dcdeb

bump up for people looking for part 2 I'll bump up part 3 too, and then add the links in to try to connect them better. dcdeb

I feel as though it's my birthday -- what a nice present! Thanks so much! dcdeb

I guess he must be talking about me, then! Thanks for posting, Meimei! I think it deserves more than 3 stars, but oh well... dcdeb

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I SOOOO appreciate this! Thanks for your hard work on getting this online! Shoot, I can't get my smileys to work... just imagine a hundred group waves here!

Wow! Sivan! and Summer, too! You really are such lucky, lucky girls! I'm more than a little jealous! Thanks for sharing your experience with us, though Can't wait to see your pix! dcdeb

I hear and obey Thanks for the reminder! Also, does it save us anything, as far as bandwidth or whatever, to put pix in the gallery rather than in a thread in the forums? Just curious... dcdeb

Mika's art will be displayed in a new exhibition Mika will display a major exhibition of the art created around the release of his No 1 debut album, Life In Cartoon Motion, it's been announced. The show at Blink Gallery in London, from July 11 - 14, will include original paintings, sketches and drawings that went into the Lebanon-born pop star's artwork as well as other pieces he's created over the years. "I created a world for my music to exist within and we wanted to allow people to immerse themselves in this via this exhibition," the singer says. "It is important to create an exciting environment. I want it to feel like you are walking into the 'world of Mika'. Colourful, psychedelic and irreverent, not serious and stuffy like a boring gallery." The show will be co-curated by Mika and Mika's artist sister Da Wack - who painstakingly hand paints all his designs - and the company Airside, who help turn Mika's art into sleeve designs. http://musicnews.virginmedia.com/news/?news_id=12856

Me too! Impatient as I am, couldn't wait for Sivan's report! Although I'm sure hers will be 100 times better than this one with lots more upclose photos! dcdeb

Mika at Coachella by Arjanwrites.com "Last year, we were playing Manumission in Ibiza and now I'm at Coachella," Mika said during his gig at Coachella. "I can't believe it!" And he is absolutely right. It has been an incredible year for Mika so far. He is now considered a bonafide pop star in the U.K. and he is working hard to get chart success in North America as well. His show at Coachella marked the beginning of a busy touring schedule for the Brit. He is scheduled to perform at several festivals in Europe later this spring, and he is also coming back to the U.S. for a mini tour in June. It was an interesting choice to have Mika open the festival day on Sunday right smack on the headlining stage, the big one. I wasn't sure how he would go over with the crowd of boarder dudes and rock chicks who had settled early in front of the stage to wait for the performance of Rage Against The Machine later on Sunday. But Mika held his own for an action-packed, vocally strong 30 minute set. Dressed in a simple white tee and "cartoon motion" military pants, he performed a solid show that included "Relax," "Love Today," "Billy Brown" and "Big Girl." He even got some of those tough dudes in the crowd to loosen up a little and bounce up and down, which is quite an accomplishment. View my photos of Mika's gig HERE. ETA: Just to clarify... These are the author's pix -- Arjan, I guess his name is. Don't want to take credit for something that's not mine... sorry! http://www.arjanwrites.com/arjanwrites/2007/04/mika_at_coachel.html

I totally agree. dcdeb

Big Weekend line-up announced Monday, 30 Apr 2007 08:02 Mika is set to play the Big Weekend in May The line-up for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend has been announced with Mika, the Fratellis and Razorlight set to play. Coming to Preston on May 19th and 20th, 7,500 pairs of tickets for each day of the free music festival will be dished out to listeners who register online with priority given to local residents. Picking the names from a hat, Chris Moyles and his comedy crew announced that indie rockers the Fratellis and Razorlight would be joining Wales' finest, the Stereophonics, and Grace Kelly singer Mika in Preston. Leeds-based indie boys the Kaiser Chiefs and camptastic pop band Scissor Sisters are also set to rock the northern city alongside hip hop singer Just Jack and Natasha Beddingfield. With some of the biggest music acts due to play, demand for the first British music festival of the year is expected to be massive. As the biggest free-ticketed event in Europe, the main stage will see a host of pop and rock stars strut their stuff while a dance party will be held in a separate tent. Breaking artists will also play the In New Music We Trust stage. More acts are expected to be announced throughout the day by DJ Jo Whiley as listeners start to register for tickets. Last year's Big Weekend in Dundee saw thousands of music fans watch Franz Ferdinand, the Kooks and Mylo.

