Statue_of_Liberty

now it´s official: 16 - Newcomer des Jahres (international) Mika source: http://www.ci-jou.de/?p=1599 at least one good news tonight -.- RTL posted now the reasons for not showing some categories: they hadn´t enough time to show everything and they had to have some commercial breaks so they had to send a shortening of the event. source: http://www.rtl.de/musik/musik_938019.php

What the f**** is that? I CAN understand that they don´t want to send categories without winners who are there. But they also sent Tokio Hotel winning an Echo I CAN´T understand why they don´t say anything about Newcomer International. I´m so furious!! - Mika didn´t win best international artist. - I voted about 200 times for my favourite band being the best Live Act -> they didn´t win (btw: I don´t believe that Bushido has got more fans than Tokio Hotel). - They didn´t show Mika winning an Echo

Hey ihr Lieben! Ist es euch möglich, die Brit Awards zu sehen? Ich suche jetzt seit Ewigkeiten nach einer Möglichkeit und bin am verzweifeln. Britisches Fernsehen empfang ich nicht. Mein Vater meinte, wir würden unsere Satellitenschüssel auf "den anderen Satelliten" ausgerichtet sei. Ich hab davon keinen Plan also wird´s wohl so sein. Internetvideo geht auch nicht, da wir a) eine zu langsame Verbindung haben und b) die Seite, die das überträgt, nur britische IP-Adressen zusehen lässt. Ich möchte doch aber nciht schon wieder nur auf YouTube und liebe andere Fans hoffen -.- Hilfe!

Oh, I´m sorry then. For me it was new and the searching-thing brought nothing and I hadn´t enough time for searching on my own. So sorry again...

