charlie20

Thanks a lot! They are also here: Clip X Factor Italia Facebook Non si può vivere senza musica https://www.facebook.com/xfactoritalia/videos/1032370283447965/ Clip X Factor Italia Facebook Mika's interview https://www.facebook.com/xfactoritalia/videos/1032459966772330/

Thank you! It's also here: Clip X Factor Italia Facebook Elio interview https://www.facebook.com/xfactoritalia/videos/1031883116830015/ Waiting for them to put the video of the Mika interview

This? If no one does or has already started doing the translation of it, I can do it in the next few days.

I totally agree with you In him I always see a lot of strength and, especially when he opens a little like in this interview, and also that of the Corriere della Sera, a lot of sensibility and profundity, a kind of fragility, without it being weakness. I hope this makes sense.

This is an article in "Le Matin" of 26 July, a Swiss newspaper, but since it's in French I think and hope that it's okay to post it here. Thanks a lot to http://1970mimi.tumblr.com/ !

Here is another translation: << IT’S A SIMPLE ALBUM; BUT WITH MANY INFLUENCES >> << MY LIVE WILL BE MORE A BALLET THAN A CONCERT >> Mika come out of his shell << I don’t hide myself anymore >> No Place In Heaven arrives/comes out, between pop and will to talk about himself. << Enough with/No more metaphors to talk about sexuality, love, family >> Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr., known professionally as Mika, is 31 years old. His first album, << Life in Cartoon Motion >>, was in 2007. << No Place In Heaven >> is the fourth (below, the cover). Its lead single, << Good Guys >>, is already out in our Country Mika and his fourth album resemble each other. The lanky young man who sports jacket and pants studded with monkeys - but then he speaks of Cesare Pavese, Futurism and wine - signs an album in which energy and romanticism support personal texts. The increasingly present Anglo-Lebanese X Factor judge summarizes: << I do television to record albums like this/in this way, a pop with personal content like in the 60s and 70s, non transparent like happen to listen to today. I draw my inspiration from Billy Joel, Elton John, Carole King, the golden age of pop >>. SEASHELL (/SHELL) "No place in heaven" comes out on Monday: inside << many musical influences and a few ingredients for an album cleaner than the previous >> but also the will to overcome the << shame >>. Of what? << To express (my) sexuality, to say that my heart is full or broken, to talk about my family. I don’t hide myself anymore behind metaphors, at age 31 I have to write something true >>. Not without melancholy, << but it's my way of handling complicated things >>. And here "All she wants", portrait of a mother who dreams of a son with a wife, children, family lunches (<< instead today my mother is like a “gypsy” to take care of my costumes >>) ; "Rio" (<< I've got holes in all my pockets / Even those holes, they've got pockets >>) ; "No Place In Heaven" (<< a hymn to freedom, I don’t know if I will have place in heaven: if there is, fine >> ) ; “Good Guys”, celebration of << figures who changed the wind direction and the point is to ask whether there are still of them >>. Among others, the jazz musician Cole Porter and the genius Andy Warhol, gay, okay, but Mika doesn’t want to trivialize with the (sexual) coming-out. << What is it? To me it doesn’t seem so interesting. This album is a way out of the shell >>. which opens up also in a live with five Italian dates, including September 29 in Rome and September 30 in Florence (<< an handmade show, more ballet than concert, paper and not LED >>). Meanwhile, he’s writing a “book-intimate diary”, has been in a studio with Morgan (<< out of the talent show he’s a musician full of joy >>), “blesses” the brat Fedez (<< he’s under pressure >>), listens to Italian music: << I appreciate Jovanotti and Paolo Conte << but I dream to find out where is Mina >>. To do the detective, it’s better a suit/ outfit more sober. Some explanations: The context is obviously always the press conference of NPIH Cesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator. He is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in Italy. P. played an essential role in the transition between the culture of the thirties and the new democratic culture of the postwar period. His participation to the present has always been tied to a deep sense of the contradiction between literature and political commitment, between individual existence and collective history, through a tormenting analysis of himself and relationships with others and a continuous struggle to build himself as man and as a writer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Pavese https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Pavese CONCHIGLIA/GUSCIO = SEASHELL/SHELL He said "shell" in English and he meant shell = guscio, but someone among the journalists suggested, incorrectly, in Italian the word “conchiglia = seashell”. The brat Fedez. As there was/there is a “case Morgan”, there was/is also a “case Fedez”, happened just a few days before the press conference and a journalist asked Mika his opinion about it: http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/06/09/news/fedez-116431552/?refresh_ce Summarizing briefly: At 5.30, Fedez, while he was with his girlfriend and some friends, was approached by a group of guys in the luxurious restaurant with disco 'Just Cavalli' for a selfie. But he refused, apparently in a bad way, and it has led to a discussion that has degenerated when the rapper launched a bottle against a glass plate. A piece of glass hit in the head a girl who was accompanied in not serious conditions to the hospital Fatebenefratelli. Upon arrival of the police, then, the rapper would also railed against the agents, and this cost him a charge for insulting a public official. And he was later sued by the injured girl and another guy, who said he was insulted by him. Obviously Fedez and his lawyers have denied this official version by the police, drawn up after collecting the testimonies, all agreed on what had happened, of clients and staff of the 'Just Cavalli'. << but I dream to find out where is Mina >>. Mina is one of the most successful Italian singers of all time. She was a staple of Italian television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman. Mina gave up public appearances in 1978 but has continued to release popular albums on a yearly basis to the present day. She has never reappeared in public in person, but only virtually through videos. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina_(singer) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina_(cantante)

