mika in your country and what are the general views on him?

[Coraline6]

Hi everyone:)

 

I was just thinking the other day about how Mika is mostly involved in France and Italy these days.  

I am from Canada and am a really big fan of Mika...I wish he received the notoriety he deserves.   I have never understood why he isn't popular in the U.S.  His music is amazing and of course he is very handsome and a lovely person.  I am always shocked that not many people here in Canada talk about him or know his music (I am not from Quebec though).  

I saw a commenter say he should try the USA/UK audience again and I agree! His music is too amazing to go unnoticed by these countries. 

 

So how is Mika perceived in your country?  

[Littlelady]

I still wish  he would be important  wordlwide and in my country but  I know it's just an illusion. The thing is, for his label( also  for other artists) already sales are mportant. No sales, no promo. Vicious circle starts. Sales in Germany are too small. no reason to speak about Mika. or to play his newer songs on radio. And also there is no interest from Mikas mangement to do Promo in Germany, the sucess in 2007 was already the result of the UK wave which splashed over and is gone.  And  so in Germany not much people remember or know Mika or they think he is not active any more cause he is not mentioned by media, not guest in shows.  Sure ,we fans  try our best but it is not easy to convince other people, to try his music,  listen to it . It's more comfortable to follow the crowd who are listening to pushed and more sucessful artists. I'm not happy  about Mikas underrating here  and other countries but to be angry about will not change anything and will not help him. I will do my two cents to support him and even it reaches just a handful people it is better than to do nothing or to grieve about the gone good times.  We all know he deserves more and maybe it will change again one day but as long we have him and his music and he  feels good with it  we can be thankful. Und maybe his managment in USa will try something in the states, we will see.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Littlelady

[A. Clay]

I think MIKA is the master of his own course. [Think it only natural to go where you are well appreciated.]

 

I'm from USA & he does do live shows occasionally, generally in an East Coast city like NYC, Philly or Washington, D.C. He's overdue for another  

 

An exception, perhaps, was that years ago he was scheduled for an AUG 10, 2007

morning GMA live performance as part of their outside summer live performance programs.

I believe he and his band traveled to NYC just for this event. 

 

Well, it rained HEAVY & they had to perform inside in the small TV station studio.

I've always thought this was a very bad break as far as increasing MIKA's exposure at

an early date in the USA.

MIKA's signs for fans forced to wait out side, say it all, 

[MIKA, ever thoughtful of his fans, quickly arranged a performance the NYC Highline Ballroom in the afternoon & did his best to get the word out. Fans who learned of it & were able to go went, but it was not the same as if it had happed as planned -- before all the rain -- outside in a park, with a large audience.]

MORE >---> http://highlineballroom.com/2007/mika/

Some will remember this; others maybe not. I'll dig up some links & post 'em.

 

I would love to see MIKA perform at the Greenbrier Resort's Summer Concert Program.

But it's in the south -- West Vriginia -- and I've noticed MIKA seldom plays in the south, USA.

[I don't see a schedule 2017 concerts -- which are actually held off the resort grounds.

The area had to recover from a very bad flood last year, so manybe not happening this summer.]

 

Another summer concert series is held every year at Biltmore House in North Carolina,

Schedled performers this season are - 

http://www.biltmore.com/visit/plan-your-visit/buy-tickets/concert-series

 

Another TV show I would love to see MIKA perform on is Stephen Colbert's Late Show [#LSSC] which might be more likely as it broadcasts from the Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC.

The show nearly always ends with a musical performance.

 

And I can dream of him performing at the Theater at Strathmore in Maryland, 

https://www.strathmore.org/about-us

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by A. Clay

[A. Clay]

MIKA performance GMA FALL SERIES, 2009 --

fans were NOT happy when, during a short interview,

the host failed & called the 'Love Today' performance 'Grace Kelly' (see 00:50s). 

MIKA also performed 'Blame It On The Girls']

 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by A. Clay

[A. Clay]

HERE MIKA PERFORMS ON THE ELLEN SHOW,

 

[A. Clay]

After the advert

FULL GMA summer 2015 MIKA Performance,

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by A. Clay

[teenagedreamer98]

Mika has some extremely dedicated fans in the UK, but unfortunately we don't see enough of him here.  Recently, he had his own show on Radio 2, where he spoke about artists that have influenced him.  It was a really great show and I'm glad he hasn't forgotten about us completely, but it's sad that he rarely ever does gigs here.  One a year, if we're lucky.  Usually only in London.

 

I would love for him to do a proper UK tour again.  I'm a student from Scotland, which makes it difficult for me to travel and see him, so a tour would be much appreciated.  I'm happy for Mika's success in France and Italy, but there are fans in lots of different countries who'd love to see him more often.

 

I've started a Twitter hashtag #UKWantsMika.  Feel free to do this for your own country!

