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oh, I believe he was very much inspired by some of Freddie's songs. In fact, Instant Martyr or Loverboy were more than simply inspired by Freddie's songs.. In terms of his style, he may have wanted to be more in the Prince or MH direction but that's just not how he turned out to be in the end. I guess it is more due to his education, culture as well as his orientation. There is more Freddie in him than he may be aware of, and by that I don't mean Freddie Mercury as a rock star, the flamboyant singer of the band Queen. I mean the shy introvert off stage, who loves art, classical music as well as pop, tries to integrate different forms of art into his works and collects antiquities. Most importantly, however, someone who lives for his profession and works till his last breath. Well, that's what I used to think, not entirely sure anymore. I'll see what Mika will do next.

Ok, I must admit I didn’t find the time to re-watch it over the weekend, either, so I have just done it now. In summary, I find that the video is not in harmony with the lyrics and the music of the song and the technical aspect ( acting and eding) of it is rather weak as well. In fact, it pretty much destroys the song to me, especially the beginning, in which the more ’universal’ feel to a beautiful song is overshadowed by some awkward pantomime. It’s not that I don’t like panto style videos. They are perfect to tell stories, so a similar approach would have been wonderful for Toy Boy, for example. In songs where there are feelings you want to show or evoke this melodramatic theatre just does not work, especially when combined with such amateur acting, I am sorry. . Whilst the song starts with movement and emotions: picturing a landslide and leaving the troubled world behind by sailing away on a ship, in the video you can see a non-moving, fake boat and someone posing. In the song the piano does a perfect job in evoking the waves when you listen but when you watch , all you can see is a chandelier on a boat and wave simulation as sophisticated as you’d expect from any high-school theatre performance... The underwater part is quite ok and correstponds with the song more in a way that it lacks the fakeness of the first part, especially in colours and movements. However, I can’t see the clear contrast vs the first part and even the story with the mermaids attacking him and one of them taking away his love in the end looks a bit odd. I mean, he is free to come up with any story to have some mermaids dance in his video but to me the song’s meaning is that he escapes from the cruel outside world by submerging into the serene underwater with his lover, whilst in the video he falls into the sea accidentally only to find out that he can actually survive there with his life support bottle (i.e.lover). He even literally takes a long breath under the water to show he can breathe. To me the video’s biggest fault is that it attaches a story to a song that is about emotions. In theatre it would be ok but not in a music video and not with these techniques. There are so many tools in cinematography that he could have used, helped by the right professionals. As for this video being a good promotional tool I’m not sure, either. His curly hair is on display a lot – clearly an important factor for women in many diffrent age groups – but I can’t see its appeal to a mainstream adult audience, an appeal the song itself does have, in my opinion. So I view it as an opportunity missed in that respect and as far as I am concerned, I’d rather just listen to the song and imagine my own visuals to it.

Just because he lists certain popstars as his favoutites it does not mean that he'd try to be like them. @Julia Welcomes the journalist is acting stupid here with their sarcastic remark that now Mika no longer even thinks about Freddie Mercury or Leo Sayer. It's not that he was ever inspired by the latter. That's just how the UK press treats him: they ridicule him at any possible occasion. As far as Mika not talking about Freddie as one of his inspirations any more (or not very often) I personally think is and was a mistake. He seems to have deliberately shied away from talking about Freddie and Queen early on whilst Katy Perry and Lady Gaga realized what a good idea that was to build their own fanbase.

I only saw it once in the office and my first impression was that the beginning was rather awkward and the end quite ok. I'll watch it over the weekend again and let you know what I think. I doubt my opinion will change radically but I may be able to tell you what made me feel that way.

@Alie yes, that's what I meant. Young fans like you are rare on MFC. Especially new ones. I also know others who are fans but don't like visiting or posting on forums so they need to be reached elsewhere.

@lynx I have only managed to read some random posts so far but I think it's this thread that is hilarious not the video.

What seems to be forgotten here is that it is now mostly the 35+ age group posting here and on forums in general. That is hardly the age group any popstar would be able to build their long term career on. There may be still young fans out there but if Mika is missing from the media they use they will simply move on.

yes, that is the right place for them, the other thread for reviews is MFCers reviews. I just pointed out that some of these reviews are more like 'voice of the people' rather than professional assessments.

