*Vv*

I think this Shangay interview is an interesting one. I can translate it tomorrow if you want me to. Let me know!

Wow! Thank you for your report! NPIH live is amazing! Very moving!

Thank you Cath! Is it know the number of songs he's going to play?

amazing! Do you know what time does it start?

I'll be willing to join the drawing!

SECOND ONE: ===> With his 5th record “NPIH”, he presents his more sincere and mature lyrics. Mika (Beirut, 1983) keeps moving no stop. He takes advantage of some photographs they’re taking of him on stage, to sing, together with his musicians, bits of his songs. He greets everyone, he jumps and dances and as he reaches his dressing room, he takes place on the sofa and tired, asks for a tea. He’s been awake since early morning waiting for the medias but his smile reveals that, despite the tiredness, he loves his job. With his new album “NPIH”, he presents his more sincere and mature lyrics “The title is not sad. My place is here, I don’t want to live my life thinking about what it’ll come next, I want to take all the opportunities that cross my path” explains, and even if he assures the title doesn’t contain religious meanings, he adds that his generation “is made of people who take advantage of the positive aspects of religion but at the same time criticize the more intolerant side of faith” This is already the 5th album of one of the first artists who managed to get signed by a record company thanks to internet. Therefore, he’s one of the biggest defenders of the web-music-market. “The idea that internet is killing music is a total madness” he says confidently “we shouldn’t think whether we’re gonna make it or not, we should think about the way we’re gonna do it. The selling system is not a good one but it’s on its way to be redefined” he complains It’s not the first time he reacts against the established system, bringing back the small markets from oblivion, small markets that are the most threatened by the online-market. “If you’re a star like Lady Gaga is, it’s easy to find out your sales. Contrariwise, in jazz, in classic music, in gospel and flamenco it’s impossible. They lay at the base of the pyramid and if the music industry doesn’t respect their rights, they’re put in danger.” Future passes through internet. To Mika, things are pretty clear «deciding that streaming is an option is like saying that people would start using vinyl again. He doesn’t hide. Even though many people think about Mika as the symbol of joy and youth, he doesn’t see himself this way. “I know many people label me this way, but that means they don’t listen to my songs. My new record is very direct, it has very deep and dark lyrics that are far away from joyfulness” he defends himself. Anyway he doesn’t bother too much about opinions. “There are two things I don’t want to waste time with in my life: the first one are people who don’t like me. The second one is pretending to be young. 10 years went by since my artistic career began, there’s nothing worse than an old guy trying to look young” he reflects. In these 10 years, the singer got confident with the music world and he realizes that his failures taught him more than his victories. “When you fall, you need to be strong to get up again and the longer you go, the older you get, the stronger it is” he acknowledges One of his biggest step was his coming out. Coming from a half-English half-Lebanese family it wasn’t easy for him to come to terms with his homosexuality even if he recognizes that “you must be sincere, you mustn’t hide and wear a beard, I had many people in my life who didn’t hide, I wanted to be just like them. That easy” he sums up.