[Littlelady]

Yes but it would make sense for him.  Truth is UK ( does not mean all) give Mika no sign of being welcome  and same here in Germany

Edited July 4, 2017 by Littlelady

[teenagedreamer98]

I just think Mika is under-appreciated, in general.

[frenchfan84]

Well, as a French, I don't think that he has got all the support that he should have at all. I mean... Everyone knows him as the one who's talking too much in The Voice (Even if nobody remembers that he was the only coach to turn his chair for kendji who is now quite famous in France and won the season two years ago). It's so sad to say that this is the only way that people remember him... BUT there is quite a big Mikafan community in France (which is awsome)!

Living in the UK I've also been able to see if he was well known over here as well. The answer is no. Definitely not. Some devoted fans are here (the bests ;-)) but nobody remember him. Most of the people that I asked only recognised him when I played Grace Kelly or Lollipop but didn't know it was him ! 

I agree with @teenagedreamer98, He should do a UK tour and meet his fans ;-)

[ladyolivier]

Another american chiming in: I don't think he's disliked here at all, in fact I'd say he's generally liked by the people who have heard of him. Problem here is, no one has heard of him! I wear a Mika t shirt to school (college) fairly often, and I...might have pictures of him all over my laptop and phone  (it's cute and tasteful I promise! ) Point being, I usually have a mika reference somewhere on my person in a building full of 2007 pop-music aged people. I've only ever run into a couple people who know who is: one who's one of my friends who actually really knows him (a rare case) and loves him, and two people who kind of know him and respond in the exact same way: "Isn't he the guy who did the song with Ariana Grande?". If I hear that one more time I might scream! The annoying thing is he's rather invisible in america despite his popularity in Europe. His music is never played on our radio (and I do mean absolutely never. It is used as background music in malls and stores every now and then though - heard Staring at the Sun in my mall and Celebrate being played in a Toys-R-Us) and you cannot find his CDs even on the shelf in most stores which carry CDs and even dedicated music stores like FYE. Basically, it would be possible to live an entire, full and pop-culture-literate life in America and never hear of Mika once. It makes me sad! I've turned a couple people into fans/made them aware of him and everyone I've seen introduced to him at least liked him if not loved him, so I think if people here knew about him more he would be pretty well loved.

 

Get with it, american radio. Play us more Mika!!

[Coraline6]

21 hours ago, frenchfan84 said:

Well, as a French, I don't think that he has got all the support that he should have at all. I mean... Everyone knows him as the one who's talking too much in The Voice (Even if nobody remembers that he was the only coach to turn his chair for kendji who is now quite famous in France and won the season two years ago). It's so sad to say that this is the only way that people remember him... BUT there is quite a big Mikafan community in France (which is awsome)!

Living in the UK I've also been able to see if he was well known over here as well. The answer is no. Definitely not. Some devoted fans are here (the bests ;-)) but nobody remember him. Most of the people that I asked only recognised him when I played Grace Kelly or Lollipop but didn't know it was him ! 

I agree with @teenagedreamer98, He should do a UK tour and meet his fans ;-)

Wow!  That is sad he is known as the one who talks too much.  I think he is charming and honest and funny! So some people who watch The Voice  in France view him negatively??

I watch The Voice clips on youtube even though I don't speak french just to see Mika:) and I have been introduced to some good content as well!

I agree he should try to tour the UK/Canada/USA and remind people why he is so amazing!

[Coraline6]

15 hours ago, ladyolivier said:

Another american chiming in: I don't think he's disliked here at all, in fact I'd say he's generally liked by the people who have heard of him. Problem here is, no one has heard of him! I wear a Mika t shirt to school (college) fairly often, and I...might have pictures of him all over my laptop and phone  (it's cute and tasteful I promise! ) Point being, I usually have a mika reference somewhere on my person in a building full of 2007 pop-music aged people. I've only ever run into a couple people who know who is: one who's one of my friends who actually really knows him (a rare case) and loves him, and two people who kind of know him and respond in the exact same way: "Isn't he the guy who did the song with Ariana Grande?". If I hear that one more time I might scream! The annoying thing is he's rather invisible in america despite his popularity in Europe. His music is never played on our radio (and I do mean absolutely never. It is used as background music in malls and stores every now and then though - heard Staring at the Sun in my mall and Celebrate being played in a Toys-R-Us) and you cannot find his CDs even on the shelf in most stores which carry CDs and even dedicated music stores like FYE. Basically, it would be possible to live an entire, full and pop-culture-literate life in America and never hear of Mika once. It makes me sad! I've turned a couple people into fans/made them aware of him and everyone I've seen introduced to him at least liked him if not loved him, so I think if people here knew about him more he would be pretty well loved.

 

Get with it, american radio. Play us more Mika!!

