jfung79

I found out how selfish I am and how I must have some kind of wishful thinking going on in my head, when my first reaction to this was not "I'm happy for Mika" like everyone else, but rather "I'm gutted." So, good thing it was an April Fools joke!

Yeah, I would put this in the so-so category like the New York Times review. The New York Times was fairly complimentary except for saying Mika lacked heart. Both are better than the un-researched L.A. Times review. Why does the reviewer say Jake Shears is a "Brit"? Isn't he American?

As stated by someone else, LICM is doing well on US itunes -- #4 there. So, it is not all disappointing news.

Welcome, Jeff, it's good to see more and more fellow Americans here!

How low is that? What would be a good debut?

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed with the US too. Don't know about radio, don't listen to it much either. On the good news side, I think LICM is no. 4 in the US on itunes right now! And Grace Kelly is No. 45 in singles on itunes in the US. Unless I am looking at the wrong place.

Having now listened to the whole album, I voted for "Big Girl" -- love the disco sound and the message is good too. My second choice would be "Grace Kelly." Also, "Love Today" has grown on me, so I'm not unpleased that it finished first. I also agree with the people who have posted about missing "Erase." It's the song I think I "feel" the most. Sad to see "Billy Brown" has the least number of votes -- I still like its story!!

No idea if he has a British passport, but he did grow up there for most of his life after leaving Lebanon and then France, and he lives in the UK now too. So I think of him as British.

I disagree with the reviewer, I feel Mika's emotions ... And please, not that word again, campy!!

Great! I hope it increases sales of Mika's album and makes more people seek out Mika's music.

The American media blitz in the past week probably carried over into affecting Canadian sales as well. This is making me optimistic that maybe he will do decent in the US charts!

Ooh, I should have looked here first before pre-ordering from amazon.com. Oh well.

Wow, this is truly an awfully researched review. There may be more inaccuracies and misinterpretations in this than I've seen anywhere else.

Good for him. The other worry I had aside from his already being too popular to be just a supporting act, is that this would have placed him firmly in the "mainstream" world when he really defies labels. Don't know if that makes sense.

Wow! Even though the single is not No. 1 anymore, that's quite an accomplishment to have been there longer than 200 out of 204 chart-toppers this century.

This is great about Lollipop charting based on downloads, but I have to wonder, if both it and Big Girl are already getting lots of downloads, wouldn't it make sense to release either Lollipop or Big Girl as the next single -- not Love Today, which is not "organically" charting all on its own? I don't know much about music so maybe that makes no sense.

Hello, welcome, I'm also from California, from the SF Bay Area specifically.

PR = public relations. He's probably trying to get interviews with him done by journalists in the US. I am in the San Francisco Bay Area too, so am feeling kind of sad that Mika could be so close yet so far!! But, yes, congrats to him on the album being #1!

Hello, welcome, Adam. I vaguely remember an article where he said his music wouldn't be appropriate for X-Factor, because his whole record is an event or something like that and can't be replicated. So even if he didn't audition, maybe that's where your impression came from? Still I can't find that article, so I might have imagined it!

The main relevant thing about Marmite, beyond what it is, is that they apparently advertise themselves as evoking a "love it or hate it" reaction, like Mika's album. Not sure if you caught that already from context and from the website that was posted, Lisa! They must really have had an effect in their advertising becuase I see a lot of things referred to as Marmite when I read stories from the UK these days. This probably sounds really weird to many people reading right now, but as an American, I find British popular culture utterly fascinating because of things like how love it or hate it is now equivalent with "Marmite". It's so quirky. I can't imagine a food product entering the vocabulary so strongly in the US to mean something non-food-related.

I agree with everyone else that this is the best interview with Mika that I've seen yet. But one quibble -- Jodi (as if she will read this), Mandarin is a dialect of Chinese, so it doesn't make sense to say "Chinese and Mandarin." I love how he says he is secretive about his life because it's not necessary to tell all like Jade Goody, lol. I have been reading a lot about Big Brother lately because of the international racism controversy surrounding it, so it was funny to see that. But, I also see the point of people who think that Mika should share more about his background because he is a role model whether he likes it or not, and that's terribly important right now when Middle Easterners are being "profiled".

That's great about the third week in a row!

I don't know, I don't think comparing him to Liam Gallagher or Cristiano Ronaldo slots him into a stereotype. They're just having fun with it.

I agree. I think it's a valid question.

Aww, he's freaked out by all the attention!