Networks unite for Music Week Monday 30 April 2007 For the second year running, commercial radio stations are to join forces to promote the best of UK Music. A week of special programmes across 250 stations will feature exclusive interviews with the likes of Travis, Amy Winehouse and Natasha Bedingfield. The events will take place from the 21st to 28th May 2007, and will be split across five network types, Contemporary Hit Radio, Adult Contemporary, Gold, Rock and Rhythmic, and will be tailored for individual network audiences. Paolo Nutini will also feature, and is encouraged by the events: “I think it’s wicked that the UK Commercial Radio stations are coming together to celebrate UK music and I’m really pleased to be involved”. Lebanon-born, London-based singer Mika is joining in: “It makes perfect sense for UK Commercial Radio to get together and celebrate music that is actually coming out of the UK and by UK artists because - we are kind of ruling the roost at the moment and I think that it couldn’t be better - I’m really excited to be part of this.” Andrew Harrison, CEO of RadioCentre comments: “The stations are pulling together some fantastic programming for what will be a great week to tune into Commercial Radio. There will be shared programming taking place across the five networks championing the best of UK music and some of our smaller local stations will also be playing their part in the week’s celebrations doing what they do best, engaging their local community. The great thing about Commercial Radio is that it offers an incredible breadth of output for listeners right across the board – from Contemporary and Rhythmic stations to Classical and Gold which means we are able to offer something for everyone.” HIghlights include: Daily lunchtime sessions and exclusive artist interviews across the CHR (pop) network from Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, Mika and Travis Daily evening sessions from new up and coming artists including, Ben’s Brother, Air Traffic, Cherry Ghost, Amy McDonald and Jamie Scott and the Town Listener voted ‘Greatest UK Guitar Band’ will air on the Rock network – online voting will start from today [Monday] and the top 40 will be unveiled across the Rock network on Sunday, 27th May Specialist shows across the Rhythmic network including performances from Amy Winehouse, Jamiroquai and Jamelia Story behind the song – the Gold network will run a series of documentaries which will see a number of artists give listeners an insight into what led them to pen their classic tracks EMAP TV will also be supporting the event throughout the course of the week via programming on Q and The Hits. http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.1895

That's exactly what I liked about it -- it was balanced somewhat, at least more balanced than many other pieces have been. Painted a seemingly truer, more well-rounded picture of Mika and the business aspect of things. dcdeb

Neither can I My countdown clock says 43 days! dcdeb

Wow! Great costume, Meimei! And I wish I'd read here first -- I just spent an hour browsing through eBay trying to get ideas for something to wear to Mika's DC show... I still haven't decided if I'm really going to dress up fancy... but I was hoping for some inspiration! This Leg Avenue might be just the ticket! Thanks! dcdeb

Glad so many of you have made the time to read through it -- I was surprised at how long it ran on! But like you all have said, definitely worth it! dcdeb

Didn't mean to embarrass you -- just meant that as a writer, I agree with you! It's infuriating when professional writers don't take the time to check their facts or spellings of names, etc. Makes us all look bad. Still and all... I thought this article was very well-done. Showed yet another side to Mika -- as a business person -- and seemed very balanced by interviewing others who have dealt with him. And I must say, I would love to have the chance to dress up as a character and dance around on the stage for one of Mika's shows! Ooooh, pick me, pick me, next time, Mika! Though I might not be tall enough for that monkey costume -- I'm only 5'1" -- but I'd be happy with anything! dcdeb

I think that's maybe a BIT excessive, but, better to be safe than sorry, I guess! And yes... got my tix the other day, and the countdown has officially begun. 44 DAYS!!! dcdeb