obviously he's ironic

You are welcome!

Do you mean this picture? Because it isn't a hotel, but the new Monte Bianco cableway : http://www.cordeemontblanc.eu/web/?lang=en http://www.cordeemontblanc.eu/web/?page_id=276

For anyone who wants to know the categories assigned to the 4 judges in advance:

Thank you very much, you are very kind!!

Home Visit are on the Skyway Monte Bianco http://www.aostanews24.it/x-factor-sulla-skyway-monte-bianco/ X Factor arriva a Courmayeur sulle nuove Funivie del Monte Bianco. Skyway infatti ospiterà a luglio, la data precisa è ancora da definire, uno dei casting del talent show musicale in onda nel prossimo autunno su Sky Uno. Le prove dei candidati si svolgeranno nell’auditorium del Pavillon, prima fermata della funivia, a 2.200 metri di quota, i giudici, Mika, Fedez, Elio e Skin valuteranno le esibizioni canore all’interno delle cabine dell’impianto di risalita e in una postazione allestita ai 3.466 metri di Punta Helbronner. X Factor arrives in Courmayeur on new Mont Blanc cableway. Skyway in fact will host in July, the exact date is yet to be determined, one of the casting of the musical talent show which will be broadcasted on Sky One in the autumn. The performances of the candidates will take place in the auditorium of the Pavillon, the first stop of the cableway, at 2,200 meters above sea level, the judges, Mika, Fedez, Elio and Skins will evaluate the musical acts inside the cabins of the lifts and in a station set up to 3,466 meters of Punta Helbronner. If anyone is interested, at the Bootcamp, for the six chair challenge, like last year, were assigned the categories to the 4 judges and several articles/blogs have already said it. So I don't know if anyone wants to know it in advance (anyway I don't know how to put it under spoiler, if someone can kindly explain it to me, please!).

I don't mind. Thank you very much for the translation! Many people should read it, in my opinion.

