holdingyourdrink

Hi Chandler, I’ve read your post with interest and as I fall into the category “old person” 😉 I would like to bring in my two cents. I was born in 1984 and in my teens the internet was just taking a flight. Social media wasn’t a thing back then, at least not accessible and widespread as it is now. But there were idols, there were teenage hormones and there were inappropriate thoughts. They just weren’t as exposed and anonymous as they are now. From a mother’s perspective social media worries me, for my children. In that sentiment I agree with you that we should take notice of what we write there, because it will be there forever for everyone to see. I however also have been guilty of showing my admiration for the mentioned videoclip. I thought in a discrete manner, but I can understand it can make younger people uncomfortable. However, I wonder how you feel about the comments made by the younger generation you have mentioned? They are very similar, if not worse. Is this condoned because of age? I am curious, because for us “oldies” I cannot say much changes when it comes to admiring or idolizing someone. Of course there are no teenage hormones involved anymore, but having been a fangirl of different artists in the last 20 years, the sentiment stays the same. You would think sophistication comes with age, but truth is, it really doesn’t in some ways, I will shamefully admit. Looking forward to a constructive discussion where we can learn from eachother’s perspective!

I gave it a go 🙈 Oh honey I’m snacking, I’m gaining, I’m packing those pounds Those quarantine fifteen they say Are real Got a quarantine belly to bounce I’m sitting and lying all on the same couch Snacking from dawn to dusk to dawn Crawling up these walls I wish were gone Wish I could go out, but I’m stuck inside Wearing the same clothes, ‘cause there’s no social life “Walk in the park” is a contradicting lie I’m stuck here (dear quarantine) Wearing a mask and stay away six feet This coronavirus is in the air we breathe This new normal is not normal to me I’m stuck here But one day it will get better, better We’ll go out again, we’ll just be fatter It won’t be forever we just got to keep it together as MFC Keep that head high, chin up There is one thing that this virus won’t stop A spirit and the music that guides you and guides me ‘till we live again free

Drifting off here, but: I’m currently listening to the album NPIH and I feel in “Ordinary Man” it is more from a victim point of view, whereas in “Promiseland” it’s like crawling out of that pit of sadness and owning it 😆“don’t occupy my thrown, give me the crown I own”. The situation is the same in both songs, just a change of attitude. Just embrace what it is and own up to your feelings to move forward. It’s a way of coping, maybe the tool he means on the Corriere interview. Reading both interviews again, I can’t recall him saying that he has a fear of being mediocre? Or at least I had a different interpretation of his (translated) words. We all have our special and mediocre sides, we just have to own up to them and feel comfortable in being the diversity that we are - without having to clarity or justify ourselves to anyone. After reading what you said about the other interview and mediocrity, I actually think he meant that mediocrity isn’t bad, it’s bad if you don’t have the tools to stand up for yourself and are therefore easily influenced. This is what social media plays a huge part in and this is also what he detests about it. To be honest, when I read the headline of the Corriere interview I was afraid he was going to be an a**hole about mediocrity. He definitely wasn’t. In this interview it was kept short and simple, but the message is the same. And what I took from this one: his mum is a powerhouse. I would love to chat with her more than with Mika!! I’m really sorry to hear that you were bullied in school, something we unfortunately both have in common with Mika... but you rose up from that and found your own way. I understand your past need to “show them”. You know what? I actually did with one of my bully teachers, but it was a very unsatisfying experience. Then and there I figured I can only fight and stand for me. And as soon as I became a mother, this feeling became even stronger: I only need to be special for my own little family 😊 and if that means mediocre to everyone else, then so be it. And in the end, I can imagine it’s one tool Mika talks about, something that is not decided by algorithms or strangers in the internet. But by us from within. Because that is authentic. And in the end I think Mika has a bigger fear for not being authentic, rather than being mediocre. (But please enlighten me, because it’s possible I may have not read it right)

HAHAHA! Problem solver with a tune 😉 And I love SITM, must be amazing live @Mikasister! I’ve only heard recordings, but I agree, one of my fave’s as well!