I know... you're so right! And I'm a *journalist*! dcdeb

... continuation... Lucian Grainge does not see Mika's songs as little paintings. He sees them as cash cows. "Yes, it hit me straightaway that it was full of singles. Mika writes hit songs." He says there are likely to be five singles released from the album. Mika's songs are horribly infectious - like a bad flu. "I keep singing Lollipop," I tell him, "and I really don't like it." He takes it in good spirit. I step into my gorilla suit in the changing room with the rest of the band while Mika gets dressed in another room. They were put together by the management company, but now there is a real camaraderie; they're all extremely able and the drummer, Cherisse Osei, who used to play with the Faders, looks a star already. It's boiling inside my outfit. I run around, up and down stairs, across the bar, down the aisles, grunting and panting for 20 minutes. On stage with Lollipop Girl for the encore, it feels a bit Teletubbies. And yet there is something sinister-lite going on at the same time. The song Lollipop, dedicated to his sister, is about sucking too hard on lollipops - a warning against sexual promiscuity. It's far more packed than at the London Circus Top. The crowd are eager and vocal. Then - disaster. "This is the last night of my UK tour," Mika says. Silence, then a few boos. For a moment, I think there's going to be a riot. I can almost feel the heatwave of Mika's blush. "Oops, I want to thank you before I make a total twat of myself," he blusters. "I know there's Ireland and the UK. I'm not an idiot." Amazingly, he manages to win back most of the crowd. Towards the end, when they are screaming for Grace Kelly, he says, "I can tell we're not in the UK now." As we walk off, I tell Mika that my experience of vicarious fame as Chew-Chew has been exhilarating, and ask if he's on a high. "No, I'm upset with myself." He makes a joke of it to the band. "Hello Dublin, Scotland. OK, let's put it behind us." But he's not yet managed to. In his dressing room, there are sandwiches, hummus and guacamole. Hummus and guacamole - who said rock'n'roll was dead? He gives me a look. While Mika gets changed, I join the rest of the band for drinks laid on by the venue, in a back room that could be an extension of the Boogie Nights set- all over-employed sofas and soft lighting. Guitarist Martin Waugh says that what he likes about Mika is that he makes the band feel as if they are equal partners, even though they are obviously not. "He makes everyone feel really welcome. He works with you, so you lose your inhibitions about being a hired party." Waugh, who is Scottish, says there was a "Dublin, UK" moment when they played in Glasgow. "Mika asked me to wear a kilt on stage, but insisted I wore underpants. I didn't know why. Then, when we were on stage, he lifted up my kilt. The audience booed. It's sacrilege to wear underpants with a kilt." Mika walks in a few minutes later. He has a quick drink, but he's knackered and hasn't eaten. He's been touring non-stop for six months. He looks pale and gaunt. Has the workload surprised him? "No, I had an inkling of what it would be like. When I was young, I'd do a three-month run of rehearsals for something and at the same time I'd be at school." I'm thinking about something he'd said to me earlier, semi-tongue-in-cheek, that if he was a music critic, he'd be acerbic and funny, but he'd stand by the people he championed, "instead of being some kind of hypocritical ****in' trendy self-conscious dick". He said it with such feeling. No surprise, when you consider what he's been through in recent weeks. Guardian critic Alexis Petridis tore him apart, saying that listening to Mika was like being mugged by Bonnie Langford. He says the review doesn't bother him - he knew he was always going to divide people. Actually, he says, to be controversial when he himself is so uncontroversial is quite a feat. He calls himself the Marmite of pop. The band settles down in the hotel bar, but Mika has had enough. They are going home tomorrow for a few days' break, while Mika has to get up at 5am to travel to Monte Carlo for more promotion. As he heads for bed, he tells me he was surprised how long it took him to find success, and now he's surprised by the speed at which it finally happened. "When we did Glasgow a few months ago, we had 20 people in the audience. Then we went back and we were playing to 2,000 people. It's been amazing, absolutely amazing." He laughs. "People sing back the songs!" Does he feel more secure about his identity today? "I feel like I belong absolutely nowhere, and that's a good thing." I can see the British, Lebanese and French influences, but I'm not so sure about the American, I tell him. As usual, he tells me I'm wrong. "The American side is very strong," he says. "There's something I really enjoy about working in New York, especially the business side. There's an honest vulgarity. If you want something out of a deal, you just say it. I have the privilege of being able to say, 'OK, for my business side stuff I'm going to tap into the New Yorker, and for everything else I'm going to preserve the Britishness.' " Kerching! ·