This is an article, written by a French teacher, on the art and the artists, in general, so it isn't specifically about Mika, but when I read it I thought it would fit exactly to him, and all the other artists like him, and to the external perceptions of him / them by those who very often don't understand or don't grasp the concept of art and of artist (a subject which is now and always very relevant). And in the end they don't get Mika. http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/ba1abfe0-9acd-4298-bfd1-8d146a9b881f%7C_0.html L’ART N’EST PAS UN SONDAGE MARTIN DUBÉ ENSEIGNANT DE FRANÇAIS AU SECONDAIRE, SAINT-JÉRÔME Les artistes le disent et le répètent : ils créent pour eux avant tout. Pour se libérer, s’exprimer, se réinventer. Pour vivre. Et pour toucher l’autre. Le secouer, le faire réfléchir, l’amuser. Pour qu’il se sente vivant lui aussi à son tour. Ces deux réalités sont les deux faces d’une même pièce. Elles cohabitent dans une harmonie relative. Parfois, malheureusement, la face cachée de l’art, le commerce, prend trop de place au point d’ébranler les raisons pour lesquelles le geste artistique doit être motivé. Oui, l’art est une industrie, mais quand ce fragile équilibre se rompt au point où les critères de l’existence même d’une œuvre se voient réduits à sa plus simple expression, soit l’argent, il y a lieu de s’inquiéter, de s’indigner. Un artiste ne doit jamais se soucier de ce que le public veut, de ce que le public pense. Car s’il tombe dans ce piège, il se pliera à autre chose qu’à son instinct, son art. Et il ne sera plus que l’ombre de lui-même. Une loque rampante qui s’excuse presque d’exister, quémandant sa raison d’être, cognant aux portes pour connaître les désirs de l’un, les goûts de l’autre. Une espèce de mutant, croisement entre l’itinérant et le vendeur d’assurances. Les artistes sont l’âme d’un peuple, ses racines, son cœur surtout. Ils voient et entendent des choses que peu de gens prennent le temps d’observer. Leurs antennes captent des sons, des paroles, des phrases, des images, des idées, des rêves, des visions. Nous devons apprendre à nous arrêter, à mettre la pédale douce à nos vies un peu folles. Pour être témoin de l’art qui nous entoure. Souvent, on aimera. Et tout aussi souvent, nous serons déçus. Et c’est correct. C’est même souhaité. L’unanimité est souvent suspecte. Quand un geste artistique est posé, nous devons être là pour l’accueillir. S’il résonne en nous, il marquera quelque chose, inscrira avec force un moment clé dans nos vies. Si ce n’est pas le cas, ce n’est pas un crime. Peut-être le sera-t-il dans quelques années? Quelques siècles? Jamais? On ne le sait pas. On ne doit jamais chercher à le savoir. L’artiste n’est pas un ouvrier. Il n’a pas de patron. Oui, il est un artisan. Il travaille sans relâche à peaufiner son art, mais il le fait pour lui, pour son plaisir, son bonheur, pour donner du sens. Dans un monde où les artistes sont malmenés par un gouvernement qui les voit comme une menace, ils se doivent d’être encore plus forts, plus solidaires, sans pitié. Ils doivent répliquer, même si c’est loin d’être facile, avec une vigueur renouvelée, un idéal inébranlable. On n’écrit pas un livre comme on répare un évier; on ne peint pas une toile comme on fabrique des souliers. Créer une œuvre ne se fait pas à l’aide d’un vox pop où tout un chacun explique ce qu’il aimerait. L’art n’est pas un menu de restaurant. Il n’y a qu’un seul sens, une seule direction : de l’artiste vers le public. Pas l’inverse. Le jour où ces deux pôles inséparables seront inversés, l’espoir fondra comme neige au soleil. Le réchauffement n’est pas que climatique, il pourrait être aussi artistique. Soyons vigilants. Laissons l’art s’exprimer et acceptons-le pour ce qu’il est : un miroir de ce que nous sommes et non pas un clone de nos moindres désirs. I'm going to translate it tomorrow night, but if a native French speaker wants to do the translation before, it's absolutely welcome.

Thank you so much!!!

Thanks a lot! A very beautiful interview

Thank you very much for sharing it! Oh, after reading it, I realized that this is another re-elaborated version of what Mika said at the NPIH press conference and in other articles/interviews, with "their" questions put there.

You are welcome! I will do also the translation of the other articles as soon as I can.

