zia Giovi

Disgrazie che capitano, che ci vuoi fare

In effetti anch'io mi sono chiesta spesso perchè senta certe urgenze comunicative a ridosso dell'uscita degli album. Ma tutto sommato credo alla sua buonafede, probabilmente quando escono i dischi si sente pieno di energie e gli viene spontaneo essere più espansivo. Il che non vuol dire che sia un ingenuo, eh Nel caso specifico sono convintissima che non ci sia stato calcolo, poi chi vuole pensare male continuerà a farlo e questo purtroppo resta il limite di queste campagne (che sostanzialmente parlano a chi già la pensa in un certo modo). Il successo comunque mi sembra superare di gran lunga le insinuazioni malevole

Sempre un po' incasinata, ma tutto bene nel complesso! E tu?

Ciao Raya!

Grazie per i video, Marina! Non ho ancora avuto modo di vederli ma in ogni caso mi fa piacere avere un ricordo della serata

Ci ho pensato a lungo, visto che ero in mezzo a una folla di esagitati. Credo che, per quanto a me inspiegabile, quell'istinto aggressivo a spingere e a urlare sia qualcosa di primordiale e atavico. Io non l'ho mai provato in vita, quindi non saprei spiegare a che leva sia collegato, ma sono d'accordo con Marina sul fatto che spendere così tante energie per elementi secondari rispetto al vero obiettivo (eravamo forse a un concerto? ) distragga l'attenzione e faccia arrivare in un certo senso "consumati" quando poi il concerto inizia. Devo anche dire che ho conosciuto alcune studentesse educate e davvero carine che stavano dietro di me, per fortuna c'erano anche molte persone normali e mi spiace doverlo dire come se fosse perfino un po' strano

Vanity Fair n. 28 The article says nothing about Mika specifically

Tutto questo fa un po' paura. Niente leoni, zebre e koala?

Grazie!

So here is the translation, feel free to change it if there's something wrong I barely have the time to say “Hello” to Mika, and suddenly I receive a message from my friend Silvia “Tell me truth, is he really as open as he seems to be?”. The day after the interview, in the newsroom, my colleague Laura asks me: “Is he as nice and cute as he appears in the TV Shows?” If he’s not, please don’t tell me”. Everyone asks me if, meeting him in person, the popstar is really as spontaneous, endearing and sincere as we have grown used to see him during the talent show “X Factor”. So frank and honest to look almost out of place in the showbiz. But there’s no trick: Mika is exactly as we see him, passionate and direct. I meet in him at Universal Music to talk about his new CD, No Place in Heaven. I see him again as a judge of the next X Factor season, from the 10th of September on. I dance with him at this first Italian gig, in Milan, waiting for his shows in next weeks in Taormina (July, the 23rd), Cattolica (July, the 25th), Milan (September, the 27th), Rome (September, the 29th) and Florence (September, the 30th). And after the interview, I am tempted to invite him to go out to dinner as we were old friends. Your fourth album is out since a few days, you are in the middle of a worldwide tour and the audience of XF can’t wait to see you again on the TV screens. Is this the most important moment of your career? Until three years ago I declined every offer: TV, interviews. Then I started to act in the opposite way. I stopped protecting myself, being afraid of showing my intimate life. I won the game: I began to talk about me, to reveal who I am. It’s like I found again kind of a candor in my way of living and in writing music. There are no barriers anymore between me and my songs. This album, No Place in Heaven, is my diary. Do you really think, as stated by the title of your CD, that you don’t deserve a place in heaven? I think I don’t need it. I am not really interested in knowing if Heaven is a real place or not: I am happy to be alive. As a kid I was educated in a religious school, I respect the Church, but I perceive it as a distant entity. As many other people of my age, I have a personal way of believing: I pick out of religion only the elements I want. As a young man, were you as confident as you are now? No, I felt shipwrecked, constantly left out of the group, at school and out of school (Mika’s family escaped form the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1984, and moved first to France and then to Great Britain). We lost everything we had twice: we know what it’s like having money and not having them at all. Nowadays I am aware that this instability was God sent. Our family can’t be described as a traditional one by any mean, but it was full of love. And love is more important than any tradition. Have you ever felt excluded because of your homosexuality as well? No, in the beginning: I was too young and my sexual orientation wasn’t questioned. But perhaps this helped me to become an outsider later on. Have your mother ever wanted you to be different? My mother works with me (she is Mika’s stylist for his TV jobs or photo shoots). We have a very tight relationship. But I still reckon that a more regular son, with a beautiful wife and loads of kids, would have been better for her. Of course I am her son and she loves me for what I am, but probably at the 90%. There’s still, and there will always be, a 10% of her wanting a normal life, something she can’t have with me. In my album there’s a song specifically describing this situation: All She Wants. Because even within an apparently positive situation, like the one between my mother and me, a songwriter can see a grey area and find an inspiration in the dark side of reality. What’s the feeling you get from music? Joy, but in my songs there’s always a conflict between enjoyable melodies and brutal lyrics, my lyrics stink of truth. My album No Place in Heaven hasn't an immediate impact: you need to hear it many times, to dig in the lyrics to discover it in its full. It’s about love, but also pain, bliss and brutality. A mixture of opposite feelings, which makes my music emotionally truthful. In one song, for example, I wonder if a completely joyful love story can exist. The answer is no, of course. Only in Disneyland a romantic date is totally blissful. In real life, it’s made of 10 terrific minutes, 40 unforgettable ones but also 20 terrible ones. Add, if you want, that from a scientific point of view our brain is programmed to retain only the good memories. Have you learnt to accept your emotional conflicts? I learnt to survive, to find the strength to understand the world around me. And writing songs is my way to deal with reality. Your song “Porcelain” is about unbreakable and everlasting love. Do you think this is a real option? No, it’s impossibile. But there’s the glue to put the pieces together, when something gets broken. One of your lyrics goes like “I’ve got holes in my pockets”. What is this line about? It’s about the risk to lose control on the simplest and most immediate things of our lives. Sometimes I lost a lot and very easily (and maybe Mika is now hinting at the accident happened to his sister Paloma a few years ago, when she fell out of a window and was in danger of staying paralysed). I often felt this way, totally out of control towards what surrounds me. The only good thing about your pocket having holes is that you are lighter when you are walking. I once thought it was a totally negative situation, but not anymore. What can we expect from next X Factor season? It will be absolutely cool! Now that Skin, a popstar who I love, has arrived and Elio has returned we’ll be as a bunch of friends at the pub, chatting, having fun and listening to good music. Your Italian is flawless nowadays (I asked him if he wanted to answer in English or in French, but he is really determined and he kept speaking Italian during the whole interview). How would you describe your first time at X Factor? I could only use the present tense, and my dictionary was limited to the words spoken in Don Camillo movie. In the meantime, Morgan was reading a book about Dante. X Factor is a challenge that has made my life different in the last years, and the Italian edition is a worldwide reference point concerning the staging, the clothing, the repertoire and the freedom. And this year I want to have fun, acting without any calculations. As an artist, and a man, what do you consider the worse criticism? That I am trivial. Even when I’m on TV, they can say whatever they want, that I’m terrible or incredible, but I cannot stand being considered mediocre. Out of curiosity, our interview started two hours later than scheduled. But I had been warned before: apparently you don’t get along with clocks… Time is my real enemy. My beloved ones try to teach me how to improve my timeliness You are always travelling around the world, but your home is in London. Does your partner live there with you? Yes (Mika doesn’t like to talk about the filmmaker Andreas Dermanis, who is his partner since 8 years). But there’s also Melachi, my dog: her name means “Queen” in Arabic. But pets need to have company, so I bought another dog, Amira, whose name means “Princess” in Arabic. And it’s not over, there’s a 65 years old Indian lady with us. She thinks she’s at the same time my mother, my father, my wife and my doctor. She was supposed to stay with me one week to help me moving to the house, but she’s still there. You are considered a style icon. Who designed the beautiful shoes you are wearing today? Christian Louboutin. We are friends and the first men sneakers he designed were custom made for me. The have strengthened toes to allow me dancing, and they are now a part of his collections. And let me say that they work well. Mika’s wearing a glittering pair at his gig in Milan. At a certain point he climbs on the piano, he goes wild and jumps on his tiptoes. An authentic sight.