FIRST ONE: ==> Mika frees himself and rejects « clichés » like «wanting a place in Heaven” “I’m not asking for a place in heaven”, states Mika, the anglo-lebanese artist talking about his new record “No Place in Heaven” a work in which, thanks to a much melodic real and private pop, he sets himself free and expresses his rejection of some commonplaces that marked his childhood. “I’m not rejecting religion but I do reject some of its commonplaces, as the promise of heaven and the punishment of hell. It’s one of the first things you’ve got to wipe out in order to have a transparent and honest life”, he told us in an interview with Efe the musician, he said he was educated throughout his whole life in “religious schools”. Talking about this, Mika (Beirut, 1983) explained that “many people of his generation” break away with their parents or grandparents because “they’ve chosen themselves the parts of religion the agree with and the parts of religion they don’t.” So, from his first single, that has the album title (I think they’ve made a mistake) the artist states that this is a theme “that moves and makes people smile” and that, in this song, he started talking to his father, someone with whom, he said, he never had an intimate conversation about any topic of his life, even though he’s always been a good father and has always supported him. “Listening to this song, I think you can understand my relationship with my father, you can understand my life and you could even find a part of your own life in this song, because I think many people have lived such a similar situation” he added about “No Place In Heaven” The author of songs like “Grace Kelly” and “Lollipop” states that he writes songs so that he can “feel better and manage to face things in his life”, and he explains that his new album is a “very creative” work “When listening to it, it’s very tender and melodious, it isn’t anything aggressive and it doesn’t sound commercial either” he said. Making a comparison with his previous album “The orgin of Love” which the artist qualifies as a “caleidoscopic and psychedelic dream”, “NPIH””is a more controlled work” which works as the subsequent phase of this dream, helped also by this melodic pop that Mika goes on pointing out during the whole interview. “Pop music can be made for oneself, can be credible and real, it doesn’t need to be something complicated. Many of the albums of the 70s, tell stories using a very melodic pop and that’s the best pop ever.” he stated, remarking the musical tenderness of his new record. If Mika had to choose his favourite track, he said he would go for “Good Guys” as it’s a song that if he had listened to it when he was 14, “I would have grabbed it, I would have put it near my heart and I would have kept it there” “My records are a reflection of who I am, If you want to know who I am or if you want to understand my past, listen to my albums and you’ll make everything out, even things of myself I hate” he explained. About the Spanish audience, the singer says he’s always surprised as they are very open-minded people and don’t feel his development and his evolution as a bad thing. “Spanish and English audience’s tolerance is unbelievable. They love emotions and when performing, you can feel this emotion and that’s something you don’t feel everywhere” About his future plans Mika explained he’s creating a very visual and very good-looking tour and is going on doing television. Judge on XFactor Italy and Coach on The Voice France, he’s even co-working with a few firms, projects that will allow him to be free when producing his music. “I do the kind of music I do because I can, but I have to fight hard to do it my own way and to keep it pure, so that I will be proud of my work in 20 years” he clinched

What if we print the whole thing and then paint the windows of the buildings, the stars and the other things which are good to see aglow, with luminous paint? It'll make it less expensive and easier....

I can do it. Just give me some time as they seem quite long! XD

I think I can help! I love this artistic stuff! If we decide early I'll have the whole summer to draw things as I'm about to have my last exam and then be free (hoping to pass it). The only problem I've got is that I'll have to catch a plane so either I send it to you via mail or they must be not too big, and easy to stock in a trolley. Speaking about a river and London's famous attractions, why not drawing the Tower bridge?

I so much love this idea! The venue in the perfect location for such an amazing idea. The problem I see here is: will you hand out pieces of landscape once everyone has got their own seats? Because I think very few people will read this thread and join us and in order to have a fantastic outcome we need as many people as possible contributing at the fan action that night. Anyway. I'm in!

Managed to get 4 seats at row H stalls. I think I've been lucky!

Indeed! Do you know how the presale work?

I'm interested! I've got this week-end off work as I wanted to attend Paris' gig the day before, (but unfortunately couldn't get the tickets) I think I might want those tickets! How does the presale thing work?

I'm looking for tickets for the 17th October in Paris. If anyone is willing to sell them please do tell!

yes I was looking for the October date! On ticketmaster are not available anymore!

Hi! I was taking a look for tickets. On fnac and other sites it's said that there aren't tickets left FOR THE MOMENT. Does it mean that they could start selling them again? Do you know where else I could check for tickets on other circuits? Thank you!

The first time I listened to thins song I thought "Is that really a Mika song?" It has this sort of rock rythm, mainly in the chorus, that makes me crazy. The lyrics express my thoughts and the hight and low voices are just to good to be true! Let's hope he'll listen to his fandom which has been asking it do be a single since day 1!

