Christine

Wow nicely done.

When Mika stops to sign autographs for fans who are waiting for him outside, it is NOT a meet and greet. I don't know why Mika fans started calling it that but it has been impossible to change this terminology which leads to confusion when we talk about true M&Gs. A true M&G has traditionally been a reception for press, VIPs, etc. Lots of booze, appetizers, etc. and the artist is expected to turn up and schmooze (kiss ass ) with all the VIPs. In recent years artists have been trying to make more money from touring since people don't buy as many albums as they used to. So they have been basically turning fans into "VIPs" and charging them for it. So instead of standing around socializing with the artist it's more of an assembly line and you are guaranteed certain things like an autograph or a photograph (depending on what you buy). Mika doesn't do the paid M&Gs but he does have to meet people. A lot of them are fans in the sense that they really like him but they probably know someone in the industry in order to get that kind of access or they won a radio contest etc. During a 2009 tour in North America some MFCers were allowed to be included in these M&Gs at the last minute but the M&Gs had been set up for promotional reasons, not so MFCers could meet Mika. Occasionally MFC is able to set up a M&G just for MFC. Mika agrees to come and just chat to MFCers. These are few and far between and are often to celebrate his birthday or some other event so I am sure that is not what Mika is referring to when he talks about M&Gs in the context of his promotional obligations.

Oh don't worry about it. Coronation Street is a very popular soap opera in Canada so my parents watched it for years and I watched along. Between the northern England accents, the British cultural references and the slang I seriously had no idea what they were talking about half the time. It took years for it to sound like I was listening to people speaking my native language. The funny thing was that I didn't even realize how much I was missing until later on when I started understanding everything. I seemed to just block things out when I didn't get them rather than consciously thinking about how a particular word or phrase didn't make sense to me. It wasn't until I actually lived in the UK and could get all of the cultural references that I really understood 100% of the dialogue.

I think Mika doesn't always do this after an A sound but because the next word is a vowel the R links them together. And yes he has had some weird weird phrasing in his songs for sure. I think this "sofar" for "sofa" though is natural for many Brits though, like you said unlike some of his other odd pronunciations that are Mika inventions.

Yes but just layering the vocals is an "effect". It's not possible for him to sing layered vocal tracks simultaneously live. He's only got one body Maybe he will do the lower vocal live though and someone else will sing the higher part or there will be a backing track or he just won't try to replicate the sound on the record at all and it will sound quite different. Anyway I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. This is a bonus track isn't it? If so I doubt he will sing it live anyway.

Yes but it sounds electronic to me so I thought it may be possible. But maybe it's just some other digital effect.

No probably just a backing singer. They have to do that for all of Mika's layered vocals anyway (unless they use actual backing tracks). That's why Max has been a great addition to his band because he matches Mika's voice so well.

Probably. They may have just shifted the pitch electronically like they did to make him sound like a woman in Grace Kelly. Lily Allen does a male voice in the same way in one of her songs. At 40 seconds.

I think he actually mentioned his brother in discussing this song so I think you're right. On the language question...I think (hypothetically) you could also mean you want the son you have to have different qualities. It's projection. This is the son I have and I am just going to - either through pressure or delusion - make him into the person I want. In another time and place Mika could have been the son that she wants by getting married and having children, etc. I think in this particular case though Mika may be referring to a second son that will fulfill all her specifications for the ideal son because what Mika has to offer isn't what she values in a son. But I am guessing that based on what he has said rather than the actual lyrics. And just for the record I don't think any of this is really true. I think it's just a child's twisted perception (brought on by religious conditioning) and fear of disappointing his parents. I also find it hard to believe that Mika was ever stuck in the middle. Unless, by "middle", he means being the centre of everyone's world.

I don't think it's peculiar to the English language or being a native speaker (of any language) but sometimes you hear something wrong for some reason and it's very difficult to unhear it. I always hear "coming to shag me" when Mika sings the French version of Grace Kelly. Yes I personally found it such a huge relief when he finally came out publicly I can't imagine what it was like for him. Watching him dodge and divert from the gay question and trying to hide his relationship even from people they were around every day was so sad to me. And it made me very frustrated with fans who sort of encouraged that secrecy/denial for their own comfort. The movement is called "pride" for a reason and if members of the LGBT community feel shame for themselves then sadly society will happily go along with it and continue enforcing that shame. It is heartbreaking that anyone has to grow up with that. It must be very difficult to break free of those shackles especially if you fear it will jeopardize your relationship with god or your family or ruin your career.