... continuation... Ooops! Still too long... look for part 3... Once Mottola had signed Mika for his Casablanca label, he got in touch with his colleague, Lucian Grainge, Universal's head honcho in Europe. "Tommy said he had an unusual artist and he wanted me to meet him," Grainge tells me. "We had a conference at the Kempinski hotel in London. He wanted a grand piano, and we cleared the bar. He played five songs. I thought he was a genius." Why? "When I was starting out, I had a cassette in the car and would go from the Clash to Abba and the Sex Pistols to Stevie Wonder; it's that scope, that unusualness that really appealed to me in Mika." Grainge is right - Mika is a highly skilled musical jackdaw. Most lines in most songs resemble something you've heard before. The buzz began. "Tommy Mottola is the former head of Sony, former husband of Mariah Carey, nobody knows how to work the US market like him," says Music Week's editor, Martin Talbot. "And for the rest of the world you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody better than Lucian Grainge to work with. Mika's got the right people on his side." That only partly explains the Mika phenomenon. "He has something, whether you like it or not," Talbot says. "I saw him last September at the Universal conference, and it was gobsmackingly obvious to everybody he was going to be huge." Why? "The music is mainstream and populist - it's authentic pop. And rarely does somebody come along who at the same time is a bit cool and authentic. But there's another thing going on here - hype. Hype plays an increasingly influential role in the charts. Look at the Arctic Monkeys, who made the News At 10 when their first single was released, and Corinne Bailey Rae, whom everyone was touting as the next big thing for 2006. There is this appetite, this obsession that everyone in the media has to be the first to tip the next big thing. In the past two to three years, this game of predicting next year's big star has reached fever pitch." It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; a conspiracy of success. Once the hype merry-go-round starts turning, artists such as Mika and the Arctic Monkeys are almost guaranteed success unless they or the record companies screw up. Mika and I are walking to the venue in the centre of Dublin. I say, joking, that I assume he wants me up on stage with him tonight. Silence. "Actually, yes. We don't have a Chew-Chew tonight. Would you wear a gorilla outfit and dance on stage?" Next thing, his manager is ordering me a gorilla outfit. Meanwhile, Mika, who is 23, is explaining why America has shown such interest in him. I have heard pop stars talk of themselves in the third person, but Mika takes it one step farther. He refers to himself as the "project". "There's something about the project that seems to connect a lot of people in the American media," he says. "It's a pop record that they can relate to sonically. At the same time, it's seen as an Anglo record, but it's not alienating in that Anglophile kind of way that a lot of English projects can be when they come over to the States." His songs are personal, little stories about himself or others, but to exploit their potential, he says, he has to package them. He has created a whole Mika world (with the help of his sister, Yasmine, who works as an artist under the nom de plume Dawack) - not just the music, but surreal-lite imagery that encompasses lollipop girls and rampaging gorillas and gaudy rainbows. It all goes back to the time he was turned down by record company after record company. "I felt there was nowhere I could fit into the music scene. I felt I had to create my own space in order to have a career. And the visual part of the world is one of the best ways to do that, creating a whole Alice In Wonderland world you can step into." Like the music, the artwork echoes previous pop history, with a nod and a wink to the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. Mika used his artwork to promote his first single, Relax, Take It Easy, on the streets of London, where graffiti artist Banksy made his name. "We were like, what's the point in just having Relax, Take It Easy? Nobody knows who I am, let's create beautiful artwork. We put posters all round east London with just my name on them." He grins at the brainwave - genius. "People were taking them off the wall and keeping them." Island released only 650 copies of Relax, Take It Easy - a strategic move, virtually ensuring it would almost become an object of desire. He quotes the Beatles as a perfect example of pop packaging. "Pop lyrics have the same kind of fluidity as great cartoon work. If you are going to tell a story in three minutes, you're going to have to condense them, chop them up and