I would not necessarily call them critics, not by my term, anyway. Most of them are just bloggers - something anyone with time on their hand can do I really liked this one though:

I think this is an ‘off topic’ / discussion thread, so nothing really is off topic as long as it is related to Mika. Perhaps another requirement is that since it is a discussion type of off-topic thread, it is preferable to write posts rather than post Mika pictures – unless they are relevant to some of the points raised. I find that usually there is a right balance of off-topic comments in threads now - perhaps it is because the few of us who still visit this MFC are used to forum culture now. @Marilyn Mastin I always read your posts because you are so honest about some topics few of us would not want to mention or even deny the existence of.... That’s what I thought, too, but his most famous song, Grace Kelly, uses a falsetto and his least successful single Celebrate does not, I think it has more to do with just the falsetto. Also, so many popstars have used falsetto in pop and rock history and are using it successfully now, so it must be something else, like the way it is incorporated into songs or more likely, that and his image combined, like you point out: Yes, it seems like he shot himself in the foot with some of these ideas.

I think it hugely depends on what songs you hear on the radio. Even when the second album came out I asked myself if the first single would have turned me into a fan and my answer is a definite NO. Going into this further, I also asked myself if I had stayed a fan had I not heard Toy Boy and Blue Eyes before the officially promoted first single and heard new songs on the acousitic tour and I'd answer 'no' to that as well. Same goes for this album. The general public judges him by the songs and the image he promotes the album with, so they need to get the mix right or the album will fail.

That is a good point. He may write songs in 4 mins but not all of these are suitable for the album and not necessarily the way he wrote them. In other words, the 4 mins is just the idea part, he needs to involve other people to turn them into catchy pop tunes with matching lyrics. He is also likely to bin a huge number of songs that fail at some level. Besides, on the album it is not only songs he started from scratch but songs other people started to work on and he finished..etc. So he is looking for songs as well. That needs time, obviously. At the same time, your comment on the many invisible (and probably irrelevant) projects is totally valid. These may vary from hiking mountains, shooting promos for shoes and sunglasses, choosing the colour of wallpaper in his flat..etc. anything, really, we have no view on Given he is apparently unable to write and perform at the same time period, he may want to limit is festival and private gig appearances in the writing process if he needs to concentrate. Anyway, he may have more time for the next album now - his next year does not seem that busy at the moment. Are you referring to not hearing anything about him or the album in Spain at all? We have the same situation here, but it was the same for the second album, so I am not surprised. He needs to be famous in the UK or US first to get noted here. It may have to do with the songs themselves, I mean the singles. yes, they'd better do it

That's not how it happened at all. He won a prestigious critics award from BBC BEFORE the album or even the single GK was released. (same award Adele won the following year). He was basically declared as the singer to look out for in 2007. So, there was much expectation around the album by the media : he was all over the press , tv and radio. I first heard him on UK radio even before the release of GK. Back then all his live appearances suggested a restrained, more indie type of image until the album launch that had a circus theme. It was around that time that the press started to frown upon the 'hype' , mock his voice and even stopped playing him at some stations in the UK, even at the one (Virgin) I was listening that time and despite the fact that they did support him first.

It waw great to meet you, too. I hope there will be many other occasions in the future, too. I was thinking exactly about what you mention: chapels. I got into his concerts after the Berlin acoustic show and Little Noise with the King' Singers is my other favourite show of all time. The acoustics is just so different in that environment - perfect for many of his songs, if not all. Besides, it would be cheaper to organize and provide him the opportunity to develop further as a singer since it is more difficult to do those shows properly.

IMO, Stardust is easily the choice of most fans as the best single material on the album, and OOL + Underwater turned out to be the 2 favourites by mile when we put up 5 songs for voting on MFC. I don't think there is anything wrong with the album, it's just that they didn't reach the right audience with it - reasons for that we could right a really long list though.

Yes, that's most likely the huge event he was referring to. Well, I don't think he has a busy schedule anymore: he clearly has no tour booked for next year at all. To have a tour, you'd need promoters believe that they can sell tickets to the concert. For that I suppose he'd need to have a certain level of success in the countries he wants to tour. 30 MFCers chasing him around is just not enough. In the current situation smaller venues with acoustic shows would make sense and that's why I asked him about that earlier but he does not seem to have such plans, either. I think they will need to see what will happen after the second single, if the album sales to pick up and then... well, we'll see. I don't think he has much choice now than do something else, whatever that will be.I'd personally prefer him working on a new album as I liked the last one.