Haha, you have a point. I have not shaped my idea of interaction with other people based on action movies (I’m a Marvel/DC Comics fan, if you would apply my theory it means that it would definitely lead to superhero complexes 🤣). But I guess we try to explain ourselves and our path of life by taking metaphors from the influences around us, like Disney movies 🙈 in the end we try to see metaphors in everything, or at least I do, haha. The interview is very interesting and reminds me very much of a good friend of mine (he joined the IG live the other day to talk to Deb 😊), who sees everything in a different and surprisingly refreshing perspective. In a world where everything needs to be “unique”, “fast” and “innovating”, I think it’s kind of a relief to see Mika doesn’t see himself as special. I agree with him, because I also think that the people who say about themselves how “special” and “unique” they are, are a bit too much in their own bubble 😉 (wording it a bit more diplomatic here than he did 😆). It gives me the sense that through it all, he still has both feet on the ground. Or at least that is what this interview portrays to me. And I think it’s interesting that you feel we’re in a similar phase, haha. To be honest, I wasn’t a Mika fan before, (and what I am about to say will not be appreciated, I know 🙈) because I felt he was screaming and pretending to “walk the walk”, as to try to understand what was going on in his life. At the time when Grace Kelly came out, I was screaming as well in my own life. So in hindsight I guess it was just kind of a mirror I was looking at, and I didn’t like what I saw. Just because it reminded me of my own walk of life. His most recent music and also the live performances of his old music gives portrays a ripeness and a sense of arriving. I very much identify with that and that is also the time I became a fan. And actually, as much as I am looking forward to meeting Mika, I am actually looking forward more to meet the Mika family 😊 he is a dream and he should remain that way. I will just look at him in awe and will then talk all about it endlessly with you guys, because we all understand!! ❤️

For what it’s worth, the sentence bothered me as well. But I do believe - like you said - the author meant it as in a not strongly defined sexual personality: the masculine or feminine. We know now that there is an entire spectrum between the two, but in many cultures that still isn’t accepted nor the norm. Drifting off: I actually believe it’s also a cultural/societal thing to believe in Prince Charming or not. We grew up with fairy tales where the Prince was the one to save the day and the road to ultimate happiness. Look at Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast etc etc. The fairy tales that our children are exposed to now: Frozen and Vaiana/Moana is about finding your own strength and happiness, independent of another person. (But the other people are an enrichment nonetheless.) I do believe it shapes our way of thinking when we see that at a young age and I’m happy to see society has caught on. So I think it’s both, maturity and cultural/societal beliefs. But as I’m typing this, I just realized that either way, idolizing something or someone will always remain 😊 in whatever context that may be. I just hope in a way our children will be able to differentiate that, but there is where maturity comes into play 😉 Idolizing and falling in love are two different things as well. There was a spark within us when we were first introduced to Mika, otherwise he couldn’t have hooked us 😉 but I also believe that that what we see, is just a very small part of who he is and also the part he would like to showcase. This is only natural, as this is his personality as an artist and his personality as a private person he keeps away from the public - rightfully so. Of course you as a long time fan have seen and read more. I’m still in the “infatuation” phase 🤣 so my self produced image of him is on a different pedestal than yours, I can only imagine. And that is solely based on the information he chooses to make available for us as fans. A self produced image also comes with imaginary expectations of how the person is going to be. I’m therefore quite anxious (post Corona, of course) to ever meet Mika, because I am afraid I might be disappointed. A total irrational thought. I guess the same kind of trail of thought you had when he publically came out. Irrational based on your own fears and projections. Anyway I’m drifting of 🤣 I agree, it’s totally irrelevant if the artist is gay, straight, married, single - it’s our idol, they’re not supposed to be an option, but a dream 😊

Ohh! So this is not him on the screen? My bad 🙈

I loved this btw, so apparently Alessandro is doing well? At least well enough to do this 😊

I believe he is always hungry AND a major foodie 😆 food on his mind. All. The. Time. (I speak from my own experience, but I’m unfortunately short, so I just have to be careful not to become as wide as I am high 🙈 Good thing for Mika that he is as tall as he is!)