cartoonify them. Then all the emotional response is in the listener's head in a similar way to cartoon books." He then quotes his own song, Billy Brown, as another example of the classic pop package - within a couple of lines, he has outlined the story of a man who leaves his wife for another man. "People say to me, 'Your music is escapism.' I say that's bollocks - it's hyper-reality. In order to get through Billy Brown's story in three minutes, you have to speed it up, exaggerate things, hype them up." Not that bloody word again. Does he consider Mika to be a character? He becomes defensive. "No, not in the slightest. I find it funny when writers say that I'm calculated. They go, 'Oh, it's such a calculated piece of pop-making, machine-making.' And that is so far from where the music came from it makes me smile." His manager, Iain Watt, had spent years promoting stroppy indie bands who didn't want to be promoted, and says working with Mika is a joy. There is so much one can do with pop stars these days, if only they are willing. Now they can be marketed on YouTube and MySpace, and you can use them to sell myriad products. In America, Mika's music was selling mobile phones before his first record was released. In Britain, his face was flogging Paul Smith before the public knew him as Mika. "If you can put the artist on all those platforms, young kids can discover him on YouTube or MySpace, older listeners can hear him on Radio 2, and then hipsters can feel safe buying Mika because they've seen him in a Paul Smith campaign," Watt says. "If you asked the Arctic Monkeys to be in a Paul Smith campaign, they'd tell you to **** off. If the campaign had been for, say, George at Asda, we wouldn't have done it." Why not? "We need to associate him with the right partners. This was his introduction to the media, and we based it on credibility in terms of song writing and the way he looked and projected. It was very style-led." Nowhere is the marketing more apparent than the first time I see Mika at the Big Top, a giant tent in Berkeley Square, London. It's freezing cold, and the hype army is out in force for the launch party of his album. Trees are illuminated Day-Glo pink, Big Girls (one song is called Big Girls You Are Beautiful) and Lollipop Girls (another song is Lollipop) parade their wares, alongside gorillas and pantomime horses. Journalists are left outside for an age. We are told that it is unlikely we'll be able to get in because there is such a crush. Eventually, we are allowed in, and find that there's loads of space. The event has been sponsored by T-Mobile and has a corporate feel - free drink, free food, free circus performance and, eventually, free Mika. The audience is composed largely of friends and journalists. The invitation reads, "There is no specific dress code, but dressing deliciously ridiculously would be very much appreciated." There is little deliciously ridiculous on display, apart from Mika, who is all yellow braces, Louis Vuitton shoes and post-teen goofiness. "Can we hear a round of applause for T-Mobile for bringing us the free beer and candyfloss?" he shouts. When he bangs out Stuck In The Middle, another song about confused identity, Mika reminds me of the famously uncool, staggeringly successful 70s pop star, Gilbert O'Sullivan. All he lacks is the shorts. Is Stuck In The Middle about his sexuality? "A bit of everything, yeah." So many of your songs are about looking for identity, I say. "Well, isn't that something every kid from 16 to 23 goes through? That's called being a twentysomething. When you leave university or school, you're like, what the hell am I doing now? Money? Life? Responsibility? Relationships? Everything. Where do my sisters fit into my life now? Where does my mum fit in?" The more he talks, the younger he sounds. "I used to know where I fit in because I was at home. But now? Am I the boss? I think I'm the boss, but then I can't get anything to go my way. It's a typical 20-year-old's dilemma." In the few weeks between the Big Top launch and the Dublin gig, there has been a Mika backlash. The NME, which reviewed him favourably a few months earlier, has announced that Mika is no longer cool. But in America his album has hit the top 30, and in Ireland he is number one and the crowd lining the street outside Spirit are crazy for him. They all say the same thing: that Mika has made pop fun again. Inside the venue, a likable man from an Irish newspaper is lobbing a few friendly questions at him before the gig. The journalist says it's great that he's produced an album with so many obvious hit singles. Somehow, Mika manages to take offence. "See, I find that description really strange, because as far as I'm concerned they're all little paintings." part 3 HERE

