marie-andrée de rougemont

Marie-Thérèse I am actually more comfortable with concerts proper than with shows, I am a music lover. So a singer standing in front of the mike and doing her job is quite all right by me. But I listened to four or five of her songs and watched the corresponding videos and I still can't connect with her stuff. I like bluesy voices a lot, but I wouldn't define Adele's as bluesy, that is very flexible, used by the singer as if it were a music intrument. Like Jeff Healey's for instance, although he went a bit far that way ; sometimes you felt like telling him : 'Hey man, sing, let your guitar play !'. I don't find her voice very distinctive or supple but rather constrained at times. Then the songs I listened to didn't have very catching melodies. As my priorities when listening to music are first the lead singer's voice and then the melody, no wonder Adele was not my cup of tea. I deliberately used a past tense : if you three were stunned by Adele when you saw her on stage she may be someone who doesn't give it all unless you watch her live. So hopefully if I see one of her gigs I will love her too. And if not, there are so many talented singers on our planet that should I, like a cat, live nine lives, it wouldn't be enough to listen to them all. She made you happy ? I am delighted to hear that. So long, M.-Th.

Alan Cumming is already married to a DDG American guy.

Marie-Thérèse Talking about sound... yes, I know, rather lame. But I thought that basically referring to Adele Adkins as the slightly overweight chainsmoker who might be Mika's cautionary girlfriend was unfair -after all, she is a singer- I went to Utube to listen to her (never had heard of her before, I am afraid). Am I tone deaf or does she sing a wee little bit out of tune sometimes ? And not much of a voice either... Sorry for those of you who find her very talented but I was a bit disappointed, having expected better. But she was singing live and may have been stage frightened, in which case your voice tends to fail you at times. Should try to find a studio recording. So long, M.-Th.

Marie-Thérèse If Adele is invited at the Pennimans' she should bring a taster with her. I wouldn't dream of implying, in any way, at all, in the least that Mrs Penniman is a snob still I believe that when it comes to daughter- (or son-) in law, she would prefer somebody much more... shall we say 'upmarket'. So, dear Adele, watch the delicious Lebanese food. It is good to go mad from time to time. Bless the paparazzi who took pictures of good friends going out of a restaurant and walking without even touching hands and knew that given the two guys' fame people couldn't help building up a love story around so innocent an image. More seriously, didn't Mika say, in his La Rochelle blog, that today (July 16th) was his 'close one's birthday' ? Tough : Adele was born in May. But maybe I didn't hear properly (not very good sound, hard of hearing and bad command of the English language). The question of Mika's sexuality has come up again on this crazy thread. I thought that after reading the quote about flirting with anything, be it a tree or -was it a tea-cup ?- nobody was in any doubt : he must be at the very least bisexual. Good for him ! No missed opportunity. There are very sexy armchairs too. And bookshelves are about his height, handy when you do it standing.

Marie-Thérèse Fortunately you didn't forget write 'Lord' with a capital 'L', otherwise it would have been sheer blasphemy for Mika followers...

Thanks for the tip but I am not sure I can handle it (really illiterate, I am not boasting). Of course we don't need to imagine more than what Mika has told us and he certainly doesn't have to tell us more than what he wants to. It is just a feeling I have and you may well be right : ordinary bullying of a child perceived as different by his school mates, kid over sensitive, over reacted... end of story. But isn't the pain in the sufferer's mind or body, can it really be judged and measured from the outside ? To end on a lighter note it reminds me of a brilliant cartoon I saw in Playboy a few years back. A young man and a young woman are sitting on a kind of bed in a laboratory. He looks very proud, she looks furious and frustrated. They are surrounded by doctors and one of them is telling the girl : "Machines can't be wrong, Ms So and so, you have just had a twenty-minute climax...". I think the girl knows better (and I am not being a female chauvinist). So long, M.-Th.

If you read again the part of my lengthy thread about Mika's behaviour in Welcome to Syria, without prejudice -but maybe that's asking a lot- you will realize that I don't criticize Mika's teenage fans for acting their age (rather healthy, actually) but Mika's behaviour as he is a man, not an adolescent. Oh dear ! Now you are going to reproach me with criticizing your icon... Be my guest, indignation feels good, doesn't it ? I am not too old to remember that sweet and self-righteous feeling. Incidentally I know from personal experience that Mika is much much more than the cute guy with the curly hair and the amazing vocal range... he is an incredibly generous and genuinely kind man (and very modest about it). So if you really need a cause to fight for, I suggest the ban of fur clothes or, if you would much rather defend Mika, try and find on the Internet people who hate his guts and are quite candid about it, sometimes insulting. Have you read the review about LICM where the guy cursed those who were going to buy the album ? It was appalling, pure venom... Believe me, I felt indignant when I read it. Love, M.-Th.