Here's my report! Our day begins with much traffic on the road , my good friend (a very big fan of Fedez who spent this day with me) and my sister, who after Fabrique is a real Mikafreak ​ ! After arriving in Stezzano at 8:45 we immediately meet with Elwendin who kindly bought the CDs for us too . We receive our numbers: 32, 33, 34 and start queuing. The weather is amazingly good, cloudy and cool. We roll out our beach towel, take a sit just in front of the hurdles and start chatting . Hours pass by quite quickly. The sun comes out and colourful umbrellas start coming into view. The well-organized staff hands over water and umbrellas every now and then. We leave the queue many times without any problems, to buy food (sharpies, rubbers, post-it) go to the loo and take random strolls. While chatting with Elwendin about an idea we talked about some weeks before, we decide to give Mika one of our MFC Subtitiling team logos . As we haven’t prepared it before, we decide to draw it at the moment on a post it she bought for herself, while I’m drawing it my sister and friend enter the shopping center to get us sharpies and rubbers. We spend our time drawing, chatting and hoping for clouds to shade the hot sun! A few minutes before 3pm the people queuing are put into place according to their numbers and after few time they let us walk quietly to the roof where the signing is meant to take place. While queuing on the roof our hopes for clouds are fulfilled… even too much as it starts pouring with rain! We spend nearly half an hour with our umbrellas opened to (try to) protect from the heavy rain. They let us in under the tensile structure around 5 o’ clock. Mika arrives at 5:30pm on the dot, together with his Italian manager. He talks a bit with the journalist who’s hosting the event apologizing for the people who are still stuck under the pouring rain. He answers a few questions, he talks about the masks fanaction of Fabrique stating that it was very unpleasant to sing in front of hundreds of his faces . He starts the signing; he seems to be in a very good mood! Elwendin goes first and walks out with a huge smile on her face! I’m the second one. I walk towards him and the first thing that crosses my mind is: “Gosh he’s really tall!! ” he greets me and asks how I’m doing. I don’t know how, but I can look at him in the eyes and answer and I even find the courage to tell him a little thing. I told him I was bringing him the greetings from a 102 year-old granny (my very best friend’s granny, that I see pretty much every day and knows Mika, as we often listen to his songs while she’s with us, my friend had just sent me a vocal message of her talking about him!). He looks at me with a curious and surprised look and says “Ah si? Davvero? Grazie mille” (Oh yes? Really? Thank you!) then he signs the album and we take a photo. Then comes my sister’s moment. She thanks him for the emotions he gave her at Fabrique’s concert and she walks away with heart-shaped eyes as w ell. My friend walks to him asking him for a favour, he wisely answers that he’s not sure he will be able to fulfil her wish, depending on the request, she asks him “Coul you say “Hi” to Fedez !! ” He smiles at her and says “I sure will”. She then comes toward us laughing hard as I didn’t think she would do it for real! Me, Elwendin and my sister were really over the moon! I guess that’s Mika’s effect. I still have to come to terms and I can’t stop smiling whenever I think about it . It’s been a real pleasure to spend those hours with Elwendin, not sure she thinks alike but I don’t care! (Love you dear! )