Potendo scegliere meglio un po' di pioggia che la testa cucinata, questo è fuor di discussione Sul temporale ho delle perplessità, comunque prendiamo quel che viene perché ci divertiremo in ogni caso Stai forse dicendo che il ritratto che mi ha fatto mia nipote non è sufficientemente simile alla mia effigie? Dovrei assomigliare vagamente alla foto che vedi su Facebook, se ti dà più affidamento

Com'era lo slogan? "L'ottimismo è il sale della vita"? Veramente io comincio a preoccuparmi per i temporali, qui tutte le mie colleghe stanno paventando un cambiamento per il fine settimana

Voi siete meravigliose, meritate un monumento! Spero di vedervi sabato

Nothing really new, but I can post ar least a summary (if not a full translation) in the next days

Very hard to pick only three, I'm sure I don't like L'Amour Fait Ce Qu'il Veut but I like all the other ones, more or less. I've voted Hurts, No place in heaven and Staring at the sun, but I'm changing my mind almost everyday since the CD is out.

I work until late afternoon today and tomorrow, but I can share this job with you in the next days if you need help. Just let me know

Io ho programmato di tornare a casa dopo il concerto, ma chissà. Forse riuscirò a salutare qualcuno il 25. Comunque let's party, ce l'ha ordinato il capo!

What a good interview! Thanks for sharing, Lucrezia ????

Congratulazioni! Come dici l'anno si preannuncia caldo, ma sono sicura che farai benissimo

Grazie, Marina, per il prezioso lavoro che hai svolto fino a... ieri!

Io ci provo sempre. Però in effetti mi sa che devo perfezionare la tecnica

Noto con piacere che continuano a fioccare occasioni mentre io sarò in ferie , anche se un firmacopie a Napoli non l'avrei considerato comunque. A sapere che ci voleva questo per smuovere le cose avrei agito molto tempo prima

It's on the left hand in Italy

La cofana di ortensie è un'idea fantastica, io ci sto! Grazie di mettere sempre a disposizione il tuo tempo e le tue idee ❤

Infatti a me non interessa l'orario, mi interessa capire al volo se c'è qualcosa di nuovo quando sbircio di nascosto dall'ufficio ????