Oh I never thought he was disliked...just sadly not very well known.  I agree though..play more Mika!!!  

May I ask you where you bought your Mika tee shirt?  I tried to purchase the one on Mikasounds but it is sold out:( I really like the shirt with the "No Place in Heaven" illustration on it.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Coraline6

[ladyolivier]

6 hours ago, Coraline6 said:

Oh I never thought he was disliked...just sadly not very well known.  I agree though..play more Mika!!!  

May I ask you where you bought your Mika tee shirt?  I tried to purchase the one on Mikasounds but it is sold out:( I really like the shirt with the "No Place in Heaven" illustration on it.

The one I have is one from the american leg of the TBWKTM tour - it's the black and white one with his face on it! (the best one of course). It seems like whatever company made/produced those shirts, or maybe Mika's team themselves (marketing people?) had a tremendous surplus of them and for a while they were on e-bay for something like $3 each. I think mine was somewhere between $3 and $4? It was an incredibly lucky find. 

 

This is exactly the shirt I have in men's and women's!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Womens-Juniors-Mika-The-Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much-09-Concert-Tour-Shirt-S-L-/391721432529?var=&hash=item5b346ab5d1:m:mta1sOtUUMTlrM02ZjCLOpQ

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mens-Mika-The-Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much-Concert-Tour-Shirt-New-S-/391766968482?hash=item5b372188a2:g:VG0AAOSwzqFZAUZt

 

However, I will warn you that at least the women's shirts run very, very small. I am five foot nothing and weigh just under 120 pounds. I'm pretty sure my shirt is a large (no size tag - I might have cut it out actually, I hate tags and usually take them out of shirts so it's very possible I took it out)  and it's veeery snug on me. It fits, but I don't dare run it through the dryer lest it not go over my head anymore! I don't know if the men's shirts run equally small - but bear that in mind if you get one!

 

(Maybe the shirts being so small is why there were so many - they had a bunch made for the tour, saw how crazily off-size they were and had a different company make them, and warehoused the tiny ones which are now the ones on ebay? idk, either way more shirts for us!)

[Mika Freaka =)]

I am from South Africa, which is just far away from everything. Everyone here has heard of Mika, and absolutely loved him when Life in Cartoon Motion was released. Now, when I bring him up, the response is usually, "Oh the guy with the curly hair who sang relaaaaaaxxxx, does he still make music?"

 

[Djokolic]

Well hi everyone. I'm from Italy and of course I noticed (as everbybody else did) that Mika's career is now focusing mainly in my country. I really appreciate that as he does many gigs and events here but I would also like if he could gain in popularity in the other countries. I don't want him to become a worldwide popstar like Adele or Ed Sheeran (let's make it clear: I really like them). From my point of view he is different from all the other singers around: he is not part of the great sensations of the moment and on the other hand we can easily see that he is known almost everywhere, only because of LICM. I think he should invest something to give the US, Canada and the UK another try. He is well known in France, Italy and Pacific Asia, so if he succeded in the US, Canada and the UK his career would take off once again. I really hope he has plans to do it, but if the price is losing his unique features... He shouldn't do that in my opinion.

[Djokolic]

 

 

On 5/7/2017 at 1:30 AM, frenchfan84 said:

Well, as a French, I don't think that he has got all the support that he should have at all. I mean... Everyone knows him as the one who's talking too much in The Voice (Even if nobody remembers that he was the only coach to turn his chair for kendji who is now quite famous in France and won the season two years ago). It's so sad to say that this is the only way that people remember him... BUT there is quite a big Mikafan community in France (which is awsome)!

Living in the UK I've also been able to see if he was well known over here as well. The answer is no. Definitely not. Some devoted fans are here (the bests ;-)) but nobody remember him. Most of the people that I asked only recognised him when I played Grace Kelly or Lollipop but didn't know it was him ! 

I agree with @teenagedreamer98, He should do a UK tour and meet his fans ;-)

I definitely agree with you: I've watched every single season of The Voice France from Italy even when Mika was not coach in order to learn French. The truth is that The Voice is a talent show, so people get to know Mika as a coach and not as a singer. It was a good idea to do it, but I agree with his decision to take a break (as he's done with X Factor Italia). Maybe he will have more time to do shows and promos with the upcoming album... Who knows. Still in our countries he is rather well known and there are awsome communities, so I feel very lucky indeed. 

[mairbear]

I'm Canadian and I gotta admit, I completely forgot Mika existed until I started watching The Voice France ... Like @ladyolivier said, it's perfectly plausible to live a pop-culture-literate life without knowing Mika. Ever since I re-discovered Mika, I've been trying to promote him amongst my friends and many of them do remember Grace Kelly but had no idea that he continues to make music  They like the songs enough but they forget about it if I don't bring it up. And Mika doesn't appear on any radios, tv shows, or even advertisements so of course they'd easily forget.

