amneris

It's really an incredible article, an awesome interview! I had to pause a little while from reading since I needed to collect and re-elaborate all the informations and messages he hinted. I suggest to post the article after the Mika's one, by Roberto Cotroneo, it's an interesting reflection on talent shows pros and cons and Mika is quoted too.

Just for the records: a more "professional" article has been posted here http://www.rete-news.it/xfactor8-cronaca-delle-audizioni-bologna/ with a short review of the other day of auditions. Short since I had no chance to be there, unfortunately. Still not able to translate myself, but in case, the few lines at the bottom are the worthy ones.

Thank you for the huge translation work you've done on my article. I was thinking of translating it myself but had hard time working on my next future issues and didn't. I am moved that somone has took into consideration my silly and excited words. I was able to see my "Muse" from a few meters of distance and had been a great experience to me. thank you so muck I'm so honored. a.

yes he says so.

great article!

No, quale articolo?

Anyhow, this magazine is totally garbage.

Also because Raul Bova's mother-in-law is the sharpest and strongest divorce specialized lawyer in italy. Must not be very easy to get out from that without all bones broken...

I totally agree.

It's one of the most inspiring melody and lyrics for me this one. I love it sooo much! pure poetry. a.

ciao Giovanna! Benvenuta! conosco un po' di gente a Padova!

ahimè, dalle ultime notizie sembrerebbe proprio di no... parlo di lui e condivido i suoi video, le sue foto e scrivo post sul mio blog e sul mio facebook da più di un anno. prima mi prendevano tutti in giro. Mika chi? Oggi mi scrivono persino privatamente dicendomi che "avevo ragione. Mika è bravissimo e simpatico, competente ed elegante, geniale e umile". Che sia intelligente e geniale lo ha dimostrato. E le vendite del suo album e del Songbook vol.1 in Italia credo abbia dimostrato che in qualche modo le sue scelte lo stanno ripagando. Per lo meno stanno permettendogli di non finire nel dimenticatoio della propria casa discografica...

e così sia!

quite agree

Hi, nice topic this one! I love it! I am italian mother tongue but I studied English & French at high school, I used to work with languages in my early "office" days, & then I spent some years in my native country, Brasil, when I was 25 ys old (I went back to Italy with my family when I was only 11 month of age, so I didn't learn portuguese at that time) and obvioulsy I learnt to speak portuguese fluently. French has always been my favourite language. I loved to speak, to study it although its grammar is difficult (even for a neo-latin spoken mother tongue language) and I always had to be very keen and attentive to some of its rules, but I gave to French a special devotion to it. And when I learnt portuguese, which is a gorgeous language, it gives you enormous satisfaction either to understand it or to speak it, well, it happened the same thins as to Mika with italian and spanish: portugues kicked off french from my brain and I completely lost it. This happened almost 20 years ago. The nice thing is that when listening to Mika's interviews in french, his songs in french and reading all articles in that language, French came back in a quite consistent way and now I have both, portuguese and french in my mind again. I cannot tell you how Mika's speaking French because to me he speaks beautifully, but I can tell you how he speaks italian: he's great. He almost does not have an accent, at least he has not the typical accent of british people speaking italian: 3 of my children's professors are british, and they all speak the same, with same accent which is very charming, I must say, I love it, but Mika has not. Of course he makes mistakes, but they are very charming mistakes italian people start to love and to imitate. I think that since he has such a good hear to music and languages are preeminently a question of intonation and musicality (grammar too, of course) he has a natural predisposition to learn them and to pronounce them practically without accent and using the correct intonation.

I'm with you.

I miss the "like" botton in the forums. great reminder and translation.

Sorry, I misunderstood the long list of "Mika wasn'ts" you made before. I thought you were making a list of rules on how Mika's albums were made. I don't even try to think whether he can change or not. I don't even want to or am interested in it. Mika, to me, does it always right. Even he decides to go into a soap opera and play a part in it. If this makes him good and gives him inspiration, to me it's ok. Or if he doesn't need to chance, it's ok either. That's your call. And you were saying you're not trying to emprison him on a list of rules? very true since we are talking about Art (music, painting, writing, acting are form of art) and not Science, your form of research is quite reductive. Mika fb profile already confirmed he's in a studio right now doing what has to be done to release this album. I do too think an Album must be recorded in a studio. What I only was saying is that before recording an album one must have written lyrics and music, and to do so, maybe (I underline "maybe" word) Mika had to go through other channels of inspiration, to feed his creativity (which may be not a talent but is a quite difficult thing to manage and to keep on growing)

I don't see where I may have mentioned that creativity is a talent or what's the point of it... Anyhow, creativity may not be a talent but it's not everybody's prerogative.

Creativity is anarchic by definition. Sometimes it explodes through suggestions and constant stimulation, exposure to open air and living among the people, while others requires absolute silence and isolation. It is not always the same, it is never possible to harness it in a method or a regulation. Yesterday Mika may have needed to withdraw into himself and hide and write, but today, perhaps, he needs to have a life at supersonic speed . One thing, however, is essential for creativity: it needs lifeblood, "nourishment " . For a writer it means listening to the stories of others, to observe reality, to study people behaviour, to absorb life. For a musician , I guess, it may be to receive stimulation/suggestions from other melodies , musical experiences to treasure noises , rhythms, even just voices. I believe - but it is only my personal feeling since I consider him both a writer and a musician - that Mika has given and is giving plenty of himself to programs like Xfactor and The Voice , but he's also taking a lot: voices, sounds , rhythms, even a dispassionate comparison of ideas and visions of different music and melody . A total immersion in a reality he perceives as close to him but not too well known. He's taking stories, life, experiences, feelings, sorrows, joy, jokes, funny moments and so on. All this will be put into his lyrics one day. Maybe Mika will hide, and sooner or later write , reworking everything he has experienced so far, and will draw from this his melodies . Or maybe this is the time of sharing and total expenditure, even in writing. Moreover, it also happens to writers : JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter , at least the first of the seven books of the entire saga in a café in Edinburgh, completely dived into the crowd and noise of everyday life . Then, for Casual Vacancy she isolated herself, because she already was popular and needed privacy. The third book , she even published under a nickname, and had to reveal to the world that she was the author or the book would have sunk into nothing. The requirements change depending on how it changes the life of an artist and especially the living conditions of the same . Mika can be that way. I reckon that LICM was written in a totally different way from TBWKTM and TOOL too, was written in another totally different way and conditions of life. I think that trying to trace rules for Mika's creativity is not a correct way to proceed and does not give him the credit he deserves.

I can see your point, I'd appreciate it too, when not offensive. In these lines there's too much intention to offend rather than criticize. IMO. But anyhow, I laughed too, when first read it this morning. As a matter of fact, it's only Excite not L'Unità, where he was described with so beautiful words.

When I first read that article I laughed, not because what it is written in it is funny or ironic, but just because it is garbage. Excite a good site? It is an old website aggregator from the early internet age, now depressingly disappearing and willing to get a last, glamorous "dance of the swan". It's gossip most of the time because this makes good access to the website. I used to write and work for websites like this, I know well how it works. An article of these, if you are lucky enough can make thousands of access and if it shared on facebook, thousands over thousands. Obviously if you make scandal, you get more views and visits. And the tone of this article is the one of searching flames and indignated comments. I imagine how happy and proud is the man who wrote that... I cannot even define it. Not "article" for sure. Garbage. That's it. It's not a devotion "issue". I am not so devoted to Mika. If there's issues to criticize, I do it. But in a correct way. Not just to attract visibility or harmful will. This "paper" does right this. IMO.