JackViolet

I love how we're all going around in circles trying to protect Mika's privacy here, and either we all understand each other perfectly, or else we're talking perfect nonsense. Yeah, he did, but then considering how he doesn't want to talk about the meaning, the song itself gives a fair bit away. I find that musicians often do that though--they'll put really personal information into songs that they'd never reveal otherwise, either because they can't help it, or because they feel you can always say "it's not about me" with a song. Also, I often find some people don't realize how much they give away. (I know someone who knows some celebrities, and when she talks about them she tries to keep their identities secret, but it's often easy to guess anyway, haha. She gets upset when someone points that out because she doesn't mean for it to be so obvious.) --Jack

Hah, THAT is several things really. But if it is what you think it is, I probably shouldn't say so, should I? --Jack

I think it's about his mother, not his father. I have this thing that, well, no-one has to believe me, but sometimes I get these flashes of knowledge/certainty about random things, and when I'm convinced I'm really right about them I usually am. And even though Stuck in the Middle had been one of my favorite songs since I heard it, I never really listened to it all that closely until I finally got my own copy of Mika's album. I was just driving around listening to it on repeat when SitM came on, and suddenly I had this very clear thought, "Oh God, he's singing to his mother isn't he? And it's about THAT, isn't it?" And then I went and read what he said about feeling uncomfortable singing the song with his mom in the audience, so I think it's true. --Jack

I like how we all say the same thing. I wonder if our interpretations are the same or all different? Also, I am curious about your signature: I've seen that lyrics written down as "I tried to live alone, but lonely is so lonely alone" before, but to me it's always sounded like "I tried to live alone, but lonely is so lonely, you know," which also seems to make more sense, personally. So which is it? --Jack

Someone once provided an interpretation here that I agree with, and is how I read the song as well... and if that interpretation is true, I definitely see why Mika wants to keep it private. There is one other time he talked about this sing, when a reporter asked him a question about it... and he replied in a slightly more straight-forward way than he usually does. Can't find that article now though, and I wouldn't want to misquote him. If you do a search on this song in the forums, you will see some of the interpretations previously offered... including the ones I am talking about. --Jack

Hahah, people on the Fratellis forum hate him? The Fratellis are good for a quick listen, but they are such glam wannabes, and the lead singer is just desperately trying to be a hetero version of Marc Bolan. (Which is funny 'cos slight gender/sexual ambiguity was the main point of Marc's appeal.) Anyway, they are fun but they are just your generic pop-punk band without any originality, so for them or their fans to slam Mika is really ironic. As for people who call him "gay" as an insult (again, if ANY Fratellis fan did that I'd laugh in their face and point them to some T. Rex videos), my response is usually not to even argue but just reply with something like, "yes, gay and fabulous!" Or "Oh, well we can hope!" That works better than trying to "defend" him, imo. Because after all, why shouldn't he be gay? --Jack

What's the source for him learning Mandarin/Italian/etc? I've heard/read him say that he's fluent in French and speaks a bit of Arabic, but I haven't seen any interviews mentioning other languages...

I have to say I was first at least partially drawn to Mika due to his qualities of queerness (and I use the word in the queer studies meaning of the term, having nothing to do with Mika's actual sexuality), but that queerness seemed to be located more in the press than in him. And I very much enjoy his flamboyance and theatricality, and hope he continues on in this vein, but what I see and love in him most now is colorful playfulness, not whatever "campness" that everyone keeps talking about. --Jack

This is amazing, girls! I'm so impressed with Mika.

Oh, funny! I did that too... And I was always very vocal about how much I HATED myspace and how I'd never join it. But then I gave in and made one so I could receive news bulletins. So much for my protestations! --Jack

Haha, oh, I am definitely obsessed with Mika, but most of my friends think it's cute. They're used to it, you see--I have a rather obsessive personality and obsess about things all the time. Mika is the latest in a venerable line of authors and musicians (that include Oscar Wilde, Marc Bolan and David Bowie) and I think he's in quite good company. Do I talk about him too much? Oh yes. But I've made some of my friends into fans due to all my talk, so surely it's not too bad. Besides, the nice thing about friends knowing about my obsession is that they get me things that they think I'd like if they see them. Like, one of my great loves is the movie Velvet Goldmine, and just the other day my roommate brought me a Velvet Goldmine poster because she saw it and knew I would like it. And that sort of thing always makes a pleasant surprise. --Jack

"Childish" is usually used to mean silly and immature in a negative way, yeah. "Childlike" tends to be used more to mean innocent or playful.