They’re background actors? That is smart and weird at the same time. Wish I could apply as a background actor 😆

I want to be Eda at this point. Anyone else? 🤣

Why is this man so handsome...

I LOVE the colour on him! The whole combination is classy and edgy and absolutely perfect!

I actually think Mika has well defined opinions about many things, he just rarely voices them. Exactly like you say, it’s him being more careful with his 1+ million followers on all platforms. Didn’t he more than once took a social media break because of the “Twitter bitter” comments. People can be more bitter if they have a reason/opinion to be bitter about. If you just keep it in the middle, hopefully people are more confused than bitter (look at OM 2206, among other things 🤣). And yes, I agree with you, a Love that is a solid base and gives you the feeling you have arrived, is more important than tension. If you have to choose 😉 but if you’ve been with someone for 10+ years like Mika has, you kind of need some tension to keep it exciting and interesting, too 😊 And that is hard work. So yes, love is important, but I think tension also has its importance 😉 And I actually think he has both love and tension, that he is in a position to say tension is important. If you don’t love someone, you wouldn’t be with them for so many years!

Social media is a nice development to keep connected, but it can also be very superficial and when people are looking for or into more - very unfulfilling. It serves its purpose and you can develop beyond that if you’d like, but it’s not always a given. I’m actually happy the MFC gives that opportunity in a forum, where you can discuss more in depth and get to “know” the people more. I mean, during the pandemic it’s pretty much the next best thing, isn’t it 😆 And I also believe that it is far more interesting to leave things open for interpretation than it is to specify everything. It you take a solid stance it leaves opportunity for polarization, whereas if you leave things open it will open it up for discussion and sometimes even new ideas. And Mika doesn’t leave EVERYTHING a question mark, it’s a good mix, just like his clothes; bit of brand stuff and a bit of no name stuff, but in the mix it’s still him and he is being true to all parts of him. And didn’t he say that tension is more important than love? He said that about his relationship, but isn’t it true in all walks of life? Well, way to keep the tension is by leaving us guessing! 🤣

Haha of course, I only put it through a translation website this morning, so please feel free to make it flow better 😊 I will be reading it more than once as well!!!

This interview is absolutely beautiful, chapeaux to the journalist who wrote it. They captured Mika in a positive, enlightened and such a genuine way. I am in awe.

