Lunari

Me too. Can't wait for this show!

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I think you will be able to pick up the tickets on Sunday, because it looks like at least some of the places are open on Sundays too.

I hope there is a Row A too, as it would really be a bummer to have a ticket for a non-existent seat. What's your seat number? Mine is A16.

I somehow managed to get row A on my first try. I'm still in shock!

Here's a rough translation of the last question and his reply (but he doesn't really explain the situation with the missed plane much, he just mentions it in the first sentence). It's a really scary thought that he could have been there. "You are also often in France. How did you feel on the night of the attacks?" "That night I should have been having dinner a few metres from the restaurant "La belle equipe", where 19 people died, but I missed the plane and arrived later. A lot of my friends were at Bataclan, where some people I had worked with also died. These difficult days have painfully taken me back to my childhood, when I lived in Paris and my father was taken hostage in the Gulf War. War has always been present in my life, ever since I was one year old and my family escaped from Lebanon. Now my fear is that people might blame the immigrants. The truth is that all this is exactly what they're running away from."

Or it could be that his music struck a chord with the general public in 2007, but after that the public moved on. TBWKTM never did as well as LICM, and I don't think lack of promo was the problem then. There are plenty of artists this happens to (just think how many one-hit-wonders exist -- at least Mika isn't one of them!). If hard work was all it took to keep the momentum going and become a superstar, there would be many more superstars. Like I've already said, I don't necessarily think that Mika and his team have always made great decisions; I just think things aren't as simple as some fans make them out to be. Yes, he's not promoted well (or at all) in many countries, but if his other albums had sold as well as LICM did, things would be completely different and I bet his label would still be throwing millions of pounds at him. And of course, lack of promo means that his subsequent albums have pretty much no chance of doing that well either. It's kind of a vicious circle.

I think that at this point in their careers, we can't really compare Mika to people like Adele or Katy Perry. The latter two have huge promotional machinery behind them and their labels are willing to spend crazy amounts of money on them, because they feel like they have a guaranteed outcome: a number 1 single in pretty much any country they choose. It's unrealistic to expect that Mika and his team could ever afford that much promotion worldwide (at least not without major support from the label, which we know he doesn't have). That's not to say that Mika's team is doing everything perfectly, of course. Obviously opinions on that differ, but I kind of don't blame them for concentrating on the countries where they know their efforts will be successful. (And wasn't there talk that Simon Cowell really wanted Mika on XFactor UK, but there was a schedule conflict because he had already committed to the Italian XFactor?)

Yes, that's pretty much it. He says: "I've just received your book, your gift, also with your message. Many thanks, I'm very curious to learn your story. Strong people are always people who are the most inspiring in life, whether they are 80 years old or 18 like you. So, many thanks for this gift."

Yes, that's what I recall him saying as well. At first (when he started talking about having just the chorus, which he loved, and having to write the verses really quickly) we still didn't know which song he was talking about. He then said that some people tell him that the verses do make sense, "but those people are obviously much smarter than me, because I still think they make no ******* sense". Anyway, if I had to guess which song he was talking about, I would probably never guess it was Happy Ending, because he has some songs where the verses make a lot less sense to me. I actually really love the part "If anything should happen, I guess I wish you well, a little bit of heaven, but a little bit of hell". So, I don't know about other people being smarter than him, but I do think he's not always the best judge of his own work.

My thoughts about the concert: - First the bad parts: I thought the whole thing was organised terribly. Those of us who bought the tickets via See Tickets (which I will never do again if I can help it) had a lot of problems getting them. When the doors opened, there was supposed to be a separate queue for the people without tickets, but it all turned into a mess. It didn't help that some fans were really pushy and a lot of people who came in the late afternoon ended up entering the venue before people who had been queuing since the morning. The security guys were no help at all and couldn't even confirm whether we were waiting in the right line. - After the ticket nightmare, I did still manage to get a decent place not too far from the stage (although there was a really tall guy in front of me, and some annoying and pushy people next to me). - But let's get to the good parts, which can basically be summed up in one word: Mika! The concert itself was great. It was my second show of his (after Paris last week), and while the first one will obviously always remain more special, this one was amazing as well. - Like others, I loved the acoustic version of Happy Ending. - A boy from the audience threw a hand held puppet on stage, and Mika obviously loved it. He "duetted" with it on Boum Boum Boum (after asking the boy who had thrown it to join him on stage) and brought it out two more times later, including his and the band's final bow to the audience. - He wasn't sure whether to speak in English or French (and asking the audience didn't help, because he got an enthusiastic response for both languages), so he ended up using both. When telling a story about his first gig, he actually told about half of it in English and half in French. (I'm surprised he didn't use any Italian, because it seemed like there were a lot of Italian people there.) - I really loved the performance of Promiseland (and he didn't even mess up this time!). However, it seemed like a lot of people next to me didn't even know the song, which was a little surprising (because they certainly seemed enthusiastic about all the other songs). - After the gig, there were a lot of people waiting for Mika. First someone brought out the first dog (not sure if it was Amira or Melachi), to which everyone "oooohed", and took her to the car. Then came the second dog (eveyone "oooohed" again), and then Mika. He didn't talk, but signed quite a lot of things. I wasn't going to try to get anything signed, because he had already signed my CD cover in Paris, so I was just trying to get a closer look at him -- which was almost impossible because of the crowd. But a little further away, past his car, there weren't as many people, so I finally decided to stand there. There was no way to know if he would even come there (or just get into the car once he reached it). But he did! So I got to see him really up close, I said "Great show!", and he signed my ticket (which I did have ready, just in case)! - It was also really great to see some people I had first met in Paris, and to meet some new ones. All in all, despite some annoyances, it was another amazing experience! It was nice meeting you too, and I'm glad you enjoyed the concert so much.