Yeah, but note that the review says that while Mika has "effort," he is not "anything more" and that while there's "no shame" in being the kind of singer he is, there is also "no glory." He goes on to imply that Mika has energy but is lacking talent and originality. So basically the review's saying he's just so-so. There is also a difference between being "childlike" and "childish" (or "immature"). This is why I am annoyed. --Jack

If they're trying to turn down skinny girls, you'd think they could just reply with "We're sorry, you're not the type we're looking for" or something. It would at least be honest and less confusing. I don't think that's it; it seems like they made a mess of dates and commitments themselves. --Jack

Ugh, I actually think this is a remarkably backstabbing review. Damning with faint praise, as it were. Basically, it comes out to "No, Mika isn't bad, but he isn't particularly good either--he tries hard to entertain but he's only average in talent." I think I prefer the negative ones. I also don't think there's anything wrong in saying that he lacks material so has to do covers--of course he does, he's only had one album out so far. It's hard to fill a show from that, especially if you don't want to just sing every song you have. I especially resent the comment about his "immaturity" though--if the reviewer thinks it's "immature," I think he simply doesn't understand the point of Mika. Same with anyone who has issues with the chicken costume. My reaction when I found out that he sang dressed as a chicken was that it was awesome and perfect, and just made me like him more. I suppose people who don't get it will continue to not get it. I also can't believe that the crowd was "merely friendly," but whatever. --Jack

Oooh, thank you so much for the translation! I love how we get to read international interviews here! --Jack

Oh! It's so funny to see it end up here... I was the one who "translated" it, by which I actually mean I took the two translations given here before in this thread (by dcdeb and violet_sky), and then just combined them and changed some things around to make it read better in English. Then I posted it outside of this forum for some other Mika fans to read... and now it's back again. Ha. --Jack

Geez, people, it's not the paparazzi! He didn't say anything about his private life being "invaded"--he's just busy! And it's not some great tragedy. He didn't even say he was all that upset about it--he said the situation was "sad," but he wasn't sad exactly. Look, a few weeks ago I had to help organize a festival, and all my free time went into it, and I ended up not doing any schoolwork and even neglecting hanging out with some of my friends for it--and I was super-super busy, to the point even of not sleeping more than 2 hours a night some days, but I was having a great time. And I'd say, "this is so sad, I'm going to be ages behind on my work, I haven't been able to do any of my reading at all," and yeah, that was not good, but it was a choice I was making and I knew what I was doing and it definitely wasn't any reason to feel sorry for me. As for getting him "help," well, I don't think lotions or soaps are really the thing here, and an island with MFC members would be the last thing he'd need if the issue is that he hasn't been able to have a private life with his own friends and family and non-fame related concerns. If you guys want to actually "help," then whenever he does take a break, kind of like Patrick Wolf will be doing this fall, just continue to support him and buy his music and be his fans without complaining or asking that he should do more shows/release more material/etc. --Jack

It's my mother's birthday, so I can't make it. I'll be going to the June 12th hopefully, but I so wanted to go to two. --Jack

Hearing you guys talk about it makes me sad that I can't go to the June 15th gig. :-/ --Jack

Additionally, in that early London Paper interview, just as Grace Kelly was first about to be released, he said that people have been warning him about the pressures of hype and the demands of sudden fame, but even though he knows it may be a lot to deal with, he thinks he's well equipped to handle it and he isn't worried. So he definitely went into this with his eyes open! And as long as he's still having a good time (which he certainly seems to be), good for him! Plus unlike some other popstars, he's got a great relationship with his family, and they are always there to support him and ground him and hold him up. I think it's wonderful how they come to all his gigs and how he includes them in what he is doing--this way, even though he's working all the time, he still remains very connected to that at least. He's very lucky in that, and smart too. --Jack

This isn't really so bad. All he's saying is that he's been so busy with his professional duties that he's had no time for himself. We've all known this anyway--I've been telling people over and over how I can't believe the intensity of his schedule. He has gigs booked up solid through the whole summer, and on the days he isn't performing, he'd doing tv appearances, and he does interviews before both. To add to that, he's somehow still practicing and releasing and recording new songs, AND he has that art exhibition with Da Wack. That is an immense amount of work! Of course he has no time-no-one could possibly do all that and have any time for a "private life" left. Heck, most people couldn't manage to do it at all. Mika has incredible energy and stamina, but of course this will still make him tired. The good news then, is that as soon as he is done with the tour, he can choose to take a break if he wants to. This is in fact within his control (heck, technically he could even do what Lily Allen did and cancel some shows--we would all be incredibly disappointed, but it's not like it's not possible). However, I don't think he'll need to do that. He seems to enjoy performing, and sure, it's too bad that he doesn't have time for anything else, but this is a choice he's making. As long as this is still his choice, it's not tragic, it's just a kind of "oh... well, guess you can't have everything" situation. --Jack

These are indeed great! I agree that I like the other shirt designs but wouldn't really wear them, but I'd definitely wear this! --Jack

Well, I like it too, since I dress like that sometimes! I just happen to think I do it better. ;-) Exactly, that's always frustrating. I remember when I got into glam, before it was popular at all, I used to make my own glittery makeup... and then it was glam revival time and all this stuff came out and I was so annoyed. Mind you, this was years ago, I'm over it now. But you should just have fun with what you wear even if people think it looks like something else... then you can explain! And at least you don't wear embroidered hoodies with cartoon characters yet... right? --Jack

Yeah, isn't that annoying when that happens? I rather dislike Panic! At the Disco because their frontman dresses like I do sometimes, except rather worse. (He wears silver and gold jewelry together! That's a no-no.) I got so tired of everyone telling me that I should be into them when they first came out. (Also, their music isn't that great.) However, I have many styles, and I was really chuffed to see Mika wearing braces and stripey socks, because I love them. So I refuse to say I dress like Mika: he dresses like me! Though thanks to him I do want red skinnies now. His album covers have graeter inspiration on what I wear than what he does, though. Which is a good thing, I think! I wouldn't really want to copy anybody, that's no fun. --Jack