With a bit of delay here’s my report for 11th of June XF auditions in Bologna. We queued under the sun for 3 hours before entering, we gained our seats after a very chaotic entrance in which everyone was pushing very hard. We could reach a spot where we were able to see the judges’ faces pretty well; Elio was the one closest to us, next to him there was Skin, then Mika and at the other end of the table sat Fedez. Before starting the recordings we were told to clap our hands in different ways (from very happy to enthusiastic, to quite bored) so that they could record it separately from the show. When the judges came out there was a loud audience clapping their hands for them. The recording began with a band, the absolute news of this year’s edition worldwide. Because of the work technicians had to put on, setting instruments for every single band, we lost much time, which was filled with chatting or joking from the judges who really seemed to be getting along well together. With the first performance started a nice chat between Mika, Skin and Elio who discussed about the contestants’ English accent that, according to Mika and Skin, was quite Cockney-style. (Fedez just said he didn’t have a clue what they were talking about). As soon as Skin started to talk we understood she was having a very hard time trying to understand what was said but mostly to express her thoughts in Italian. Her accent is really really strong and her peculiar voice didn’t help us understanding. Whenever she spoke we could see the contestants’ puzzled faces as they were trying to decipher what question or statement she was saying. Often would she use English to speak her mind but not every contestant could understand her words (as Italians are quite well-know as bad-languages-speakers!). Mika did help a lot at the point. He would translate what she said in Italian (making some funny mistakes from time to time, that Elio would translate) and sometimes would do the other way round. Mika talked about some funny anecdotes of his life: he stated that when he was young he auditioned for every band of his school without finding one that would accept him as a signer and that therefore he had to create his own universe. After a few average good and bad singers, a middle-aged man, probably on his early sixties showed up on stage. He was asked why he had decided to participate at that show at his age and he candidly answered he was just supporting her niece who was there auditioning too. The judges hugged him and after that he said he was happy cause he could brag himself about that with every person he knew. He then sang a traditional song from Emilia Romagna (the Italian region) and then was invited to dance a little bit of Liscio (typical Italian dance for old people) to show Skin what that kind of music was like. He started singing and Skin and Elio started dancing together close to the judges table. Mika at first danced with Fedez then walked on stage and danced with the old man, complaining as he had to play the part of the woman and having the man complaining as well as he said Mika was too tall for that. (Mika is a very bad dancer even when it comes to Liscio!). It ended up with Mika trying to jump on the poor man at the end of the song, they both stumbled on the floor! It was quite hilarious! Mika spoke a very good Italian, he nevertheless made some funny mistakes and created some new Mikalian words: - Vincitoressa (to indicate a female winner; correct Italian: Vincitrice) - Robotto (while translating Skin’s thoughts he decided he wanted to translate the word “Robot” too. It Italian it’d be the same as English) - Esibiscito (Mikalian past participle of perform; correct Italian: Esibito) - Scialla (he learnt this word, used in young people slang. It means “easy” (take it easy) and kept saying it) There was a contestant, a funny Mexican girl who’s been living in Italy for a few months now thanks to her Italian boyfriend who introduced herself as a volunteer in Madjougorie, where she helped poor people and as a student of Religious Sciences (no idea what it is, they asked as well but she had troubles explaining). That angelic girl sang a totally unexpected song: “You shook me all night long” from ACDC. No one could believe it. She actually sang quite well but didn’t pass as Mika and another judge said NO. The audience booed their decision a lot until they decided to give her a second chance and sing a song that could suit her better. She sang a pop song a cappella and stunned everyone. Mika changed his mind and gave her a YES, allowing her to pass the auditions. She was so joyful that she jumped on her boyfriend in a quite funny way and started to kiss in front of everyone. Elio (or someone else) said that they didn’t have to show every position of the famous Indian book to everyone on stage and Mika at that point went: “if you give birth to a boy after tonight could you call him Mika?” Another funny moment came when a weird boy walked on stage. He sang a bad song and after that the audience asked for an encore, as we were laughing very hard from his previous performance. He sang a song that goes “I know, I know, I know” but was sung with such a strong Italian accent, that the word sounded terribly as the Italian word for anus! Everyone was doubled over, I even had tears in my eyes from laughing. Everyone knew what was happening… everyone but the poor Skin who candidly asked Mika the reason for that crazy laughter. He didn’t know what to say so she asked him what that word meant in Italian and he only answered it didn’t mean anything. (We could tell he was not very comfortable with that) Another point I have to talk about is the moment in which Skin sang with a contestant who had dared to sing one of her songs: (I think it was Falling for you) He didn’t sing bad (I think) but everyone wanted her to sing it, so she took her microphone and sang a bit of the song asking the contestant to sing with her. The result was an amazing moment, the contestant being over the moon and us being stunned by her wonderful voice. Last but not least! The last contestant who walked on stage was a woman, I think on his mid-thirties, who came in very shyly, bringing a painting, some sheets and a little bag on stage with her. It was Mika’s turn to introduce the contestant so he asked her name and he immediately understood she wasn’t Italian, he asked where she was from and she said she came from Athens. He greeted her in Greek and he went on asking the reason why she was there. She admitted she was in Italy (and spoke Italian) as she was half-Greek half-Italian and was there because she had been to Mika’s gig the day before. She then gave Mika her present: a (printed) painting portraying Mika’s face. He hugged her and then asked her about the sheet she was holding in her hands. She shyly said she was about to sing Stardust and that she had translated the chorus in Greek. Mika was pleased and scared at the same time. They played the base of the song (the original TOOL one, not the songbook version) but she couldn’t sing at all. At that point Mika walked on stage to help her, he sang a bit then gave her the microphone. She wouldn’t sing so he let us all sing along with him. At the end of the performance he joked saying that, as they had “sung” together they could participate as a group, they chose the name and the judges, Mika himself too, voted. She made it through!!! The atmosphere was good and relaxed. The judges seemed happy with their colleagues and they would joke without being harsh. I think the only problem was Skin’s Italian. I guess having had Mika in her very same situation just a couple years ago, we all were expecting her to be more fluent, like Mika was. Of course, already being able to speak French and Spanish, helped Mika a lot with everything, from accent, to lexicon and grammar. I hope she can acquire a good understanding and a good language in time for the live shows, in particular I hope she’ll fix that hard accent that makes her little Italian skills useless, as it’s hardly intelligible for us all!

Where can i write a report about them?