Don't see this posted yet... it's new to me, at least It's so long... I'll have to post in two parts! Here's part 1: Saturday April 28, 2007 The Guardian One minute he's playing to 20 in Glasgow, the next he has the best-selling single of the year. What are the deals and the muscle behind a shooting star? Simon Hattenstone - in gorilla suit - joins Mika on stage to get the inside story. 'Suddenly they all wanted to dance with me' A strange thing happened at the tail end of last year. Anyone who knew anything about popular music started parroting the same word - "Mika". In November, I'd not heard of Mika. By December, the arrival of pop's new messiah was heralded everywhere. On Jools Holland's BBC Hogmanay show, every single inebriated guest said the thing they were looking forward to most in 2007 was... Mika, of course. They all said the same thing - Mika was the 70s revisited, Bowie and Bolan and Freddie Mercury combined, with an added sprinkling of noughties po-mo disco; he was gorgeous, cool, super-smart, androgynous, original but accessible, weird but not too weird: he was the future. Newspapers and magazines published articles with the headline Mika Shall Inherit The Earth. And so it came to pass, in the early months of 2007, Mika did inherit the pop world. How did it happen? His signature tune, Grace Kelly, the biggest-selling single in the UK this year, is a wonderful identity crisis of a song. He announces that he could be Grace Kelly, he could be Freddie Mercury, he could be brown, he could be blue, he could be anyone or anything. But when he wrote it, Mika was nothing. The song asks two basic questions - who am I, and what do I have to do to be successful? It could be a knowing song about ambition and the music industry, it could be a song of straightforward desperation, it could be both. Like most things about Mika, it means what you want it to mean. Grace Kelly ends triumphantly, and infuriatingly, with the "Kerching!" of cash tills ringing - Mika's anticipation of his success today. Mika, born Mica Penniman and pronounced Mee-ka, is a Lebanese-French-American-English, sexually-ambiguous, opera-trained pop star with a ridiculous vocal range. One second he's a falsetto, the next he's a baritone. He regards himself as a serious artist, though he's written some of the most obviously commercial tunes in years. The music is euphoric, but the lyrics are often introverted or even depressed. He refers to people (Grace Kelly) or subjects (the 80s civil war in Lebanon) that only people of a certain age will know about, and yet the tunes are like nursery rhymes. Toddlers love him, grannies love him, twentysomethings love him - and loads of people hate him. We're in Dublin, and Mika is preparing for a tiny gig at a nightclub called Spirit. The venue was booked months ago, when Mika was just beginning to be hyped. Now he could sell out a space such as this many times over. Is this what he's been aspiring to since he was a boy? "I wasn't aspiring to it," Mika says. "This is what I thought I did. Always." From the age of 11, he was singing jingles for Orbit chewing gum and doing bit parts at the Royal Opera House. But Mika wasn't interested in being a member of the chorus. He wanted to be the diva. "I was walking into record labels from the age of 13 with my demo tapes. Often I didn't tell my mum because I was embarrassed." Everybody rejected him, including Simon Cowell, who told him his songs were rubbish. Mika was a year old when his family left Beirut. He lived happily in France until he was eight, with his American banker father, his Lebanese mother and four siblings. When the family moved to London, Mika went to a French lycée, which he detested. He was bullied, called a poof, ostracised for his difference and for his learning difficulties - he was bright but dyslexic. The more he was picked on, the more traumatised he became. Eventually, he lost the ability to read and write, and his mother withdrew him from school. He lost (and found) himself in music. By the time he returned to full-time education at Westminster public school, Mika considered school as good as irrelevant - he was a full-time musician. He did his A-levels, started a degree in economics and lasted a day, studied at the Royal College of Music and almost lasted the whole course, but all the time he felt he was living a double life - training as an opera singer by day and sliding off by night to practise being a pop star. It was only when he went off to America to develop his songwriting skills and bang on a few more doors that he made headway. He ended up banging on just about the biggest door in the American music industry, and Tommy Mottola liked what he heard. "Suddenly they all wanted to dance with me. Tommy Mottola wanted to sign me. I said no four times, because I didn't trust him, and I wasn't going to go into a deal unless I had everything confirmed on paper, and I needed to know I'd have the freedom to make the record I wanted yet with the same amount of support in terms of money and time and marketing commitments." He was prepared to walk away? "Yeah." Part 2 HERE http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2067214,00.html

Loved both of the interviews -- they may be my favorites yet Thanks so much for posting about them! dcdeb

Absolutely! Thanks for the effort! It was definitely appreciated! dcdeb

Well, that includes me, for sure! Babs and Sou -- if ever you make it stateside... or if I get to the UK and/or Kuwait -- I will definitely be buying you a beverage of your choice! Thanks so much for all your efforts -- they are greatly appreciated! dcdeb