Here is the translation of the first article.The journalist has re-elaborated what Mika said at the press conference as if it were an interview and, even when the journalist doesn't use in some answer his exact words, the meaning is just that. Mika: heavenly new album! Mika at the press presentation of his new album "No Place in Heaven", held in Milan June 10 The fourth work/effort/endeavour of the most famous pop stars of the seven notes and screen, No Place in Heaven, will be released digitally on June 15 and 16 with the physical disk. A new Mika, innovative/novel, who abandons falsetto and opts for a heavenly simplicity. If not a place in Heaven, certainly Mika has earned a place in the Olympus of the superstars (/giants/legends) of pop music. He certainly didn’t need any confirmation but, as proof of the above, in the Virgin / EMI / Universal Music‘s house/company has been affixed a blue ribbon announcing the birth of a new great chapter in the rosy career of the artist. This is his new album of unreleased entitled No Place In Heaven, released digitally on June 15 and with the physical disk on 16, fourth work that comes after two years of intense creative work of the artist. A mature album, different from previous ones, as Mika himself will tell us in the following interview (released on the occasion of the presentation of the CD/album in the press preview held on June 10 in Milan). Produced in collaboration with Gregg Wells (producer of Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Adele and Mika previous albums), No Place In Heaven is an explosive mixture of really fantastic vocal talents and re-enactments of the great pop classics branded Seventies, from Billy Joel to Elton John until to Todd Rundgren. But, despite his incredible vocal cords stand out in the fifteen tracks of the new album, perhaps more than all the other pieces of Mika, this time one of his stylistic figures were hanged up: the falsetto. Great protagonist of Life in Cartoon Motion, The Boy Who Knew Too Much and The Origin of Love, here the high vocals give way to less unnatural melodies (because in nature only Mika and Freddy Mercury succeded in taking notes like that ...) and more intensely emotional. Here's what the artist, that we know well also as a judge of X Factor (ready to return on the screens with the new edition of the talent show. The table of the jury of X Factor 2015 awaits him: tomorrow in Bologna will be held the first auditions of this year with thousands of aspiring pop star) told us during the interview at the press presentation of No Place in Heaven: Hello Mika. Excited? Every time I have to present an album I feel a little sad because I have to share with others something that before was just for me. But this is also nice! But there is always many nervousness. The emotion is too much because this is my first press conference I can do completely in Italian. You're right, you have learned our language very well. I owe it to the French. Knowing well the French helped me learn quickly also Italian. How is it that there are no Italian songs on the new record? Because sing in Italian is too difficult! The pronunciation, the throat (that you have/) having to open. I tried but it doesn't turn out well. But for the album I have collaborated with many Italian musicians, from Lucio Fabbri to Benny Benassi. And I recorded in the studio of Eros Ramazzotti, who is perhaps the most beautiful studio of all Europe. But the writing phase took place in Los Angeles, where I wrote all my songs. First I tried to write music in the musical studios of Hollywood but then I preferred to rent a house on internet, take computers, piano and musicians and record in the lounge. The thing I couldn’t imagine is the frequency with which the tourists passed in front of the house with the TourBus. Every time we could hear the announcement of their guide who said: "And here is the home of Orlando Bloom." I had rented the house of the actor unknowingly. There are many differences between No Place in Heaven and your previous albums. Do you want to talk about this change? Sure; the difference is huge, there was a real break. While previously I always made very intense, processed and complex albums, this time I wanted to create something transparent/clear, simple, linear. Without metaphors, without situations invented to hide my personal stories. Why this title: No Place in Heaven? Because I'm not looking for a place in heaven; if there is, fine, if there is not, amen. This is not a sad title, on the contrary: there is so much joy behind this album. In Lebanese culture, which in part I belong, talk about themselves is not okay, it’s considered vulgar. With this album I overcame this shame, the paranoia of not having to really talk about myself. This time I speak of myself, of what I want to become. I think it's much more interesting to talk about what you are instead of what you have been. There were negative aspects related to your experience and permanence here in Italy? The beaches. Your paparazzi have the world's most powerful zoom! Also the airports are a disaster. And positive aspects instead? Here in Italy I I learned to make coincide the public Mika with the private. Your warmth, your latinity coexists well with my Lebanese culture. Perhaps this is why in Italy I am totally comfortable. And then your wine is delicious. There has been talk of a collaboration with Morgan. Is it still in the air? Of course, I would like to work with him very gladly. Also because I discovered a new Morgan in the studio, totally different from the one in front of (television) cameras of X-Factor. Without the pressure of the camera, it came out a different person, diverse(/different), full of determination. In the studio he played all the instruments with an indescribable passion and enthusiasm. I would love to do a nice musical project with him, but we should isolate ourselves in a bubble, away from everything and everyone, to do something more intimate and introspective. The song “All She Wants” is a dialogue with your mother. What do you wanted to say when you wrote that song? "All She Wants" is a sort of coming-out. But not a sexual coming out, which certainly is not something interesting, but an existential coming-out, a metaphorical exit from the shell in which for years I have been trapped. When you come from a family to fifty percent Lebanese is all more complicated. Speaking of myself, of my feelings, of love (both when the heart is full of joy and when it is disintegrated by the pain) was difficult, until a few years ago I would never have done it. From "All She Wants" emerges a portrait that is perhaps what your mother would have wanted for you. When did you to not reflect (yourself) in that mirror? At fourteen. I have to say that my mother is proud of me at 90%. That 10% is the desire to have a son a bit more traditional, a bit more presentable to the family dinners, on vacation with relatives in Lebanon ... Also, my mother had to become a nomad to follow me everywhere. Right now it is here to set the clothes in order for X-Factor! What is your relationship with your producer, Gregg Wells? Gregg is a “cop/policeman” (* in a figurative sense) who I hate. Every musician needs a “policeman” as much as every writer needs an editor who presses him and brings him back to reality a little. Gregg Wells is very good at his job as a “policeman”, which is to control me. He helped me a lot to look after/curate the musical aspect; in this album everything is more clean, linear, essential. For me it was a natural progression. Tell us about the Good Guys that you put in the homonymous song title. They are my heroes, from Andy Warhol to David Bowie. They are people who have changed the direction of the wind and that were able to maintain an aura of mystery that makes them even more fascinating. And then there's James Dean. Because he’s James Dean. In Italy have you met some Good Guy to add to your list? Yes: Dario Fo. How will be the staging (or setting/set/stage designing) of the tour? The first date/concert, that of 10 June to the Fabrique of Milan, will be different to level scenic by the remaining dates. It will be essential, deliberately simple. The rest of the tour, however, will have concerts with stage sets related to the album cover. I look like a mime in the cover and just like him I transform myself and tell different stories. I was inspired by Italian Futurism. In the concerts I really love the handmade quality, the "handmade" that makes things more authentic. At one of my live concert you will never see the LED screens because they aren’t part of my personality. I like to create a fantasy setting with the paper. I hope the shows turn out well, I wish they are/turns out to be more like a ballet rather than a pop show. Why in the new album there is no trace of falsetto? Oh God, you have made me think about it just now! I had not noticed. I think the reason is the desire to make a fragile, not artificial/fake album. But I can still do the falsetto, I swear! In addition to writing music, you're also working on a book. Do you want to reveal something in advance? It’s not a novel but a diary. Writing novels is the most difficult thing there is: create characters, deepen them ... too difficult. The diary I'm writing is intimate, funny, sincere. It goes from a chapter that talks about my grandfather in Syria in one where I describe my frustration at the supermarket. Through every page you can go into every aspect of my life. A little note: "doti vocali da urlo (e da urletto)" is a little play on words : literally is vocal talents to scream (and urletto = little scream), but "da urlo" in Italian means really fantastic, truly incredibile.

