Cautionary Wife

You can listen to Mika chatting to Jo Whiley and performing on the Live Lounge today + pictures JO WHILEY'S PAGE HERE LISTEN TO LATEST SHOW

His School yearbooks and sleevenotes from the Vaughan Williams recording all say "Mica". Only this last report say "Michael Holbrook"... well if the Daily Mirror says so. HA!! Same report also says the family moved to London 16 years aso... well as he moved to London when he was 9, so that would make him 25 now. Well done Daily Mirror!! CW.

MIKA ON DERMOT O’LEARY SHOW BBC Radio 2 13 January 2007 Transcribed by Cautionary Wife PART 1 ==== DERMOT O’LEARY: That’s genuinely the one thing you don’t want to hear before you’re about to do an interview when your guest says, “Oh, and are we chatting as well, I think…?†O…K. Mika, it’s nice of you to be with us. How are you? MIKA: I’m good, thank you. How are you? D: I’m very very well. The whole gang are here. M: I’ve got about 17 people in the studio. D: This is the…. M: It’s very Hip Hop. Actually they’re all here for a purpose. Everyone’s gonna clap along for my cover. D: OK. Now hang on a second. I get the reason why Martin’s here. Martin’s on guitar. M: Guitar, that’s right. D: Cherisse is behind us on percussion M: Bongo. D: I always like to be surrounded by the percussion. (Mika giggles) It gives me that whole wonderful Dolby surround sound feel to the studio, but the 3 other people are just sitting on the floor!! What are they doing? M: Well it’s kind of, you know, we’ve got Jamie[sp?], my tour manager, who’s on the shakers. D: Jamie – look you, firstly you’re the best-dressed tour manager I think I’ve ever seen in my life. (laughing) You guys are normally terrifying. M: We’ve got my sister, Yesmine, who’s on her knees. D: Hello Yesmine. M: She’s going to do a like a… D: How are you? M: … clapping thing on her knees. And then we’ve got…. D: I see that music runs in the family. M: Yeah. Charlie’s gonna be doing some pigeon noises during the song. D: Wonderful. (Pigeon noises) D: Is that just you on… ? (More noises) Oooh, she is. I’m very impressed by it, and this box of tricks here. What does this do? I’ve got to… M: Well really they were for guests, for you. You can have one of them. D: Shut up! Can I? M: So… D: (shakes shaker) I have… Yeah. M: And you can join in. D: Are you… do you really want me to join in because this is a first? I know the song. Don’t worry. (Dermot shakes shaker) M: We stole that from the Primary School down the road. D: Did you? I like the cowbell. Is this.. M: Oh no. I knew he was gonna choose the cowbell. (Dermot strikes cowbell and Mika joins in with piano vamp - giggles) D: I can see that getting quite irritating for you, so I’ll put it back now. So firstly, are you getting a bit freaked out about everything, because suddenly you’re everywhere? M: Ah. I know, I know. I’m… it’s kind of weird. D: Yeah. M: But it is weird. It’s very strange. D: So you are getting… (laughing) M: Yeah. Basically, yeah. D: And secondly, you just literally just got in from Paris, I certainly appreciate it? M: About an hour ago. D: I certainly appreciate. And how was it? It a great gig last night? M: It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. They just kind of warmed to it really, really well. D: And are you launching sort of simultaneously around Europe, so is the single out there in Paris at the same time? M: Yes, well yeah, we’re kind of ‘seeding’. We’re just kind of starting things going you know, so that people, so we just don’t come and try and do the bit push at one point. D: Yeah. M: So we’re just gonna do little shows everywhere and let it grow a little bit more organically, just like we did here, you know. D: Yeah, yeah. M: Took quite a long while to get it going but that’s what we wanted. So, no, it’s really fun. D: Great. Well it’s a terrific song and the EP is really enjoyable as well, so… M: Thank you. D: It’s lovely having you with us. We’ve been playing it for quite a while now and it’s nice to find… M: You were the first, weren’t you? D: … you hear in the flesh. M: You were. D: Were we? M: You were the first actually. D: Woo Hoo!! M: You were the first person to play Grace Kelly on, you know… D: On this show. Officially. M: Proper radio. D: Well, yeah. That’s nice. Thank you. M: Thank you. D: No, well you did it. We just – I just pressed the button and went (squeaky voice) “Here’s Mikaâ€Â. And so now, you’re gonna play for us right now? M: I’m gonna play it, yeah, on my own, without the pigeon noise and DON’T do maracas, wait for the next one. D: You’ve just given me the maracas. M: No, no. Wait. It’s for the next one. We’re doing a cover, right? D: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. M: We actually figured out this cover on the Eurostar…. D: Okay. M: … in carriage number 14. D: This is going… M: So apologies to everyone that was on the train. D: The genie’s going back in the bottle, alright. M: Okay. D: So hang a second. You worked out the cover on Eurostar? M: On Eurostar, yeah. D: That’s brilliant. M: Ah, yeah… thought so. D: Any complaints? M: Well actually I was… No, they really liked it. They kinda got into it – I think. (laughing) M: Yeah - actually Martin got some money thrown at him. D: Nice. M: The people were throwing one p coins at him. D: Everyone got off at Ashford and you don’t understand why. “It’s a eally empty train to London.†So, brilliant. So this is Mika and Grace Kelly – over to you. Thank you. <Mika plays GRACE KELLY live> TRANSCRIPT - to be continued.... -------- CW.