I didn´t find this article in one of the forums, so here it is: (if already posted: sorry) Mika's Second Verse (Same As The First?) The international sensation on his post-breakthrough, post-radio, post-Out life. Shana Naomi Krochmal When pop singer Mika, 24, appeared on Out’s cover last July [Pop's New Queen], he firmly declared, “I’m not willing to label myself.” His consistent not-quite no comment continues to ruffle the feathers of out and proud queers -- and, of course, rile up his staunchest defenders. He recently checked in with Out from London, updating us on his whirlwind year, his most obscure and infamous inspirations, and just exactly what he thinks of the folks who say he’s hiding in plain sight. Out: In 2007, you played at Coachella, won three World Music Awards and were nominated for a Grammy. What was the highlight? Mika: Being able to pay my bills? [Laughs] No. I’m kidding. Everyone always wants me to say the big stuff, the huge festivals and performances. But it was just being given an insight into how to do things. A profession you’ve always wanted to do your entire life finally becomes real, and you have to make the most of it. Are you going to the Grammys? I don’t know. I’m more concerned with my own show the day after in Los Angeles. The nomination is quite an honor -- yet award ceremonies are always a little bit of a meat market, aren’t they? I like the nomination more than anything. I think if I was performing it’d be different because I’d have a purpose. We’ll see. What’s going to be different about this tour? Unfortunately, I can’t bring the same show all over the States. In L.A. and New York and some of the Canadian shows where we’re doing 10,000 seaters, we’ve got the full show. But because we’re playing clubs down to 1,500 people, we can’t physically fit [everything] into the venues. For the bigger shows, it is a lot closer to this total gig vision that I’ve got. We work with an 18-foot puppet, a snow machine, stuff like that. It’s fantasy. As long as it’s all based around a good set of songs and a good set of performances, it’s important to create magic and stretch the world. How do you describe your ideal vision for a show? I’ve been to a lot of arena gigs, and some are very disappointing because they rely too much on a big bunch of screens. There’s a disadvantage being 9,000 people away from the performer, and it’s that he’s quite small. But there is also an advantage to that, because you can create illusions that you never could within a small club, a sense of scale and magic. In the next two years when I’m developing my big shows, especially in Europe and Canada and in Asia, I’m looking forward to creating this virtually delicious show that happens all over at different stages of the arena -- so you never feel like you’re far away whether you’re in the third row or the 300th row. Whose big arena shows do you like the best? I think that the Madonna concerts are really entertaining. It’s not like going to a Led Zeppelin gig, but it’s still kind of a visual feat. Prince -- he’s the master, and that relies mostly on music too, the tightness of the band, the tightness of his performance. And also there’s that whole Cirque du Soleil thing, you know? When you see some of those shows, you’re literally sitting there scratching your head, wondering how the hell they’ve managed to create that visual effect. Who has inspired your music and the way that you perform? I always go on about Harry Nilsson. He’s just this victim of his own profession, very underrated. He’s so talented, undeniably so, both as a writer and as a singer -- but just not quite fashionable enough to be famous as a household name. And ironically enough, he was the favorite songwriter of the Beatles for most of their career, both Lennon and McCartney, and very good friends with them as well. And I love Prince, because he’s a musical genius and he’s the opposite end of the spectrum. Whereas Harry Nilsson was introspective and fragile, Prince is a superstar and kind of the short man who kind of dominates the arena. You’ve sold nearly 5 million records worldwide, and yet such a small percentage of that is in the U.S. Are you frustrated about not being a household name here? No. I mean, it’s a mixture. I think the U.S. takes time. If someone asks me, “Have you reached the climax of your success in the U.S.?” I would immediately say, “100 percent no.” Is my career growing in the U.S. steadily? Yes. Is it growing as fast as it is in other countries? Maybe not. But when I put my tickets on sale, my tours sell out -- and I’m on my third U.S. tour. The fact that I’m doing so well in Canada is a good reflection that the American market isn’t really that alien to me. My gigs in America are pretty intense. It’s not as if I’m going and getting disappointed. What confuses me is that my gigs are pretty mental, yet I just can’t get the radio support. Why do you think that is? It’s very simple. I didn’t get radio support in the States with “Grace Kelly,” even though it was number one in most territories around the world, probably in the top two or three songs in the world by radio play in every single country. I heard from a [u.S.] radio station a couple of months ago, and the programmer’s excuse was, “It’s because he says he wants to be like a woman. He has the line where he says he wants to be like Grace Kelly, and we just don’t feel comfortable with this song.” And then when it got to “Love Today,” and we tried to get radio to play it they said, “Impossible -- it’s a man singing in the vocal range of the woman.” It’s kind of depressing, really. It’s just confusing. But I see the humor of it. Far more people are listening to me online than are listening on radio and, quite frankly, that’s the contact I’m quite comfortable with at the moment, because it means I can sell tickets to my live shows. If “Lollipop” were a Fergie song, I think it would have been a huge summer hit on American radio. Well, yeah, there’s this thing where you should know your place. But you can bitch about it, or you can just create other ways to make your career grow. And I’m certainly not intending to bitch about it -- I hardly ever do, actually. Are you working on your next album? I’ve been working on it for a while actually. I was recording demos for my second album as I was recording the first album. I really like the opportunity that I have in front of me. I just want more. When I was making my first album, I wouldn’t talk to anyone about it, and I think I’m going to have to keep the same attitude for this one. Even though I’m ****ing tempted to go on and on! Please, let me tempt you! You could go on a little more. [Laughs] No. No more. But I’m certainly not going to kowtow to the pressure of trying to get radio support in certain territories. I’m not interested in manipulating what I do for anything. I’m going to do what I do. I write songs for myself, and I’m going to continue doing that. If it gives me that funny feeling in the back of my spine, the kind of feeling that makes me want to go to the loo, then I know that it’s good. Let’s talk about the reaction to your Out cover story. So how did it go? On our side? There were a lot of people who were just thrilled to see it and hear what you had to say. And we also got a lot of flak, people who said, “How could a magazine called Out put someone on the cover who seems ashamed to admit he’s gay?” That’s nonsense. What’s your reaction to that? Yeah, well, I’m sure you heard that a lot. But I always polarize opinions, whether it’s my private life or the music that I make, and I’ve had to deal with that over the past year. I think that’s been one of the biggest learning curves. I’ve gotten a huge amount of success, but if you had any idea of the amount of flak that I get for the kind of songs that I write or the way that I talk about or refuse to talk about almost any private aspect of my life -- you’d be pretty astonished. And one of the biggest challenges that I’ve had is just saying to myself, You know what? Just stay the same. Stay the way that you are. I can understand that you got polarized opinions. Of course you were going to. That doesn’t surprise me. Do you think there’s a way to describe your sexuality without using labels? Of course there’s ways of discussing sexuality without using labels. I think that if you want to discuss sexuality or just kind of sexual things to begin with, I think there definitely is. I think that’s far more interesting than talking about whether someone is agreeing to or refusing to use labels. I think that’s what your article -- and definitely your [cover] headline [Mika: Gay/Post-Gay/Not Gay?] was getting at. Is that a conversation you want to have more of? Is it that you won’t talk about anything in your life regarding sex, or that you don’t want to talk about it in the terms that people have been asking you to? I’ll talk about my opinions, and I’ll talk about my music, and I’ll write about my opinions or about my personal life stories in my music. I will not talk about labels, and I will not talk about over-categorizing things, because labels are the one thing that I’ve never agreed with -- simply because I just don’t fit into them in my own personal life. And yes, if someone’s willing to have an interesting conversation and take the time and patience to go into stuff like that, then yeah, I think it’s fascinating. But I write songs -- that’s what I do first. I don’t politicize myself or my life, and I am who I am. If you know my lyrics and if you know my songs, you probably know a lot more about me than if you just read an article about me. source: http://www.out.com/detail.asp?page=1&id=23440 btw: I really liked the pictures

