Statue_of_Liberty

We kinda had to force her but it IS lovely! Me? I'm the one in the middle with the mealworm-coloured shirt

This is the best choir of all times: (of course it is! )

I finally found the time to upload my pictures! It only took me one euro to buy a wifi-code and some concentration I should have invested in the movie we're currently watching at university Here they are: http://s745.photobucket.com/albums/xx92/Statue_of_Liberty/Mika%20Theaterfabrik%20Munich%206th%20November%202012/

Finally here are my pictures: http://s745.photobucket.com/albums/xx92/Statue_of_Liberty/Mika%20Cirque%20Royal%20Brussels%203rd%20November%202012/

Here are my pictures. Couldn't do it earlier because I only arrived from Zurich http://s745.photobucket.com/albums/xx92/Statue_of_Liberty/Mika%20Die%20Kantine%20Cologne%2001st%20November%202012/

Very quick shared impressions: - loved the venue and the organisation (friendly security, numbers...) - first song was un soleil mal luné, rest of the setlist basically known - choir was very good - one random guy invaded stage and danced like mad - M asked a girl from mfc (sorry, don't know your name) to come on stage and film the hearts - show was great, some changes in some songs - we got attacked by aggressive balloons and bubbles - rushed but lovely m&g with Mika - really nice m&g with band members Now waiting for diet coke and a pizza please in our hotel.

This gig was amazing! The setlist was basically the one we know. Queueing was cold and very rainy but luckily we had more or less dry places to sit. The choir was full of surprises. Actually, I'm sharing my room with about half of it But I'll let them tell you details! Mika was full of energy, quite chatty and singing so well! He changed the ending of Happy Ending and wowed the whole audience with it. Our special guest from far away got a well-deserved special moment and the audience was on fire. After the gig he came out and signed stuff and stayed a little longer afterwards to ask us if we could organise the little things we did during the gig for Brussels as well To sum it up: It was a brilliant but very cold day with perfect company, an amazing gig and now I have confetti everywhere I planned to upload pictures but wi-fi doesn't work . I'll see when I get to do this.

Yay! I did it! Uploaded the better pictures. And basically all of the choir ones. If anyone wants any picture without my name on it just tell me The album is here: http://s745.photobucket.com/albums/xx92/Statue_of_Liberty/Mika%20Paradiso%2027th%20October%202012/

As I found a spot with free internet in Amsterdam I thought I should share some impressions of last night with you. I loved last night's gig! I'm -ing like mad at the moment. I think there couldn't have been a better way to start the European leg of the tour. The queueing was lovely but so cold! I hope we'll find a better way to stay warm for the next times. Just ten mintues before the doors were supposed to be opened I got to know that you have to buy a membership to be let in. I hadn't known that before so I felt a panic attack coming. Thanks to VickyLovesMika and her husband I could eventually go to a perfect spot without having to stop to buy this membership. As others have already mentioned the stage was very high, it was even higher than Rose is tall. When Mika came right in front of us we basically had to lay back to not only see his shoes and wave from his ground But all in all I loved every minute of it. I found that the choir did an amazing job, you could see that they were having a ball. And they seemed so professional! I loved Ingie's little moment which seemed to be planned but apparently wasn't At one time he went to the front of the stage and slapped almost everybody on the head like you do it with a hammer in one of those children's game I remember from my childhood. Maybe someone with better English skills can explain that better. But that was really funny Surprisingly, he didn't seem to be very tired or jetlagged. We assumed he was in that state you're in *after* you've been tired because he was really hyper! I hadn't watched any videos of the American shows so I was surprised by all the little changes of the songs. And I loved them all! Especially the acoustic version of Stardust was so touching! Another girl and I had created a little choreography because we were so bored while queueing but completely forgot about it until the end of Stardust because we were so impressed by Mika's voice, the version of the song and the atmosphere it created, it was really touching. I also loved the version of Popular he did which I found was more melodic than on the album. He basically sang the lyrics more than he rapped them and the choir was brilliant then. I really loved the gig and hanging out with many lovely people I hadn't seen in a while or never met before. Thank you all for your great company! Sadly, the M&G afterwards was really poorly organised. It was a tiny place with not enough space to form a proper line or anything but the security didn't even try to solve the problem. I missed out on the chance to get through to Mika which wasn't much of a big deal as I've had some moments with him already but I'm sure there were others who haven't met him before and didn't get the opportunity last night. I hope the other venues of the tour and their securities will be interested in organising things like this better in the future! Anyway, it was great and I can't wait for the next gig! I didn't have the time to edit my pictures yet and will only arrive at home after midnight but so far I uploaded two photos I quite like:

Thanks for posting! It was an interesting read even though 90% of the mentioned names are just a bunch of letters for me And yay for anything happening in Germany regarding Mika!