Hi Folks This is what was said on that interview. I can post the whole transcript soon, if anyone interested. EDIT: In fact PART 1 of transcript posted HERE CW. --------- MIKA ON DERMOT O'LEARY SHOW BBC RADIO 2 Sat 13 January 2007 Extracts of Transcript: MiKA: It was actually a little, a little ‘re-create’. It’s not a sample but I made it sound like a sample at the beginning of the song and this kind of Grace Kelly-esque voice - I actually auditioned all these different actresses in Los Angeles. DERMOT O'LEARY: Oh did you? M: Yeah. I brought in all these, you know, actresses in Los Angeles to see who would have the best Grace Kelly sound. . . . D: I was wondering where you took the sample from, cos I … M: No, it’s not a sample, it’s just, I created it. It was really fun. We spent a day doing it in Sunset Sound Studios, which is the same room that they recorded Fantasia and Mary Poppins and everything. D: Fanastic. M: So they had the actual original mikes that they used on all those movie sets. So we put them all up and then we spent a day recreating things with like a fake door and walking on these, you know… . . . D: And is it the same actress that’s at the end of the song when she goes, is it “Humphrey, we’re leaving” or…? M: No, that’s me D: Is it? M: Yeah. D: No it isn’t. M: I swear to God, it’s me. . . . D: That’s such a great high voice you’ve got there. M: I know. I’m quite a good girl. ----

I still haven't worked out how to ask to be a friend - I get sent to log in and then when I do... nothing happens... but magically, Mika is MY only friend !!! I don't mind that a bit. CW.

Grace Kelly isn't on Dodgy Holiday. The two tracks there that are on Freddie's piano are Love Today My Interpretation Can anyone confirm about a Grace Kelly version on FM's piano? CW.

I had similar problem at Christmas. Bought it for a bunch of friends worldwide, and found they could only download if members of UK store. Hmm... I haven't discovered how to get a refund. I'm really disappointed too that a lot of Mika stuff (the mixes) is via 7Digital, and not iTunes. 7Digital doesn't allow download to Macs - Windows only I discovered to my cost a while ago - but it still took my money. Had to resort to buying the vinyls to get remixes and the bother of converting to mp3. However you can get Dodge Holiday EP on 7digital HERE. - Island Tunes store. I don't know if that would be any better for overseas people. You could ask Cstomer Service HERE. CW.

Yesterday's Daily Mirror said Mika's father was a millionaire. Not that we believe more than about half a per cent of what's written there. See HERE Not seen that mentioned previously - but I would doubt it's true, otherwise why would Mika have taken out a student loan to fund his recordings in Florida? CW.

Found these new video clips on youtube... Haven't seen them mentioned here. From THE ROXY, LA, 23 January 2007 LA SHOWCASE - Over My Shoulder - Short clip of Billy Brown - Short clip - Big Girls - Short clip - Big Girls ? And POPSTARZ, Scala, London - 26 January 2007 Grace Kelly at Popstarz CW.

Anyone have any start time details for the Berkeley Square Mon 5 Feb? Thanks CW.

Anyone have any start time details for the Berkeley Square Mon 5 Feb? Thanks CW.