I finally managed to get near a PC and write a few words about Fabrique. Here're my report Ok, where do I start from? That was my first Mika gig. I travelled to Milan with my sister and two friends, who liked Mika before the concert and ended up having their eyes heart-shaped and loving him amazingly after. We reached the queue around 2pm and were given our numbers from the well-organized team (that I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart for the great work they’ve done ) then went eating our sandwiches and came back at 4. Queuing was nice as the weather was not too hot and people around us were very kind and nice. When we entered Fabrique we sadly had to queue a little to have our rucksacks stored, as they wouldn’t let them in, therefore we lost our good spots and ended up around the 5th row. We could still see the stage quite well, but the thing I loved the most was being in a good spot where we could dance around and jump without being squeezed together too much. Just before us there was a little girl who was at her first concert too and to whom we gave one of our masks, stars and hearts. Her joyful gaze was heart-warming . I loved the setlist. I was hoping for Love today, Elle me dit, Underwater, Last Party and Any other world. I was pretty sure he would sing Love Today, Underwater and Last Party but I was really pleased to listen to Elle me dit (which is my friend’s N.1 song ). As for Any other world I would like to clap hands to those amazing girls who got him singing it. I had goosebumps during the whole song and I find he sang it particularly well. I loved jumping on WAG, Love Today, Elle me dit and Talk about you they really give a strong and positive energy! I was stunned by the strong version of the last chorus in Last Party, it’s utterly different from the strings version of the album, but live it gives you such an amazing feeling… I enjoyed Stardust, I was literally in love with his voice on that song, dunno why! Origin of Love live, gains 10 points. I liked the new BBB intro, as a piano-lover it couldn’t be otherwise. I got to like Popular, which is a song I’ve never really fell for. When I firstly heard that sax-soft version on a video I though “what the h**ll is he doing” but I guess live, it has its reason to be. In a nutshell it was an amazing experience, his voice live is really outstanding and jumping and dancing on his major hits it’s really joyful! I liked the crowd, nice and quite well-behaved. I loved his chat in Italian, the speech addressed to God, the explanations and the jokes. I was mesmerized by his gaze during Good Guys as he got to see all the stars glowing in the dark. He really seamed very happy and joyful to me! He's able to pass that energy to many of us. Despite that I saw a few people googleing his name on Wikipedia as he started singing BBB and speaking a few words of French as they were wondering how he could speak it too . I really couldn't believe how they could spend their time during a gig, looking for information on the person who's singing in front of them. People are weird.. . I stopped outside the Fabrique looking for some faces I could recognize, and meet for the first time. I could spot Elwendin together with Alyara and we had a nice chat, Elwendin then kindly introduced me to Robertina and Lucrezia and a few others MFCers. It was great to be able to spend some time chit chatting together. I waited with them for Mika to show up (which he didn’t even though Elwendin made me believe he had, just after I had left ) until shortly before 1am but then I had to leave as my father, who had kindly accepted to drive us all home, was waiting for us in his motorhome, parked outside the venue and was sending us threatening text messages . It’s been a wonderful day. Thanks to Mika and to MFC too! Grazie a tutti! Vv

Made a few corrections. Here it is what i hear Woke up this morning just like every man does walked to the bathroom just like every man does made my bed just like everyone must nursed my head just like everyone must spent the day playing Nina Simone reorganized every i record i own i see my friends, we drink beer in a can half-drunk they smile it'll be alright man just like a king who's losing his worth, i'm like a snob who's fallen to earth. Everyone thinks that I’m staying the same are they secretly happy that I am in pain? so you say it's ordinary love, but that's impossible to do no such thing as ordinary love I was ordinary just to you does it mean that I'm a regular man not as special as I think that I am as for you all that I want to know did you stay up while I tumbled so low? Just like a king who's losing his worth, I 'm like the sun that's fallen to Earth. Everyone thinks that I'm staying the same are they secretly happy that I am in pain? so you say it's ordinary love, that's impossible to do no such thing as ordinary love I was ordinary just to you. So you say it's ordinary love, but that's impossible to do no such thing as ordinary love I was ordinary just to you if I was ordinary and love was ordinary if I was ordinary oh so very ordinary if love was ordinary and I was ordinary are you too?

Amazing song about distant love. It's so sweet and cute! I love the melody but the lyrics and the message I find in it are just outstanding!

Where is it possible to watch it? Did anyone record it? Thank you!