Thank you for sharing! All I can say about this interview is: :swoon:

Thank you all for sharing! He looks much more like himself and it all reminds me so much of the early days with him wearing simple clothes and balloons and confetti and of course those animal costumes. I love that I mean, I like the new and stylish Mika with megashows and designer outfits but I LOVE shows and Mikas like this

done

I tried a translation. Please forgive me all mistakes and typos! Interview with Mika - Part 1 It's the thing with Mika - you either like him or you don't. The combination of sickly-sweet pop songs, confetti, falsetto and glitter-glamour costumes is not everyone's cup of tea. I personally have to thank the 29-year-old popstar for a few pleasureable concert memories and thus am happy to meet him and talk about his third album "The Origin of Love" copiously. That day Mika appears how you imagine Mika to appear: Fuzzy-headed, in a striped shirt an hour late. After his first appointment we meet in a kitchenette where he begs me for a bag of gummi bears ("Is this empty bag yours? Do you have another one?") then he personally accompanies me into the conference room in the 8th floor. He leans back and looks at me interrogatorily. Interviewer: I thought I'd tell you something for a change. Mika: I hope it's something nice. Yes. I thought I told you about how I found out about you. I have a thing for popstars. I'm a little older than you... How old are you? Mika estimates my age. In his chivalric way of being he makes me six years younger than I am without hesitation and watches pictures of my kids on my mobile. So I grew up when there were basically three popstars: Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson. A time of which I talk a lot. I always say that we won't have such icons again. A friend of mine told me about you when I was quite bored with the current music industry. I was annoyed with all those depressive looking Indie Bans in their wishy-washy shirts... Exactly those bands were the reason why no record label wanted me back then! However, that friend asked me if I knew Mika and said: You would like him, he is like a popstar in the classical way. So I looked up Mika and watched your performance at Jools Holland how you sat on the piano all alone and sang "Grace Kelly". My first performance on tv ever! >> Video << And I thought: This guy is totally crazy! (Mika laughs) But I love it! A little later, in 2007, I saw you live for the first time. And finally someone did all that fuss again: Balloons, Confetti, Animal costumes... Those giant balloons and the confettis was based on a nightclub in London that I used to go to secretly when I was 15 or 16. It was situated in an old theatre, the Astoria. Today, it doesn't exist anymore. There were balloons and confetti and the people there literally went crazy when the ballons and the confetti fell down on them. And I always thought that this as childish and hysterical it was had such a huge impact on those people. So in the end, that's why I went into that direction. But I never thought of what I was doing, I just did it because it felt like it had to be done. I felt good with it. And until now I haven't changed when it comes to that kind of stuff. My creative processes are still the same, my performances go their own direction. However, it's nice that you found out about me that way and not through some random press release. Before I got here I re-watched that performance again. And I wondered how you feel when watching those old recordings. I feel as if it was yesterday! It's all a part of the same process. My intention today, especially when singing a song like Grace Kelly, is exactly the same as back then. Because it's something that I created! I think this is the thing - if something really is yours and you believe in it in every possible way you never get annoyed with it. And you won't ever lie to yourself. If that isn't the case, though, and everyone love you for it bad associations can establish around it. So yes, I still feel the same. I think this is a fantastic snapshot of what I am, of what I have created and where my career had started. I don't think of anything else... (thinks for a long time) I don't know, I don't think. I don't have to think of things like that. I try to evolve and to challenge myself. And I think that I'm very thankful for not resenting myself anything. Everything happened out of frustration back then. I was forced to be very lonely and independent when I was looking for my own way just because I had no other choice. So yes - I think it's cool! (grins) And now your third album will be released already. Oh yes! The magic third. I find it especially interesting to talk about your third album. Many musicians I had met told me that the first one was the most exciting one. The secon album... ...is the one when you are in a change the most. 100 %, yes. And the third really has something magical. You survived the first and the second one and now you're still here. I wish more people would get that. You can see it so clearly and it's true! A magic fairy dust seems to be sparkling over the third album if the conditions under which it was made were good. It's weird because now that I'm done with it - I only finished it a few weeks ago - I sometimes sit down and don't know if it will ever be like it was with this album. If you have the strengh - and that's only my personal opinion - to fight through it and break your own habits if you risk the jump with your third album then you can get to a point where it appears if you will be the artist you fought your whole life to be or if you won't be that artist. I have made a wonderful second album but it was a continuation of the first. It still was about that identity story that I had started with the first. It was darker and more isolated and had the concept of a dark fairytale. Even the cover. I consciously decided to use blue version of the first one. With the third one I walked in the studio every day and literally said to myself: Use the tools that were given to you through the first two records. But destroy your ego and bring out your own self without resistance. It was difficult to get there because I didn't know where to start. But when I finally had started it was the most liberating experience I've ever done. So you're completely right, the third album can be quite exciting. Interestingly enough, you don't even have to listen to the record to find out that you've done a step forward. After all, it's the first time you're prominently... ...that I'm on the cover, yes. But you still see that it's something iconic, something nice but at the same time it's devilish with a weird sense of humour. I wear this weird alien-hat that shows my name at the same time. It's beatiful and ridiculous at the same time - I'm the crazy one who's stepping away from the comic version of his own.And it's weird that when you listen to the album you might find out that it sounds like a beginning, a departure. But it's no first time, it's my third album after all. It says a lot about the mood in which I was when I was doing the album. Tell me how it was. You were on tour for a long time after "The Boy who knew too much". For two years. It was an awful lot of work. I sold insanely many records of the first album so I knew it would become tough with the second one. I knew I had to work very hard because I had to sell two million copies of it - which I managed to do only just. On the one handside it was great because you've got to be honest two millions are damn many. But it was a real drudgery at the same time. The tour was a possibility to show myself, to establlish, to explain the auidience the world from which I come and to show them how I work as a musician. It all got brought to life when I went on stage. So I toured like a maniac. Then it was over and for the first time of my life I wasn't on tour, I wasn't studying, not recording an album and not working as a waiter or in summer holiday - I just was out of work and confused. And the least I felt like was a songwriter, more like a live artist. It was a complete break-down! and I blamed everybody. My partner, my family... I had a terrible break-up, went through the terrible accident of my sister and had to be there for her. That all shocked my very foundations and was the first step to break with my ego - an ego that I didn't know it was even existing! This patina that had kept me from writing. And yet writing is my life. It is what I've done since I was nine. So I had to run away. As chance would have it, the first person I met was Nick Littlemore who was really eager to start a new project. Six hours after I had talked to him I bought myself a ticket to Montreal. I hadn't written a song in 1.5 years, not a good one in at least 2.5 years. So I walk into his studio, and he lend me about 23 keyboards, six basses and six samplers. I feel how much I gasp for a restart, and in that night I wrote "The Origin of Love", in one hour. There it began with the new album. Suddenly, everything simply there. I didn't go home for seven month and made the album. The young lady from Universal who is in charge of the interviews comes into the room quietly and tells us that our time of five minutes is over. Mika sends her back outside. Oh no, we need a bit more time! And what Mika told me in the second part of our talk, you will learn soon! Interview: Gabi Rudolph