The Press are catching up... slowly. - oOo - THE MIRROR 29 January 2007 EXCLUSIVE HOW MILLIONAIRE'S SON WENT FROM SOPRANO TO NUMBER ONE CHART STAR By Julie Mccaffrey And Adam Luck WITH his soaring falsetto and flamboyant appearance, Mika is tipped to be the pop sensation of 2007. Currently at the top of the charts with his single Grace Kelly, it's easy to see why the camp performer is already being hailed as the new Freddie Mercury. But the 23-year-old Lebanese-born musician started his career in a far more sedate fashion - as an opera singer. Britain's answer to the Scissor Sisters was a boy soprano with the Royal Opera House where, at 15, he showcased his five-octave vocal range in a landmark 1998 production of The Pilgrim's Progress by Vaughan Williams. Laurie Lewis, a music photographer for more than 25 years, was transfixed by the young man's performance. "He was a very sparky fellow and was definitely tipped for great things," he recalls. "It was as if he found his home on the stage - he was a born performer. I've heard his No.1 Grace Kelly and think it's great. "Moving into pop was a shrewd move because when a boy soprano's voice breaks they're often dumped on the scrapheap. "He has obvious talent - but it was still a surprise to see the wisp of a lad I saw back then riding high in the charts." Opera offered young misfit Mika everything he was looking for - an escape into a world of colour, fantasy and music. The singer says: "It opened my eyes to a world where people work all day long, for weeks, to create an illusion. "Most people's jobs are rooted in reality. But I always wanted to do pop music. It was just a question of getting there my way." Born Michael Holbrook Penniman in Beirut during the Lebanese war, Mika was evacuated to Paris as a baby before settling in London 16 years ago. HE was six when his father, a high-powered American banker, gave in to his precocious demands for loud, tailor-made outfits. "I was a show-off as a kid," Mika admits. "I was wearing bow ties and matching coloured trousers. "In France that made me the really special kid that everyone loved. When I came to London, I had that beaten out of me by everyone I was at school with." He was bullied so incessantly that for almost a year his mum Mary taught him at home. "I kind of broke down," he says. "I stopped reading, stopped writing and that's when my dyslexia really set in for me." Shunned by children his own age, and with only his four siblings for company, music became Mika's refuge. He wrote his first song, an "awful" piano instrumental called Angry, aged seven. At 11, a Russian music teacher discovered his awesome voice and by 12 he was bombarding record companies with demo tapes. "They'd take my calls because I was so young - 'Aw, we'd better talk to him or it would break his little heart'," he says. At 14, or so the Mika legend goes, he gatecrashed a party thrown by record giants RCA, ran to the piano and belted out five songs. Record executives were impressed but didn't know what to do with the teen who brimmed with talent but refused to be pigeon-holed. By then, he was getting used to wowing audiences. At Westminster School, where past pupils include Dido, Shane MacGowan and Lord Lloyd Webber, he often took lead roles in productions. He was acclaimed as "outstanding" in Benjamin Britten's opera Curlew River in 2001 and then, just months later, his performance in Cabaret was described as "strongly sung and wittily acted". He also used his "huge voice" to full effect by fronting a jazz band. At the posh public school - where he was known as Mica - he founded irreverent magazine Pink but was soon ousted by young readers who found it "dull and lacking that vital spark". Now using a "k" Mika capitalised on his classical training to compose jingles for adverts, including British Airways. BUT at 19, he decided to knuckle down and enrolled in a geography degree course at the London School of Economics. "I thought, 'I'm a nutcase. What am I doing thinking I can write funny little songs for a living?'" His bid to conform was shortlived and he quit on the first morning of term ever more convinced that music would be his vocation. The handsome lad had many doors slammed in his face before finally securing a deal. And Grace Kelly gives a lyrical two-fingered salute to all the executives who tried to mould him into the new Craig David. "Should I look older, just to be left on the shelf?" he trills. Despite Mika's coyness about his sexuality, the gay press has hailed the chart-topper as one of their own. And he's equally mysterious on the subject of his childhood as the son of a millionaire businessman. The biography on his official website notes: "When his father was subsequently taken hostage and held at the American embassy in Kuwait the family eventually settled in London." But when the Daily Mirror contacted the US Embassy in Kuwait a spokesman told us: "No one seems to have any such recollection. I have asked people who have worked here for more than 20 years and no one has heard of this." These days, visitors can't miss Mika's plush flat, below his parents' £3million townhouse in London's South Kensington because he has painted the door and railings pink. But no one should expect to be invited in for a cuppa anytime soon. The singer is obsessive about how his tea is made. "You've got to have a precise level of water in the pot and make sure the cup is in exactly the right place," he says. But for all his eccentricity, Mika is incredibly savvy. He has set up his own company, Dodgy Holiday Tours, which is apparently connected with an Irish accountancy firm that counts Noel Gallagher among its clients. And so it seems that his refusal to fit in - that once caused him to be friendless and isolated - now makes him the perfect celebrity. At last, being an oddball is finally paying off for Mika. julie.mccaffrey@mirror.co.uk CW.