Thanks for posting this! And James Blunt would like to be on stage with chickens? Did I get that right? Imagine Mika would have said that

I´m sorry if this is already posted anywhere else. For me it has been news. Mika is nominated for the German music award Echo. In the category best international newcomer his "rivals" are: - Colbie Caillat - Maria Mena - Serj Tankian - Tarja. I don´t know anyone of them And in the category best international act Rock / Pop he is nominated with: - James Blunt - Michael Bublé - Bruce Springsteen - Timbaland. If you ask me, Mika´s chances aren´t that good. So don´t ask You can vote, but only for best live act that won´t be Mika: http://www.rtl.de/musik/games/echo_voting_2008/index.php?source=eventim

Those pics are very beautiful. Thanks for that. Btw: Interesting the contact to this guy in "with some guys"

@mellody: Nein, Wetten, dass...? meinte ich nicht. Da war ich schon infiziert Das war die Ultimative Chartshow auf RTL mit den Jahrescharts, glaub ich. Lief bei mir auch nur im Hintergrund und war ja auch nur ein winziges Schnipselchen, hat aber gereicht

@ Suzy Yes, you´re right. Well, my answer is "Yes" I love that song, too. Especially I like Mika speaking German at the beginning. But the whole song sounds very funny. That´s why I like it. Thanks to everybody :-)

Thanks a lot to all of you! @violetsky: Na Queen is jetzt nicht so meins. Ich meinte damit Abba. Aber hauptsächlich hör ich Rosenstolz... Also nicht wirklich Bravo_leser-tauglich. Und London wird es wohl leider nicht, wenngleich ich mich auch da beworben hab. hab aus UK noch keine Antwort, sieht momentan eher nach Italien aus. Aber da is wenigstens gutes Wetter. Tja, ich hoffe schon, dass das Forum süchtig macht. Sonst hätt ich mich ja nicht anmelden brauchen

Hello, I am new here (and it´s also still new for me listening to Mika ). But I enjoy it... I am from Germany which could be a reason for mistakes I make when I write something. Two weeks ago I watched a German TV-Show. There there was just a little clip of Mika. The music sounded interesting and the guy looked delicious So the next day I asked a friend if she would be so nice and give me here CD. Well, she did... Then I watched most of the interviews on YouTube (except those in French, because I don´t understand any word -.- ). That´s the way I found out about Mika... I know it´s really late, but I´m not interested in music that is played on the radio. Most of the music I listen to is out of the charts for twenty years or is in the charts, but in that case I only see my favourites and ignore all that stuff around them. About myself I can´t tell that many facts. I guess it wouldn´t be that interesting for most of you. I am 18 years old and still attending school. I hope that I can do my A-levels / Abitur in June 2008. After that I want to leave Germany for one year. And when I will be back I would like to go to university. But we´ll see...