Interview on Rage Monthly Magazine http://content.yudu.com/Library/A3rk30/RageMonthlyMagazineS/resources/index.htm To better see the interview here the images larger:

Well, he said many other times, in other interviews (like in this: http://www.rtl2.fr/actu/mika-en-interview-tres-tres-privee-rtl2-mercredi-17-juin-7778763454 , for example) that love, the real,serious love, is complicated, the couple's life is complicated and clearly he's a complicated man too. Anyway, all couples have their moments of difficulty or crisis, it's normal, the important thing is to solve the problems and they, obviously, did it.

Nel backstage di X Factor 9 si ride con i quattro giudici http://www.lastampa.it/2015/07/13/multimedia/spettacoli/si-ride-nel-backstage-di-x-factor-con-mika-elio-skin-e-fedez-00UBXgKLDpoKw2SA8XFjgP/pagina.html I giudici di X Faxtor 9 scherzano nel backstage della prima giornata del bootcamp di Torino. Mika, grande protagonista, trascina Elio, Fedez e Skin in un simpatico nonsense grazie al suo italiano pittoresco. Intanto sul palco del PalaAlpitour un primo gruppo di ragazzi si sono dati battaglia per guadagnarsi un posto agli Home Visit in programma a fine mese. Oggi in scena le band, una delle novità dell’edizione numero nove.

Yes, I agree, I liked a lot it too!

Yes, a very good interview. Disappointingly some italian blogs/bloggers have twisted the meaning of what he said about his partner, making believe that the crisis that they had had a few years ago was due to problems of faithfulness. Disappointingly because there is always on the part of some people this need to use stereotypes when it comes to gay couples, like that between them can't be real love, because there is only sex and promiscuity/wantonness, with which in fact the ignorant people continues to deny them the same dignity of heterosexual couples .

I agree, it's very interesting, and apart from the usual things about the Pope and the comparison with Obama, I like what he said in it.