Marie-Thérèse There are many kinds of love (fortunately, life would be so boring !) : unconditional love (usually the love parents give their children and which doesn't necessarily prevent them from seing their flaws), open-eyed love, blind love... If you can't find genuine affection for Mr Penniman in my threads then you are even more blinded than you think you are. And if you can't stand people who love differently than you do... ouch ! I can see intolerance rising its ugly head ! Love (no pun intended), M.-Th.

Marie-Thérèse About the concert in Beirut I think that to some extent, for the Lebanese audience anyway, being a fan of Mika's was rather irrelevant. But a famous singer born in Lebanon coming back to his native land to give the first show on Martyrs' Square in years, that was a powerful symbol of hope and peace. Or hope of peace. Remember, I was there, not only on the night of the gig but a couple of days before and I truly think that they would have greeted with the same fervour a half Lebanese Céline Dion, for instance. About his breakdown, age 10, I don't remember Mika ever saying that it was connected with the financial difficulties his family went through after his father was held hostage. Actually, when they went off to London those difficult times were over. But he always talked about the bullying (from kids and teachers alike). When I mentioned 'unspeakable things' I meant that some experiences are so traumatic and shameful that you feel that you can't put them into words and tell anybody else about them because, even though you survived them, the shame of them, describing them might do the trick and effectively destroy you. It is especially true of sexual abuse but isn't there a strong flavour of sex in bullying, whether it is explicit or not ? You didn't tell your parents about your teacher from hell although from what you wrote in your thread we can guess they were good parents, genuinely concerned about their children. But you got rid of that secret later on and now you can live, not only survive. I don't believe that Mika ever put into words what really happened in London when he first went to school there, except in a very general way : bullying, name calling, rejection... I believe that the only people that know are the bullies and himself. Not enough to move on. I don't think the bullying story is part of a manipulation, that he plays on it, while he often harks on the 'we lost everything' story. If you can find it or downloaded it, do watch the Sept à huit interview and tell us what you think. How on earth do you manage to quote only parts of a thread to answer them ? Thanks ! M.-Th.

Marie-Thérèse JackViolet, Always a pleasure to read you, whether we agree with you or not. You’re right : whatever Mika does, at least 90 % of his fans find it adorable. For instance I scanned responses to the Welcome to Syria blog and nobody told him there that asking his big sister –who incidentally was trying to have a peaceful telephone conversation- to get the f… out of the front seat (he was much more polite but that was the gist of it) didn't befit a 25-year-old man. Still his teenage fans were obviously delighted to witness something that happens all the time in their parents’ car. If they are the audience (in the largest sense of the word) he was targeting, brilliant move. But if he was showing and maybe directing a scene that takes place repeatedly in his everyday life, then seeing that people eight or ten years younger than he is identify with him might be a tiny little bit worrying. Although going to Beirut -and, more important still, back from there- has given me an insight into the way Mika and his ‘mafia’ inter react and into the man himself, because the circumstances were very special. As I have already said, he looked painfully tired and tense, and his family was extremely protective. After the Press conference I saw his eldest sister adamantly refusing access to a small room where Mika was having a drink to a lady and her teenage daughters, very courteously because that’s the way they were taught and shown to act but I swear I could see her fangs asking to be let out… Somebody who enjoys a certain amount of fame and success is always shielded by a whole entourage ; in Mika’s case there is much more than that. Having seen your preteen son and kid brother break down in the most frightening way and close himself up to the outside world is very likely one of the most excruciating experiences a parent and a sibling can go through. When fortunately he has recovered you must spend the rest of your life is a state of constant alert, feel murderous whenever you feel that somebody is threatening his balance in any way and be only too happy to do little -and big- things to make it easier for him. Going to Beirut and performing in Martyr’s Square was very risky and you needed big, fat, juicy guts to take that decision. True, the city felt rather peaceful but two months earlier there had been shooting in the streets and the man I bought flowers from told me that all the shops were closed then and that he was redecorating his, so that when things went back to normal he could work in a clean and welcoming place. He got a dozen bullet impacts on his car in the process… The frisking at the venue entrance was very perfunctory ; I realized that I could have introduced a smallish camera… even more easily a small gun and the guys on stage were a beautiful target. Am I being a drama queen ? I don’t think so : the concert was symbolic of a united Lebanon, all communities enjoying the moment together and there are people who have every reason to want the country divided and fighting each other. And the most potent part of the symbol was on stage, all 190 cm of him… So I believe that more than his incredible talent, more than his blatant goods looks, more than his middle class ease and the obvious pleasure he gets from his performances and the love he receives from his fans, idiosyncrasies that make him stand out in the show business world, what we find fascinating in Mika is that behind every mothers’ dream son-in-law (whether they have a daughter or a son to marry…) there is a very ambivalent individual, part vulnerable child, part inflexible adult, part prize show off, part shy and private man. Of course nobody can be as simple and aseptic as his persona but he seems far more complex than many people. And if we want to decipher his personality (which, dear FC members, we seem to enjoy doing…) I think that one of the keys we should never forget is the fact that he was once done unspeakable things to and that no matter what he achieves personally and professionally he will always be a survivor. If you were lucky enough to watch and download the 7 à 8 interview in Paris, you heard and saw him give away that key and be as sincere as he is ever likely to be. Back to the original issue (JackViolet I blame you, you seem to invite deeper thinking with your threads !) : agreed, he is probably manipulating blog viewers but manipulation is part of human relationships and he might have chosen to show us a casual but more glamorous image of himself, which he didn’t. He went for the Tex Avery cartoon looks and we rather liked it. So long, M.-Th.