THE INTERVIEW; Mika: "Mediocrity makes manipulable: culture is liberation". Silvia Avallone "I sang in the reception of record companies, without ever reaching the upper floors". The dyslexia and the loss of my voice, the harassment at school, the "teleportation bubble", the kidnapping of my father. Tormented and happy story of a pop star I guess Mika, at the entrance of the hotel, just because I am waiting for him. The mask on his face and the hat with the visor make him almost unrecognizable. He approaches the thermoscanner, sanitizes his hands. The Covid danger hampers our movements - we don't know how to present ourselves without smiles or handshakes - but it also unhinges the magical aura that envelops the celebrity. He wears the same fpp2 I wear, he has the same fears as me. I imagine that, like everyone else, he suffered the lockdown. How difficult was this 2020 for you? "The rules have been skipped. It's a huge challenge. There are so many changes going on, you can only respond with creativity and courage. My return to X Factor was also in this spirit: everything changes, it can only change". "MY MOTHER'S ILLNESS BREAKS ME, I WOULD LIKE TO SHOUT TO HER: "TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK". BUT HER EYES REMAIN VERY STRONG" He leads me through the loggia and the corridors of the Four Seasons, which he knows well because he often slept there after concerts. It may be the frescoed ceilings, the crystal chandeliers, but at first glance he appears to me a knight of yesteryear. Renato Franco wrote in Corriere that from this edition of X Factor emerged a provincial Italy hungry for redemption. Do you think so too? "I feel a great urgency of storytelling in these guys, which brings a different light to the show. There is a whole young, multicultural, fluid Italy, difficult to contextualize, and it is from the less central cities that the strongest stories often arrive. This is the aspect that I like the most about this edition: it doesn't exploit the differences, but tells the people". "I SEE MYSELF AT THE AGE OF 10, DESPERATE IN THE BATHROOMS OF THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE IN LONDON BECAUSE, AFTER WEEKS OF REHEARSALS, I AM STILL A RESERVE. MY MOTHER LOOKS AT ME: "ARE YOU ANGRY? SINGS!". AN HOUR LATER I HAVE THE MAIN PART" We come out and a wonderful Italian garden welcomes us, Florence surrounds us with its domes, its bell towers: we could find ourselves in any century. It has just stopped raining. We are looking for a dry sofa and an armchair with a small table in the middle. We take a place at a meter away, we take off the masks. Then I recognize the man made of 37 years old who has the wide open and vivid eyes of a child. Do you think that in a historical moment like this music and art can play a committed role? "It is an extremely commercial era: we make a lot of noise for very little time. The videos of the explosions at the port of Beirut have gone around the world causing an immediate reaction. And then what? Zero. ̋ Next ̋ say the algorithms, it doesn't interest anymore, users are already watching a new influencer. That's why I wanted to respond with I love Beirut . We can not remain indifferent. Faced with what is happening in America, with a president like Trump eroding democracy, nobody can remain neutral. Music, like art, has a responsibility to tell. But, in an era where the threshold of attention is minimal, it is not easy to be lasting, delicate, original. The question is: how to rebel? I am trying to be more and more... in French it is said: plasticien". He asks me the translation in Italian, I venture: ductile? He pulls out his phone to consult a dictionary. He finds the solution, he communicates it to me in English and then he continues to talk to me quietly in this language. He will do it often during the interview: to pass with ease from one idiom to another. And I will envy him the richness of cultures without borders, in which I glimpse the future I would like. A waiter timidly joins us. Mika looks at me and smiles: "What do you say, shall we order?". He scrolls by the menu, exclaims enthusiastically: "Wow! Shall we take a few things and put them in the center? The parmesan cheese, the veal with tuna sauce, do you like them?". Yes, and I like the naturalness with which he proposes me this shared lunch that softens the rigorous distance between us. When the dishes arrive, I watch him eat with gusto. He is an international pop music celebrity, a free and eclectic television man. But he is also a conscious adult with his feet on the ground, to whom fame seems not to have made a scratch. And, again, from his face shines an elusive, enchanted and curious little boy. In the short time we have, I would like to find the key to this polyphony. You came into the world, even artistically, as your mother's project. Your stage name, Mika, is the same one she used to call you as a child. Only in the last record, "My name is Michael Holbrook", did you give yourself your first name back. Do you feel you have become something else from a child? "This was my project, mine alone. Sure, forced by life. I had to deal with my mother's illness. I felt the need to do it