I'm staying at the Olympia hotel, which isn't too far from the venue.

Yes, it's a band called Citizens!. They're pretty good, and they're only on stage for half an hour.

Yep, you can hear it in this video (and also hear laughter from the audience) from 1:17 to 1:27. [media] [/media]

I'm a little late with my report, but I still had to post and say that this was my first Mika concert and it was absolutely amazing! It was also wonderful to meet some MFCers for the first time, you are all very friendly and welcoming. Anyway, other have already posted the setlists, videos etc, so I'll just post some of my thoughts: - When I saw there were five different queues for the concert, I didn't really know what to expect -- but I ended up getting a great place very close to the stage (third row). - Mika sounds even better than on records and videos, and his energy is just infectious! - I was happy to hear so many songs from the new album, especially Good Wife and Promiseland (even though he messed up and started singing a wrong part at some point). - He also forgot some lyrics of J'ai pas envie and instead just sang "I've forgotten the lyrics, like usual, because I'm stupid" in French. - I know people are sick of Big Girl, and it's not a favorite of mine either, but I actually really enjoyed his performance of it (although that might have been because it was my first time hearing it live ). - I thought it was really cute when he made a paper plane out of one of the signs fans had ("Amour fait ce qu'il veut" on a rainbow background), kissed it and tried to throw it to the audience, but it landed right back on stage! His second attempt was successful though, and he looked very proud of his paper-plane-making skills. - The only unpleasant part of my experience was that towards the end of the concert I started feeling very light-headed and on the verge of passing out. Other fans helped me and called the security. I was fine after sitting down for a few minutes though. I missed Lollipop, but managed to return back to my place before the end of Love Today. So, I can say that Mika's greatness literally makes me faint! (Okay, the heat and slight dehydration may have contributed to it, but let's not mention that. ) - Seeing how many fans were waiting for Mika after the concert, I didn't really expect him to stop and talk to us, so it was a really nice surprise that he at least stopped for long enough to sign some things through the car window. I actually managed to get my CD cover signed, which was very unexpected! - All in all, I can't wait for the next concert!

I had to change my vote too and picked Les baisers perdus instead of Good Guys. (Still voting for Good Wife and Promiseland though!)

I'm amazed that he did Promiseland! Such a great version too. I guess he's been listening to fans' wishes.

His part of the show can be seen here: http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-1f0b6e28-23f2-479d-9dc9-bfa3107c2af7.html

Dobrodošla na forumu!

Mika has definitely inspired me to improve both my French and my Italian. (It's very considerate of him to speak the same languages I speak. ) Especially my French wasn't (and still isn't ) very good, because I took a course in it about 10 years ago and then pretty much never used it after that. But now I get a lot more practice, thanks to Mika. And I'm very grateful to the subtitling team that they provide both the translations and transcriptions: for example, I love to watch French interviews with French subtitles, because I think this way I learn the most.

I'm with you when it comes to French. I think my French has already improved a lot since I started following Mika, so that's one good thing about being a fan of his. And I'm sure you're right about the other interview, because I also remember him saying that he liked doing more things in the UK.

I'm glad you voted for this song, because I sort of felt bad that it had no votes. I really like it too, it just didn't make my top three.

I thought he was talking about the USA? I couldn't understand everything either, so I could be wrong. But he has said similar things in the past about his popularity in the US, where he has never been mainstream (while he used to be mainstream in the UK).

I'm in love with this song too. It's definitely my favourite French song of Mika's, and it's quickly becoming one of my overall favourites as well. It's so sweet and delicate.

You're very welcome! It doesn't show up when I search for it now either, but since I've already ordered it, I followed the link from the "my orders" page. That's pretty weird, but I hope you'll be able to get it without any problems.