This goes into the "good" pile for me. (Sorry I absolutely loathe some of the songs on this album and am trying to refrain from commenting on them ) The only niggle for me is that the guitar riff sounds ripped off from the Ting Tings. Love the lyrics though. Is this Mika's input to the "career choices discussion"?

Oh thank goodness. That was doing my head in. Haha yes she was right. A (slightly misguided) attempt to rhyme with world.

No it's ocean.

Brilliant lyrics. Did Mika write them all? It sound very much like Barenaked Ladies or Lily Allen.

I think this is my favourite (after Good Wife). The piano is beautiful. "For every love I had to hide" is especially sad.

Greg Wells?

Attached are screencaps of the list. I have been obsessed with Cheerleader for weeks. I love his phrasing. Love the Jess Glynne song too. Edit: Sorry I should have said it's only the songs added this week that are Mika's, per Bia's list.

I don't think it matters whether gay men call each other wife or not - the lyrics would have been the same. I think the key to the whole meaning of the song is "if only god had wanted it". This is what indicates that the person speaking is not a "real" wife but wishes he could be one and reckons he could have done a much better job of it if it was possible. It's so annoying that the video cuts from Mika's face at the exact moment he says that line I can't understand properly.

Okay I am really nosy but that is a bit TMI Mika!

Mika didn't write Grace Kelly about Simon Cowell. Is this what all the anti-Cowell hysteria is about? It was just a tabloid rumour in early 2007 and Mika has contradicted it with his own version of events in the years since. Mika would have sent his demos to dozens of A&R directors and Simon Cowell just happened to be one of them. Simon told Mika his songs needed some work and Mika agreed because he was very young and I'm sure his songs did need some work. The reason Mika told this story is because Simon Cowell turned out to be the most successful and most famous A&R director of all time. I hear that Mika told another story yesterday about going to Warner to get them to listen to his demos when he was a teenager and Warner also rejected him. If Mika wasn't being rejected by everyone at the age of 16 then his pop music career would have started many years earlier. The point is just to be contrary without offering an opinion of one's own or, heaven forbid, some actual facts. If anyone wants to believe that disagreeing with something changes the reality of it they can knock themselves out.

Yes this is the sad irony in these terrble choices he has to make now. If he'd compromised a little bit early in his career he maybe could have had the success and money to enjoy true freedom at this point instead of selling his creative energies to bad reality TV and selling his videos to BMW etc. I suppose that is what he has been trying to say when he talks about no longer isolating himself but there is such a huge gap between being a little bit more mainstream in 2009 and doing XF now. Coming out of your bubble is a good thing but not if you run right out of it and jump off a cliff.

Mika has done these concerts before. This is nothing new. There are some big names here but they are not performing on the same day as Mika so people are not going to be turning up or tuning in to watch Adam Lambert and Ed Sheeran. It's great that it's in Central Park though because just the buzz of a TV show filming will draw in some randoms and Mika's always impressive live. You're right, hopefully he sings Popular and Lollipop in the segments that make it to air because they'll probably be most recognizable to people watching. Hope everyone going has fun and you get weather as nice as we had last week. This show was moved into the studio in 2007 due to torrential rains but it was in August so hopefully early July is better timing. I won't be there but hope to find a feed for GMA online. It should be good!

Well it looks like the odds are increasing in Mika's favour https://twitter.com/SkyUno/status/599203576267841536

The soundtrack is heading for #1 album in the US this week. This should be a nice little earner for Mika. There were 8.7 million downloads of songs on the last album. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6568292/pitch-perfect-2-soundtrack-number-1-billboard-200

My instinct tells me it won't happen but maybe it's just that I can't believe he could be long forgotten in the UK one day and starring on XF the next. Maybe it doesn't seem that way to Mika because he's been working on XF Italy for 2 years so it's not overnight as far as he's concerned but I have been tuning it all out so it's difficult to imagine. I don't believe for a minute that Mika would ever turn it down however. The bookies are favouring Grimmy.