CBBC Mika number one for second week Sunday 28 January 2007 Mika is number one in the singles chart for the second week in a row with his song, Grace Kelly. The download hit, which will only be released as a CD on Monday, is still the top-seller keeping Just Jack at number two with Starz In Their Eyes. Mason leapt eight places to three with Exceeder and JoJo is at four with Too Little Too Late. This week's highest new entry was Fall Out Boy with This Ain't A Scene It's An Arms Race at number six. ---- Also from CBBC Your Charts: Music act Is your fave not on the list? - Girls Aloud - Leona Lewis - My Chemical Romance - Mcfly - Pussy Cat Dolls Use the box HERE to tell us who else should be on the chart. Each week, we'll kick the least popular act off the top five and add in the one who gets the most requests instead. (updated Saturdays) CW.

Just listening to Chart Show. Repeating last week's telephone interview right now on Radio 1. CW

Marvellous. Thank you so much. CW.

Thanks very much for that. Was able to locate on Sky Planner and set to record. CW.

Would mention a posting on http://perezhilton.com/topics/mika/listen_to_this_mika_mika_mika_20061215.php Even though the article there dates back to 15 December 2006, worth a mention as it includes a stream of full album version of Love Today, which isn't on http://www.myspace.com/mikamyspace, for anyone who has been, say 'on the moon', and not heard it. CW.

Ouch! My ears hurt from listening too closely... and too loud. Thanks Guinchogirl - worth the effort if one person reads. Wonder if the lyrics will be printed on album. CW.

I posted this on another thread, not realising this thread already here - so I guess it should be here? Following last week's appearance on The Friday Night Project and the semi-surreal sight of James Nesbitt grooving away, there are a few more opportunities coming up to catch Mika on your TV screens. Starting with Popworld this Saturday, the 27th. Watch out for him over the next week or so on GMTV (2nd), Channel 4 4-Play (2nd) and the Culture Show (3rd) Source: Mika Mail CW.

Just heard this for first time today - so first attempt. Any correction welcome please. OVER MY SHOULDER Over my shoulder Running away Feels like I’m falling Losing my day Cold and drunk Cold and drunk Fog out my daylight Tortured my night Feels like I’m falling Far out of sight Cold, drunk Tired, lost Over my shoulder Running away Feels like I’m falling Losing my way Cold, drunk Cold, and drunk Fog out my daylight Torture my night Feels like I’m falling Far out of sight Cold, drunk Cold, and drunk CW.

Chart Topper Mika has been compared to Freddie Mercury but the singer says it's Annie Lennox who has been a massive influence on his career. And the Beirut-born singer, who crashed into the top of the charts last week with Grace Kelly, reckons he and Annie would form the perfect duet. Mika, 23, was recently told off by a sound engineer for sounding too Scottish when recording the single and his album, and now he's confessed it's Annie who is his ideal singing mate. He said: "Annie's voice is amazing. I can sing in the same register as her. "If we both sing in the same key it's really cool. She is one of my favourite vocalists ever and is so expressive." Mika got the chance to listen to Eurythmics star Annie in the flesh when they shared the same voice coach. He said: "I'd listen to her practising. I really like Scots people. My piano teacher is Scottish and we all came from the same Scottish-Lebanese background. There is warmth, a physicality where you can interact with anything." GLASGOW DAILY RECORD, UK 27 January 2007 Showbiz Liz & Beverley Lyons CW.

Following last week's appearance on The Friday Night Project and the semi-surreal sight of James Nesbitt grooving away, there are a few more opportunities coming up to catch Mika on your TV screens. Starting with Popworld this Saturday, the 27th. Watch out for him over the next week or so on GMTV (2nd), Channel 4 4-Play (2nd) and the Culture Show (3rd) Source: Mika Mail CW.

Here's a great picture attached to this article. Caption Happy camper... Mika. CW.

Thanks - hadn't seen this before. A good read - and a nice picture with the article, in case not already posted. CW

So guess that means it really will cost megabucks for tickets and put Mika fans in competition for tickets with Take That fans. Guess we will end up at the back of some vast stadium, to see our boy from afar. Pass me the binoculars! CW.