well, to pay homage also to fear and sadness". He turns to look at the perfectly pruned hedges, the secular trees. He remains silent. "It breaks my heart that, when I talk to her, she often cannot answer me. And what do you do when the person you love so much and who has always shared your project no longer answers you? When we worked at Casa Mika, she was there, in a wheelchair, until 3 in the morning, every day. She would say to me, "Careful, don't do a fake thing. This is not credible, it is not honest". She was not a manager, she was a guide". How was your apprenticeship with her? "I received embarrassing rejections. My mother used to force me into the majors' offices to let the women sitting at the reception listen to my demos. She would wait outside, I would press the play button on the boombox and repeat the same phrases over and over again: "I also have a version without the voice. If you want, I'll sing live". Almost always they would throw me out. Sometimes, however, they found me interesting, so I went up to the piano. When I was a kid I managed to get to the fourth. At the last one, where contracts are signed, I got there later, at the age of 22". He closed his eyes smiling, as if he was reliving the bliss of that landing. "But at first we didn't know what to do, my mother and I. We decided it together, time after time. I see myself at the age of 10, crying desperately in the toilets of the Royal Opera House in London because, after three weeks of rehearsals, I find myself still doing the reserve, the one who sings only if someone else is sick. I had been doing it for years, I was fed up. My mother looks at me: "Are you so angry?". Yes!, I shout. Then she takes me by storm, places me in the hallway, orders me: "Sing!". I obey, and an hour later I take the main position. Now I was the one who had a reservation. He laughs. How did your mother understand that you had this gift for music? "It's not that I had a gift. He makes a grimace, as if the word disgusts him. "She sensed that together we could be the architects of our dreams. She used to repeat it to me: "If you can build the world you want, you can wake up in it every morning. As long as it is credible"". Is it the same dream you fantasized about in the darkest period? After the Gulf War, when you and your family came to sleep in your car outside the theater to accompany you to rehearsals? "In the white Toyota Previa. We drove around Europe in that car. It was our teleportation bubble. We called it a kabus. It traveled 197,000 miles, not kilometers. Now it can no longer circulate, but every year I spend a disproportionate amount to keep it alive and not let it go. I even moved it to a shed that houses luxury cars. I keep it there like a Ferrari. I try to imagine him with his parents, his three sisters and his brother, seven people squeezed into Toyota to follow Mika's dream job. "It was also a sad place," he says. "We had lost all certainty, not only economic. My parents were arguing. But with time we built a balance and had fun. When we started to travel the world by plane, the original spirit was maintained, our caravan only changed shape. Jasmine and Paloma, my older sisters, worked with me from the beginning. But in all my travels there was always room for all the family members. And so," she smiles mischievously, "my companion had to adapt as well. In fact, I understand that the presence of your family is a bit cumbersome... "Yes, but fortunately he recognizes its richness. I am the product of a long history of immigrants with the mythology of their country in their backpacks and the impetus towards the future. For me Beirut represents the possibility of living together in a part of the world that encourages separation. My maternal grandfather traveled a lot, emigrated to New York and then returned to Lebanon. My paternal grandfather was a diplomat, jazz enthusiast and friend of Nina Simone. My family holds everything together: East and West, North and South. The truth is that my partner and I are the most traditional couple: we have been together for 15 years". How did you manage it? "There has been great tension between us since the beginning, which is more important than love. Love is a play of lights that sometimes turns out to be evanescent. In the long run, collaboration and knowing how to play together count". Don't you think about getting married? "We do not feel the need for a permit or a dress. But I strongly support the need to give everyone a choice. At Westminster School, my friends and I had founded a satirical magazine called Pink. Pink was the official color of the school, the members of the rowing team wore a pink tie over the uniform. But for us it was the color of sexual freedom, and the magazine was a way to be desecrating and writing by overturning the established rules. I don't believe that our lives should be influenced by other people's personal judgments. This is true for marriage, but also for children: I want the possibility. As for me, I believe that my work, my rhythms, are difficult to reconcile with a child. For now I am content to be an uncle. I have a theory: that every passion originates from a void that we try to fill. If