We never really did, so no change there well, I am not trying to make you think otherwise, just post what I think Realistically speaking, he is likely to be happier when his album is selling (more people are listening to his music) and his concerts are selling out or simply being in a position to organize a proper tour. That is something you can't state for certain. No-one knows if he has been recommended to take a particular direction (e.g more electronic music) or collaborate with particular people (you know who I am thinkingabout). That is not to say that he has but you simply can't say it for sure. @nenartus I hope you don't feel that views and stories you readon MFC are representative of the way people spend their time and money when it comes to attending concerts. Most people work to earn a living, find it hard to save to travel and when they do they might have other priorties than attending a concert. This thread is mainly about Mika not getting the airplay and success in the UK that would enable him to get exposure elsewhere in Europe so that he could visit more countries, Serbia included. It is not about his happiness but about fans' happiness. Rather few seem to get that though... You are definitely not alone with your problem of not having been able to afford to go to Vienna, even though it is relatively close and cheaper than it would have been to fly to anywere else. Not even some Hungarians I know could afford the ticket that was almost double the price of the return train ticket. You could feel the absence of fans from neighbouring countries (there were still many but not in the numbers they came 2.5 years ago). So I personally do understand how you feel and I absolutely think that you have a valid point in getting really sad about reading some of the 'complaints' that may actually sound like bragging to someone being in a similar situation you currently are in.

Doesn't his sweetness justify it for you? I find it hard to believe that he sold 4 million copies of his last album and I doubt he sold 4 million tickets for his own unless one includes the attendance of festivals he was only one of the performers at I think he does. He won't be able to use the same distribution channels anymore, meaning that the record won't be available in the stores. Should he record something without a major contract you could still buy it from MFC, of course, and at his own small gigs but he'd even find it difficult to get promoters organize concerts for him. Without a contract he wouldn't get exposure in the media unless he starts going out with Justin Bieber. At the same time, it looks like he can always release a new album in France with Label Barclay. You may be but is he? During the inactive period we did not stop to be Mika fans but were simply moaning about Mika not being active, weren't we? True it won't be that exciting the second time so perhaps we can go and hibernate now to return in 5 years... You can't deny you are a Mika fan yes, to both. He needs to live with the consequences though. It was not about the endorsement, it was about the song being awesome and stading out from the rest. (Plus, great video as well) It worked for Mika once, with Grace Kelly. His success on that has worn off, so he'd need other awesome stuff to get people hooked again. When the first news of the album arrived I expected a total re-launch of him with TOOL leading as a single but it never happened.

I think when you consider Mika to be 'French' rather than British has nothing to do with a particular culture. It is more about Mika being rootless in music and image. His music is most certainly not French. It is traditional Anglo-Saxon pop music, European cabaret from the 30s and some classical roots. That's why he's been compared to Freddie Mercury right from the beginning. His only French part are his shoes that took him to an enchanted forest away from the real world in 2008.

I don't think it is about them being gay but more about these musicians taking their profession seriously but not taking themselves seriously. Queen / Freddie was also treated the same way in the UK until his death. By that I do not mean an intentional boycott but more a kind of snobbish frown upon them, despite their success. At the same time, I am still on the opinion that a great song (TOOL) will bring Mika a certain level of success if he gets the chance to promote it at least on tv, like he did have the chance with Celebrate when he performed it at SCD.

Did you leave it at the station? Did anyone think it was a hard gig? ( Sorry, I haven't read all posts.) I think it was an easy one, with a good audience.