 

I'm really hoping that he promotes his new album effectively. Of course, I think he's kinda in a difficult position. His music is, for a lack of a better word, a peculiar flavour of pop and I'm not sure if the mainstream will accept the sound of his album. This means that he has to promote the style of the album as well as himself which I imagine must be quite difficult.... I hope that sort of makes sense. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't know if US/UK is ready for Mika 

[ladyolivier]

1 hour ago, mairbear said:

I'm Canadian and I gotta admit, I completely forgot Mika existed until I started watching The Voice France ... Like @ladyolivier said, it's perfectly plausible to live a pop-culture-literate life without knowing Mika. Ever since I re-discovered Mika, I've been trying to promote him amongst my friends and many of them do remember Grace Kelly but had no idea that he continues to make music  They like the songs enough but they forget about it if I don't bring it up. And Mika doesn't appear on any radios, tv shows, or even advertisements so of course they'd easily forget.

 

I'm really hoping that he promotes his new album effectively. Of course, I think he's kinda in a difficult position. His music is, for a lack of a better word, a peculiar flavour of pop and I'm not sure if the mainstream will accept the sound of his album. This means that he has to promote the style of the album as well as himself which I imagine must be quite difficult.... I hope that sort of makes sense. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't know if US/UK is ready for Mika 

 

On 7/14/2017 at 8:58 AM, Djokolic said:

Well hi everyone. I'm from Italy and of course I noticed (as everbybody else did) that Mika's career is now focusing mainly in my country. I really appreciate that as he does many gigs and events here but I would also like if he could gain in popularity in the other countries. I don't want him to become a worldwide popstar like Adele or Ed Sheeran (let's make it clear: I really like them). From my point of view he is different from all the other singers around: he is not part of the great sensations of the moment and on the other hand we can easily see that he is known almost everywhere, only because of LICM. I think he should invest something to give the US, Canada and the UK another try. He is well known in France, Italy and Pacific Asia, so if he succeded in the US, Canada and the UK his career would take off once again. I really hope he has plans to do it, but if the price is losing his unique features... He shouldn't do that in my opinion.

 

Yeah, I have to admit I'd much prefer the situation as it is - Mika is unique and odd and different, but not very well known in some places, to the alternative, which is that his aesthetic and music would be made more mainstream or "watered down" to be more universally appealing. I never like it when that happens, with music or TV or movies or anything - it's so hard to create something which is both amazing and loved by EVERYONE. Most things which no one dislikes are quite bland, and spread themselves too thin trying to ensure that they appeal to everyone while offending no one. One of my favorite TV shows of all time is something called Wolf Hall, which I absolutely loved but which can be best described as a long, slow plod through 16th century politics. It was most certainly a niche tv show, but it didn't shy away from that, and leaned hard into that slow political plod. The result was a show which might only appeal to some people, but was SO GOOD for those people (on that note if you like medieval politics, Watch Wolf hall!). When any art or media - be it a book, movie, music or otherwise, remains true to its creative image and draws whatever audience it gets from that, it always turns out better than when anything tries to cater to everyone. I DO think, however, that the people responsible for mainstream promotion of music under-estimate how successful more unusual artists could be. People like Melanie Martinez are currently enjoying massive success, without ever deviating from their styles. I understand why this is, I get that record companies don't want to take any more risks with their money than they have to, so they sink it into things most likely to experience the most success. But this excludes so many artists who are more unusual but would have MASSIVE success just as they are, if only given the exposure.

With that said, I have absolutely no concern that Mika would change his music or aesthetic for commercial success. He's said repeatedly how much he dislikes that, and how much he dislikes even that it's been suggested that he should. He has a concrete aesthetic and style which I don't see him ever swaying to appease anyone else. (additionally, if he was going to do something like that, he's had plenty of time and opportunities and hasn't done it, so I am 100% confident in his being true to his style.)

 

On 7/14/2017 at 9:15 AM, Djokolic said:

 

 

I definitely agree with you: I've watched every single season of The Voice France from Italy even when Mika was not coach in order to learn French. The truth is that The Voice is a talent show, so people get to know Mika as a coach and not as a singer. It was a good idea to do it, but I agree with his decision to take a break (as he's done with X Factor Italia). Maybe he will have more time to do shows and promos with the upcoming album... Who knows. Still in our countries he is rather well known and there are awsome communities, so I feel very lucky indeed. 

Voice Watching French Learners high five!  I'm still convinced it's the one of the best language learning shows you could ever watch. The nature of the show means that people are speaking in the same way an every day person would speak, so you get to hear natural speech patterns of the language, and the nature of the show gives tons of familiar context for what's going on even if you don't understand the words. I think I would recommend anyone learning a language to start watching talent shows in that language