Short info before I dive into Karin's reports and think of details left: They showed like two seconds of us having the M&G this morning. I recorded it and could try to edit and upload it somewhere. I can't promise. It basically shows us saying hello and the heart Melody gave him. I don't think they'll show any more of it tbh.

She is! I'm happy about everything as well but tired as hell so won't write a report right now. I'll leave the major part to you as it was you who won and add other things I might remember.

Thank you! I keep everything crossed that Hasi and Bubbles will be let in as well!

I'd prefer a harder question as well! That would prevent people giving it a try who just fancy a trip to Berlin or just don't mind meeting "that guy who sang Relax"

Thank you! We will record it anyway, thank God for the invention of programmable recorders! I also think of the rest of Europe tbh. If I had the chance to watch a show from 5.30am to 10am I still would hope for MFC-power and prefer a bit of sleep.

Maybe we should add that you have to answer a very difficult question to win: It says: "To which hollywood-star dedicated Mika his greatest hit? A) Grace Kelly B) Greta Garbo" If you can't answer that question consider deleting your account here.

Awww, that was so nice! I loved this interview. I loved his sense of humour. And I loved what he said! I'm totally in -mode now! Just one thing: Underwater! Nothing else.

I'm very optimistic that they understand English. I mean, it's next to the mainstation iirc so they should be able to deal with tourists. And if not I'm sure someone of us could help you with German. If they understand this that is!

Thank you! I was looking for them but too blonde to find them. I love his drawing.

Planet Radio plays an interview with Mika. I'm recording. It will continue in about twenty minutes (7.10pm German time). Listen to it here:http://www.planetradio.de/ . There's a webcam which only shows some guy sitting in front of a computer so I think it's not live. I hope that d/l-link works for you: http://www.mediafire.com/?z1acn8boap53cyv Please tell me if it doesn't . Does someone want a translation? Most of what the guy said in German got summed up in English afterwards but if you get lost I'll translate ============================================== to listen and download http://mikatube.com/audio/172/mika-@-german-radio-planetradio-18092012 username: mfc password: mika2012

Similar here! I watched it, it stopped after five minutes and I can't get it to start again. It's always another episode of that show