I had not experienced a painful situation as a child, do you think that your music would have been born anyway? "No. I used first the expression urgency of the story. I believe it was born in me when I missed my voice and felt powerless with respect to what I wanted to say. I wanted to fight the feeling of having the volume turned off. I was dyslexic, I had big problems at school". He concentrates: "During our childhood in Paris we lived in a bubble: the Beirut community. Every evening, from Thursday to Sunday, adults would meet in the living room to discuss politics, to draw up a list of friends and family lost, of houses destroyed. We children listened. It was a background of war, but also a wealth. In the French school system, I felt good, I studied music. And then...". "DADDY IS STUCK AT THE KUWAITI EMBASSY. HE RETURNS EIGHT MONTHS LATER, BUT IN THE MEANTIME EVERYTHING HAS COLLAPSED FOR US. WE LEAVE PARIS: WE CAN'T PAY THE RENT. WE LIVE IN A B&B IN LONDON, MY MOTHER WORKS IN THE KITCHEN..." Catch your breath. "The kidnapping. Dad is stuck in the Kuwait embassy. He returns after 8 months, but in the meantime everything has collapsed for us. We are forced to leave Paris because we are unable to pay the rent. We find ourselves living in a B&B in London, where my mother works in the kitchen and at the reception while Dad is looking for a new job. I, from the small Parisian school attended by a hundred students, end up in one with 1500 students, full of intolerance and bullying. All these changes have taken my voice away. I wasn't reading, I wasn't writing anymore. I also had the misfortune to meet a teacher who humiliated the students. One morning my sister Paloma found my backpack in front of the house: I was so demoralized that I had abandoned it in the street. She comes to school to bring it back to me, enters the classroom and sees with her own eyes what I couldn't tell her". He stops. What did he see? If you want to say it. "Me, forced to stand still, standing on the bench, for forty minutes. Unable to go to the bathroom, even if that meant peeing himself. Afterwards, my father faced the teacher hard, and I left the school". Is it by reacting to this pain that Mika is born? "My mother took matters into her own hands: "You have to sing". Every afternoon for four hours a Russian teacher taught me Schubert, Strauss. Since I didn't read the score, she would repeat a song to my ear twice, and I would memorize it. This speed allowed me to work early. And the work has restored value to me. For me, school has always been synonymous with redemption. Has it meant the opposite to you? "Some time later we moved into a house that shared a garden with a small school, St. Philip. The boys were giving lessons and looking at me playing on the lawn. Until one day the director came knocking. "Does your son speak English?" he asked my mother. "Yes". "Does he read?". "No". "It writes?". "No". "Well, you can only improve," he said to me laughing. My entrance interview was a disaster, but thanks to him I started going to school again, and St. Philip's left me three afternoons free a week to sing". By the way, is it true that your debut in 2007 was via Myspace? "True. Nobody understood my demos. So I went to Jasmine and said, "Let's pretend that I'm already famous. We set up a very well-kept presentation: professional shootings, hand-drawn cards. Each CD was packed with red silk ribbons. I even interviewed myself!". We laughed. "So I presented the demos to record labels and signed a contract with Universal. They just didn't know how to launch me. So I opened a page on Myspace, put some songs on it. One day a blog that doesn't exist anymore, Popbitch, talked about my music as a revelation and in 24 hours it took me from 4,000 listenings to 250,000. Then a Stockholm radio station stole Relax from my profile...". And you were catapulted into a planetary success. "Yes, with a homemade thing. For a moment I go back in my mind to a summer night 13 years ago, to a disco near the sea not too far from here, where I, like everyone else, dance and sing: Relax, Take it easy. It makes me think that we are here now, and we are both adults. How do you live after such a debut? "Eh. Mine was an ambitious project, but in the end it was also intimate. Now I had found a large audience, but the idea of having to repeat myself immediately with a new success was unsettling. I didn't have a band or other authors to help me out. And yet, I will always remember, when a record company called me to tell me: "We've organized three weeks with these authors, the strongest in the world", first I accepted, then, two days after the meeting, I cancelled everything. I said to myself: even if I risk not being commercially effective, I prefer to continue to do things my way. The record companies thought I was crazy, and maybe I am. My impression is that what the market demands is impossible, senseless. Always performing, as if that's what counts... "But it counts," he immediately replies. "And if you take the decision not to follow the parameters, you must defend your position, justify it with time, with creativity. Certain roads perhaps allow you to become more famous, richer. But