I believe I do & will try to find it for you even if I have so many videos that it might take some time. But it was quite short, that should be make it easier to trace.

PS to my message to Soaring Simpson. I wasn't inferring that Mika should be wearing make-up ! As a matter of fact I hardly wear any make up (allergic to the stuff), that part was purely symbolic...

Are you the only, only lonely fan who is not naive ? But what would be the point in showing himself at a disadvantage ? Make us find him endearing ? I don’t buy that. It may be a typical woman’s reaction but I would never show myself without make up, wearing crumpled clothes, acting like a petulant 3-year-old who demands to sit at the front, I would not film myself in a way that brings out my nose, just to make people find me endearing –which they might not. And I don’t believe that Mika who even though he is not a woman, is, as you say, very image-conscious, would do that either.

Thanks a lot, Miro. I have found them exactly where you told me.

Dear Bubucillis, 92 last winter... am I too old to ask you a question ? Where did you find the photograph taken on a beach. Is it Luke on the right and Cherisse second left ? It is a very dark picture but I had never seen it on any site... can you comment on it ? x Marie-Andrée

Marie-Thérèse, courtesy of Marie-Andrée Not a link, really, but you should find it through Google (Mika Sydney interview or Mika interview Australia. Actually the interviewer asked if he could touch them and Mika, shameless tease, let him touch hips and waist so that he could feel the difference between a tiny waist and 'child-bearing' hips. I believe the guy was slightly drooling... It is a rather funny interview. At some point Mika talked about what people say of his accent and made disgusted faces after quoting "He sounds like James Blunt". If you can't find it I will try to find it for you but it shouldn't be too difficult. So long, M.-Th.

:wheelchair: I lately watched a very funny, long videoshow made by a fan & which started "Last year a guy drove us crazy..." with wistful comments ; the girl had a very low-pitched, almost funereal voice and it was really different. At some point Mika says in an interview "I am looking for a stable relationship" and I can't find when he said that, in which interview, even though I have surfed the Internet and Utube and downloaded dozens of them. Most annoying, I keep trying to find it and fall back on stuff I have already watched... Maybe the fan who made the video is a MFC member ? Unfortunately I often change the title of the videos I download and when I tried to find this back on utube and hopefully her name I couldn't as the related videos were dirty ones... weird! Can you help ? x Marie-Andrée

Marie-Thérèse, courtesy of Marie-Andrée Don't worry, Anna, I must be muuuuch older than you are and I feel awfully shy too when I see people I admire very much. I am sure Mika loved your reserve ! Was it the shop held by a French guy, across a tube station, in South Kensington, Old Brompton Road or something ? That's where I bought flowers for Mika on behalf of my mother before his last London gig... x M.-Th.

Where apart from among your family (or close friends) do you feel comfortable enough not to look your best ?

:thumb_yello:Am I imagining things or did Mickey (hope it's the right spelling) say, on one of the blog videos, that his wife or partner had been delivered of a healthy baby girl ? If that is the case, we should think about something to offer them and how to offer it... It is hugely important, even more so than turning 25... Any idea ? x Marie-Andrée

Thank you for your help. But it seems to be a little more complicated as my mother doesn't have an e-mail address and I gave mine when she registered so when I try to register (or when I tried to retrieve my registration and asked to be sent a new password as I had forgotten mine) they refuse because another fanclub member gave them the same address. So you see I have really screwed things up big time. M.-Th.

