Nell

Just to let you know that Radio 2's coverage of the South By South West festival, including Mika as well as many, MANY others, runs from 4.30-9pm this Saturday. 'Fraid I can't be more specific than that - he is mentioned in the 6.30-7.30 and the 7.30-9pm sections of the show, but I guess could well be in the first 2 hours too.

Just started 1st track - Fleetwood Mac.

I think SXSW coverage incl. Mika is this coming Saturday.

Hmm yeah I reckon My Interpretation makes sense as the 3rd one - grab people's attention with Grace Kelly, ride the 'uptempo pop' wave with Love Today, then just when public opinion turns to 'But can he only do uptempo pop?', surprise them with a ballad. God that sounds horribly cynical, but you know what I mean!

Oh great - they must have changed it recently then cos the format used to be: Play track 1 Talk about track 1, leading into - Talk about track 2 Play track 2.

Yep it's two a day, and I have a feeling it's more like 11.30/11.40 than 10.40, unless it's been changed over the last few weeks. I remember it as being the last of the 'features' before the end of the show.

Much as I love Rob, I hope Mika won?!

Yup he's amazing - such a clever, talented pop writer. He was talking about a Willie Nelson song for one of his Tracks, and it was one of those moments where you go 'oh yeah, that really is why that's a good song!' Lucky you for meeting him too!

Yeah I could never decide about that - there are some pretty odd clashes in there but that could just be the effect of 2 different chords at the same time I guess. Still very cool whatever though.

...which I personally think is absolutely inspired, though it does take a bit of getting used to. Still haven't figured out if the two songs are actually in the same key, but hey, the result is soooo very addictive. See what you think!

Wow, Stuck in the Middle was incredible!! Wrote the above before I'd seen it - have literally never heard that song sound better.

Absolutely - he'd make a damn good actor. And we already know he went down a storm as the Emcee in Cabaret at school.

Oooh that's brilliant, I've been hoping for weeks that they'd sign him up for that. It's really interesting when the person is articulate about music - Rob Thomas did it once and it was absolutely riveting.

'Sarcastically sunny' - love that. Sounds like this guy has got closer than many to understanding a lot of what LICM is about?

All of the above, naturally, plus that irresistible little upward flick he sometimes puts at the end of a note, like with 'whole lot more' on Big Girl. (Hopefully someone on here who knows more about singing than me can give this a technical term!) Guess it kinda goes along with the whole issue of switching so easily between falsetto and lower register. Not to mention, and this is a huge one for me cos I will never understand it, the fact that we love him for doing all these things rather than hate him for manipulating our poor defenceless little hearts and minds. How does that work????!

Hmm, I think it depends on whether he still acted the same, eg. the outfits, the personality, the stage presentation, the showmanship. 'Cos if you had a good-looking guy singing awful songs but dressing them up and 'selling' them like they're little pop gems, that would just be really, REALLY irritating. Then again, I guess if his image was toned down to fit with mediocre songs we'd all be bored to tears. So nope, doesn't work without great music for me!

Is it just me or didn't it say 5 days rather than 5 weeks? I'm still waiting for SEE tickets too.

Exactly what I was gonna write. It's a brilliant question, and this thread could run for days with all the different angles you can take on it, but I think Mika's music depends on his looks to a very great extent. I remember reading an interview - I forget which one - where he said that although on the one hand Grace Kelly is a very endearing song, on the other it's hugely arrogant. Someone less attractive, who was less sure of being able to win people over instinctively the way Mika has, could never have pulled off a song like that. It seems pretty much the same with a lot of the album - Lollipop, Love Today, Big Girl etc wouldn't seem half so winning without that confident, self-aware delivery - both visually and vocally. Plus there's the live question - Mika often talks about his role when playing live as a kind of circus-master, and his shows at the moment are clearly very colourful and vibrant. So again, it's absolutely necessary that he's someone worth looking at for the whole thing to work!

Ah yes that was a very pretty moment, and it was near the end of the show so his hair was nicely dishevelled by that point too... I'm another kerching-lover btw; anyone else also love the fact that when he does it live, even if it doesn't go wrong, it comes out a lil bit different each time?

Haha yeah that's true, sorry, the part about success didn't come out quite right! I think I meant that it's gonna be harder for him to get to a place where the majority agree that he's great, and his critics will probably stick around, being critical, for longer. Grrr, don't you just hate fans of mediocrity?

Absolutely agree - all of those things are sooo true about the music industry, many reviewers and large sections of the music-buying public. It's just so very annoying and plain wrong that even though he is someone who shouldn't have to fight for success at all, because of all those reasons he will probably find mainstream popularity harder to achieve than hundreds of much, much less talented acts.

Ohh that was lovely, the man evidently just doesn't do bad performances. Rather odd green lighting though...

Dammit I missed it - I love those newsreader bits though, it's the completely straightfaced delivery that makes 'em. Have to say though, when I first read the title of this thread I was a bit bemused about what kind of sketch they could possibly have worked Mika into already!

I was in the magazine section of the supermarket reading the Mika article in Q, and Grace Kelly came on the instore radio! 'Twas lovely, like my own personal reading soundtrack.

“Actually, Harry Nilsson is my musical hero. I’m completely obsessed with his early work. Its often overlooked but its absolutely amazing, whimsical, funny, dark, childish yet fully grown up. He’s definitely an inspiration.†Ah, the boy certainly has a way with words - I love this description, so true. Especially the 'childish yet fully grown up' part. Reckon it's a very good sign that he seems to speak with as much if not more enthusiasm about other people's music as he does about creating his own.