I have never had any doubts. The discriminating for me is not what matters, but what makes me happy. "IT IS DIFFICULT TO FIND THE COURAGE TO BE YOURSELF IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE TOOLS. YOU NEED TRAINING AND EDUCATION, WHICH ARE OFTEN LACKING IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA. I WORK HARD TO FILL MY GAPS, TO REMAIN CURIOUS". This is an age in which we are all called, on socials and beyond, to sacrifice ourselves in order to please others. Do you think it is necessary not to bend? Mika observes the sparrows that surround us and jump around us, especially me: while he had lunch, I didn't let go of the Bic for a second and my plate is half full. "Yes, yes and yes, I answer you. But the question is more complex. Sacrificing oneself, in one sense or another, is something that must be done. Let go of your ego every time you publish a novel, a record. But it is very difficult to find the courage to be yourself if you lack the tools. To be true to yourself, or rather, to become yourself, you need training and education. It is this lack that I sometimes read in social media: mediocrity that makes us manipulable. I am aware of many of my shortcomings and I strive to fill them, to remain curious. It may sound snobbish, but for me culture coincides with liberation. Not only do I not find what he says snobbish, but I fully share it: it is what I believe in the most. We've been here for two hours, the waiter comes back to take the plates away and I try to finish my parmigiana in extremis. What are you working on? "Three different EPs, to which I'm dedicating myself intensely. Then there is a project that mixes video and music. Finally, an installation in a space that I can't reveal to you, but where you will find all the arts I like to work with: music, sound, lights, set design, clothes". Does your mother remain the first judge of your work? A bitter smile escapes Mika. "I would like to shake her, shout at her: tell me what you think! But you can't force life. When a body is attacked by disease...". It is difficult for everyone, I believe, to find themselves stronger than their parents. "This summer, for an instant, I thought the same thing. But do you know what I said to myself? That even though my mother was losing her physical strength, her eyes remained very strong, stronger than those of many people younger and healthier than her. We give too much importance to the body instead of thinking about the soul. It is the soul of a person who remains. And we have the responsibility to understand it and translate it into our work, allowing it to continue to exist". Is she the greatest love and engine of your life? "No" he responds decisively. "It is a presence that has given me, my brother and my sisters, a determination and a sense of cohesion, of values, that has allowed us to grow. We get up, we both feel that it is time. The park around us is so majestic that we decide to walk through it with this meter of distance that, however, now I feel as short as an inch. When we leave the Fours Seasons, we wear the mask again. He adds the hat and returns unrecognizable. He asks me: "Are you in the car?". No, by train. "Then I accompany you. So we go through the streets and puddles, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Mika stops in front of the window of a robi-vecchi where a gentleman plays an unknown tune on the piano. I peep him that listens and it seems to me that he has such a deep confidence with Italy, to result touching. We come to Piazza del Duomo, we are enchanted to admire him as if we were seeing him for the first time. Florence has never been so silent and empty of tourists, intimate and almost suspended. In this suspension, in the disappearance of all the certainties we had to face in 2020, I agree with Mika: it is not what matters, but what makes us happy, to trace the road.

That makes two of us 🙈 And we’re used to Mika not replying 🤣 Keeps us guessing, which is more fun anyway! 😆

I actually think it’s WhatsApp 😊 I’m sure his IG has THOUSANDS of unread ones 🤣

Am I the only one that is bothered by the fact that he seems to have 62 (!!!) unread messages!?

I’m still processing 😅😆

That’s why I was warped back into time! It’s one of those songs that will be played on dance evenings leading up to Christmas. It will also earn a permanent place on the dance teacher’s playlist, because of the easily recognizable beat, which is great for teaching tango. If Corona wasn’t a thing, I’m sure it would be a hit in the Canadian dance schools. But I’m afraid ballroom dancing isn’t such a big thing anymore, or is it? The song has an “in between” feel for me. Something to play in the background. It’s not happy, but it’s not super sad (melody wise) either. Beat wise I guess it’s a tango, but it doesn’t feel like one. Seeing it’s about a love story that has ended and that they’re torn apart with broken hearts, it actually fits. Dancing a tango by yourself. Doesn’t it take two to....?

Just had to look up Pierre Lapointe. Apparently he’s a Canadian singer songwriter. Good strategy, as Mika will be joining Star Académie at the end of this year.

Oh there it is! Thanks for posting.