Marie-Thérèse / Marie-Andrée Marie-Thérèse / Marie-Andrée Andy’s close-ups have become very close indeed and we can see hairs up Mika’s nose ? New idea for a birthday present then : a hair clipper. Kidding ! Mika has lately developed a rather unfortunate tendency to shave his chest before a gig –hopefully not wax… Let’s not give him further ideas about how to get rid of pilosity. Seriously, Mika is not blind and, being such a control freak, he most certainly watches and edits all videos before they are released on his blog, so he knows perfectly well what he looks like in them. I rather think that the message he is thus sending his fans is as follows : Press and fashion photographers, jet setters and the crowds at my concerts get to see the glamorous me : wearing smart clothes, sporting gorgeously done hair and sometimes a stylish three-day stubble. But you guys get to see the real, unsophisticated me : unshaven, wearing an old tee-shirt, with my hair all over my head, jumping happily on a moving bed in oversized Bermuda shorts and looking for all the world like a big-nosed, friendly and slightly crazy animal out of a Tex Avery cartoon. After all we have been together for so long and you have been so faithful and loyal to me that you are almost family now. Actually I believe we should be touched and honoured that he trusts us enough to show himself with his metaphorical pants down, that he knows that he doesn’t have to look attractive because, no matter what, we are genuinely fond of him. All the same Andy might step back a wee little bit before filming… So long, M.-Th. PS Help : can anybody tell me how to re-register ? I am beginning to feel like a twelve-year old ! I am a big girl, now, I'd love to be able to post threads without using my Mummy's space...

In some TV coverage (UK or US or Lebanese short video, there are a couple of them circulating on Utube and Dailymotion) they mention her name while Mika is looking at a book she has apparently just given him. And she has a strong accent (beg. of the PC, when she says a few words).

:thumb_yello:Yesterday evening I realized that my friend had at long last put my coverage of the PC on Dailymotion (where I am capucine 1418). I posted a thread or thought I had but apparently I screwed up again. He gave the videos French titles (Batterie Love today is the drumming contest, for instance). And he had to split up some of them because they were too long. Unfortunately he sometimes did it in the middle of a song… Concert 1 : My Interpretation + beginning of Billy Brown C 2 : BB + very beginning of AOW (did he have to ruin my favourite song !) C 3 : AOW with crowd singing along with M. Mika live 01 : partial band intro + Happy ending. The image is lousy, even on the screen, and I had to duck every time the inflatable soda beaker (which looked a lot like the giant breast in W. Allen’s What you have always wanted to ask...) blocked the view. The sound is all right though. He did a better job with the press conference recording. Début CP : beginning of the PC CDP 2 part 1, 2 part 2, 3 part 1, 2 & 3. Highlights (in my view) : in CDP 3, part 1 : the lady journalist’s proposal and the little boy’s offering of his own mobile phone. In CDP 2/1 : when Mika brushes aside a journalist’s suggestion that he may be scared to come to Beirut ; he sounds and looks like Louis XIV if some mortal had asked him whether he had lice in his wig… love that part ! I swear I could (and still can) hear him add a subliminal ‘You twit !’. I think the elderly lady sitting next to Mika was his tough singing teacher. Can’t believe she used to slap his wrist : I talked to her and she is a sweetie. She was starry eyed that nigh, genuinely delighted to be there with him. The image is often wobbly ; sorry about that but a retard press photographer kept shaking my chair so badly that I truly believe he was j…ing off (wrong place to do that, pal !). A couple of comments and the neighing laughter are all mine, I am afraid ; I must learn to shut my trap when I am filming. MOV 00015 was taken in London, at nearly 3 in the morning after the last gig of the winter tour. Since then I found a much better recording on Utube but am keeping it as a souvenir. Soft old me ! My almost entire and quite decent coverage of the London gig should be available on Dailymotion quite soon. Keep trying. There you are. Wanted to comment on Andy’s summer videos on the blog and his unfortunately close close ups but I am typing on my 90 square metre terrace, sunbathing (that was mean of me, meant to make those of you who are singing in the rain drool with envy) and my stupid PC tends to switch off after working half an hour on battery. So you are spared my comment. For the time being. Couldn't catch every word of the Press conference. Wish a kind English-speaking member would post the script... So long, M.-Th.

Marie-Thérèse, courtesy of Marie-Andrée At long last my friend has put my coverage of the Beirut gig (poor quality) & the press conference on Dailymotion (you get them through goggle : dailymotion mika beyrouth). Some parts may still be missing as he is still working on it at 9 pm French time (8 pm UK time). Bless him ! But : - He had to cut up the press conference videos as they were too long ; will come back to you tomorrow to tell you which is the first, second, etc. parts of the conference after checking. - He gave them French titles (batterie love today). - Sorry for the wobbly image at the press conference : a retard press photographer kept shaking my chair so badly that I truly believe he was j...ing off (wrong place to do that, pal !). But the neighing laughter and a couple of comments are all mine I am afraid, I must learn to keep my trap shut while I'm filming... I am so happy to be able to do something useful after enjoying all the brilliant videos you guys have posted ! Marie-Thérèse (capucine 1418 on Dailymotion).