yes, and I added the George Michael bit

So, I am finally home and through my first workday as well. Not sure where to begin the report as there are so many things I have been thinking about after the gig I can only write down a part of it. Perhaps it is best to start with the audition for the choir as that was really funny. I had a good laugh, anyway. Prior to the gig I hadn’t seen any show from this autumn’s tour partly because I was busy and partly because I wanted the show to be a surprise. On the ’before the show’ thread I predicted that they won’t have many volunteers to do that for a variety of reasons I won’t explain and it happened exactly like that. They had noone applying, so Tim and Max came almost begging people to join the choir. They said they’d welcome even those who had already participated and were ’good at it’ ... and as an example he mentioned Ingrid Slightly disappointed she was not there and also by at the lack of enthusiasm, they auditioned the volunteers by asking them only two questions: if they could sing and if they knew the song ’Popular’. Fair enough, I think, except that some answered ’no’ to both . At that point I quietly recommended they sang something in German We were all laughing but reassured Tim that front row will help with the singing. Anyway, they did well. So, with 6 early queuers in minus we now had a better chance to get a good spot () and only at 5.30 did we realize that we would have been front row even if we arrived at 6pm.... We agonized quite a while about the lack of interest and then started to worry how Mika will react when he sees only 6-700 people (the figure organizers were expecting to turn up) instead of the 2500 the venue can hold but people were starting to turn up and by the time the concert started the main floor looked almost full – even from the stage, apparently. There is another seemingly unimportant nonsense I remember now: some fans were missing a ’project’ for the audience so they bought 2-3 packs of pink Post-it’s to be shown up during the Origin of Love. (I first showed mine to Mellody to entertain her – from front row to the choir ) These sticky notes also helped me and 2 other Hungarian fans I was with pass the time while waiting: we used a bunch of these to stick ’Love from Hungary’ on the barrier. Unfortunately, the L went missing after the second song, like it happens with L’s at Mika gigs ... Now a few words about the gig itself. (I never remember the right order of songs, so I’ll just write whatever comes to my mind.) He started with Grace Kelly, followed by Blame it On the Girls and Blue Eyes. A rather odd choice,in my opinion, or it might be because I am used to him opening his shows with Relax or Rain. It’s not that they are not great songs but there is a difference between starting your day with a strong expresso vs trying to wake up with a lukewarm coffee with milk. If he wants a change, another starter could be Stardust, for example, starting it acoustically and then changing it to the electronic version. Anyway, this is not about tips for future shows, back to what I experienced. The songs I liked most was Stardust (he sang the acoustic version) and Underwater. During the latter he said he’d try something with the audience: he got us sing ”Underwateeeeeeeeer, oh oooooooooh” while he was singing over it. ( Look- a wub that is not about Mika's looks heehee). After that he said this was the best singing audience he has had for a while and I can easily imagine that. We were not that many but sang well. Otherwise the crowd was not that jumpy but clearly liked him a lot. He only realized it after a few songs though. I remember that when he wanted to start Stardust he couldn’t because people were screaming and whistling ...etc. so he started to chat like he usually does to calm them down so that he can start... He said ’Where am I? ’ (most likely meaning the type of audience it was, the language they spoke) and of course people answered:’In Vienna’ So he said something like "of course I know I am in Vienna and you are Austrians and not Slovakians but" and then there was some shouting so he said "wait, there are some Slovakians here", so he asked them to cheer. There was huge cheering. Shame he did not continued with that story: there were people from neighbouring countries in great numbers. So the answer to his question where he was should have been ’with your fanbase in that region’ , as with 40EUR a ticket, the album promo not going really well and not even one poster advertising the gig in town, it is not random people showing up but the ones who have bought the album... Anyway, he got rather chatty in the end, telling us how the night before he was watching the ballet dancers of the Opera House rehearse from his hotel window half naked when one of them spotted him spying and showed him an international sign... As the story went down really well, he continued and said that as a child he used to watch the guests of the hotel behind his home have s*x and he said he was disappointed how it did not look like it did in movies There was one comment I found strange: he said that he’d now sing a song despite people telling him not to sing it outside France. So he sang Elle Me Dit. To be honest, this comment would have made more sense if he had said it afterwards, like: oh I’m glad it went down so well, despite the local record label not recommending it...etc, This way the comment sounded to have come from someone hurt but with no proof he was actually right...even though he was: the audience liked it. (If I had to choose a French one I would have voted for Un Soleil Mal Lune though). Finally, something about the band. I mentioned it after Lovebox as well that I could see why he changed them and I applaud him for that: there is a much fuller sound on stage now (more instruments and band members who sing well) and geniune interaction between him and Curtis and even Max, for example, talking of whom I remember now that Mika also sang Toy Boy and with his braces Max really looked like some nicely dressed rag doll... That was clearly a last minute choice as he was holding the lyrics in one hand and Max in the other. The topic itself reminds me of the question I ask him at the m&g about any acoustic gigs planned in the future. He said there’s only be one on France, for charity and by invitation only.......... (:rolls_eyes:) There is no sign on this forum that would depict what went on in my head but I managed to keep a poker face and ask if he knew the way we’d get invited then. It’s not that I was expecting an answer. Otherwise I had a great day, met some great people and realized that the two Hungarian MFCers I was queueing with are some of the most easy-going and funniest people I have met for a long time.

Hi, I am on my way back home, I had a great time last night. When I get home I will write my report about the gig itself...

:doh:I thought it was only my mailbox. It's not that I am surprised it does not work. :rolls_eyes: