Mika's Sexuality (A Different Kind of Thread)

[JackViolet]

Wow, so many new interesting replies! I love it! Caz, I really like your idea of two intersecting sexualities.

 

And, Yop:

 

I would just like to stress again that I was not simply talking about the quite obvious change from the restraint of his early performances to the showmanship of his current ones. That is, I agree, mostly due to greater self-confidence and a better control of the stage through practice. (He has been on stage before, but not as a solo performer in the same way, so it makes sense he'd need some time to really hit his groove and own the entirety of it.) I was more concerned with the fact that, despite the early "shyness" and restraint, there was actually more playing-to-the-audience and flirting in some of the earlier performances than there would be in the middle ones--just of a different kind than what he does now.

 

For instance, I think his greater intimacy with Big Girls and the way he interacts with them more nowadays is thanks to him becoming more comfortable with himself on stage--it's obvious from the song concept that they were always meant to dance with him like they do now; he just wasn't quite sure how to handle himself before. But I was interested in Yop's point about how not only are the Big Girls flirting with Mika more (and wise versa), but they're flirting with the rest of the band less. The focus has shifted a bit, it seems, and now the Big Girls serve to highlight Mika's masculine sexuality. And Mika did indeed go from being silly-jumpy around them to being more macho-sexy. There's still an extremely strong taste of campy cheekiness about it all, of course, but nevertheless, it's an interesting evolution.

 

It's 4 am here so I'm going to bed, sorry if my thoughts are a bit garbled right now.

 

--Jack

[greta]

I thought it would be good to discuss the subject aside from the gay/straight question for once.

 

So I was listening to “Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)†today and I thought again of all the Freddie Mercury comparisons. This song has garnered its fair share of them, even though it’s really not at all similar musically, but the subject seems to attract attention. Specifically, I was thinking how sweet “Big Girl†was in comparison to “Fat Bottomed Girls.†“Big Girl†has its own lyrical problems, but it is at least clearly positive-spirited, while as “Fat Bottomed Girls†is a bit more difficult. Some of the lines in it are just plain crass, others are hardly flattering, and in the end, while Mercury does sing the praises of a larger lady, these praises are entirely predicated on the sexual pleasure she can afford him. The way I’d summarize it, the song goes “Big Girl (You’re Not Beautiful But You’re A Damn Good F*ck.)†Reviewers, however, generally lambaste Mika for not being positive/enthusiastic/politically correct/whatever enough on “Big Girl†and seem to accept Mercury’s take. I remembered a article about the two I read once, that said Mercury, whatever his personal inclinations, sounded “wracked with lust†on “Fat Bottomed Girls,†while as Mika sounded removed from his subject.

 

Then I thought that the reviewer obviously had his expectations all wrong, because at this moment I cannot possibly imagine Mika sounding “wracked with lust†on any song, be it about girls, boys, dogs or otherwise. It may change of course, but right now, that’s just not what he is. The articles that call him a Disney kid, and complain of his “disturbing asexuality†(we all remember that one!) are onto something, even if they miss the point. It’s not that Mika’s squeaky clean, exactly—his performances of “Sweet Dreams†and “Love Today†certainly consciously play up his sex-appeal—but he is flirty, not dirty. His approach is quite coy, hiding any sexual references behind childlike images and playground rhymes (the entirety of “Lollipop,†“hook ‘er nook ‘er book ‘er†in “Love Todayâ€), or else alluding to them only obliquely (“we’d wake up tangled on the sheets†in “Eraseâ€). It may be that he’s just a little bit shy, but personally I just think he prefers a bit of sly innuendo to putting it all out there. He’s like someone bringing a lover home to meet the family—certainly there is sex involved, and no one is trying to hide that, but neither does anyone want to discuss the details over dinner. (I realize that some families do in fact try to act like sex is not happening. For purposes of this illustration, let’s assume this a family that has no problems with the lovers sharing a bed, and takes small expressions of affection in stride. Um. I’m getting off the subject here a bit.)

 

Coy and sweet as he may be, though, I think it’s really interesting to trace the way he’s used his sexuality through his media rise. I mentioned “Sweet Dreams†and “Love Today†before, but the introduction of the first song, and the addition of sexual elements to the second has been a fairly recent thing in his repertoire. DaMango’s take on it was “it’s like the boy suddenly discovered he’s got hips!†but when seen in the context of his performance history, that observation doesn’t quite fit. Mika knew he had hips before—and other things—and his brief interlude of shyer, restrained performances seems like a conscious break to me rather than just crowd apprehension.

A week ago or so, someone on gabbly linked me to a video of an “early†performance of “Grace Kelly,†back in last November. I watched it, expecting it to correspond to the other “earlier†videos (Jan-February-ish) I’d seen, that is, I expected Mika not to move around the stage as much as he does now, to jump around less, and to have a gangly, boyishly awkward atmosphere around him. In some ways, my expectations were affirmed—Mika’s dancing was more centered on his mike, he kept to his spot of the stage, and his moves were less fluid and more quirkily twitchy, but otherwise I was in for a surprise. Mika sang “Grace Kelly†as I only hoped it could be sang when I first heard it—he was blatantly flirting with the audience, and not in the cheeky way he sometimes flirts now, but full-on propositioning! Since it was Mika, it was still a proposition tinged with a bit of adorable adolescent artlessness, but a proposition none the less. He rolled his hips into his mic-stand kittenishly, he threw back his head, open-mouthed, he fixed the front row with a shy come-hither stare. I tried to describe how the performance struck me to the other chatters on gabbly, and the best way I could characterize it is that he was offering himself up like a boy prostitute. (I think this is awesome, by the way.) God, I wish he’d kept that, it was so appropriate for the opening lyrics of the song.

 

But he didn’t.

 

The thing is, the way he was putting himself out to the audience, the way he was flirting with them, was as an available object of desire—the way society usually conditions women to flirt. It was gorgeous, it was hot as hell—and it was also quite, quite gay.

 

Again, this is not about whether Mika is gay or not. That doesn’t matter, any other person doing those same moves would make the same impression. Whether he is gay or not, it seems that either he or his management decided somewhere along the way that his self-presentation on stage ought to be a little less coquettish. That makes sense: if you think he’s getting plenty of rude comments about being a “fag†now, you should see how that kind of sexual coquettishness would have been received. Mainstream society at large does not take well to men who are willing to sexualize themselves in terms of object rather than subject.

 

So, in between ditching that mode of performance and developing the one he has now, Mika seems to have decided to go with an endearing, childlike asexuality. (The childlike aspect was always present anyway.) In my view, all those middle-early performances where he seemed a bit hesitant with his body and didn’t move as much on stage, and interacting rather diffidently with his Big Girl dancers were as much due to him trying to figure out what direction he was going to go in, as they were due to reserve brought on by inexperience. It was a thinking-pause. He was trying to work out his act through these performances, and to work out how he should best incorporate sexuality into his show.

 

Eventually, we know, he hit on the routine he does now: unabashed enthusiasm coupled with some frankly-sexier moves, that don’t come across as particularly threatening due to that very unabashed enthusiasm. However, I think it interesting to note that his sexuality has transitioned away from object and more towards subject. Certainly, he invites the audience to look when he strips off his shirt for “Love Today,†but his focus is on the aggressive beating of the drums: he is in fact probably at his most masculine during that bit of the show. (The hip-swishing posturing on the drums, less so, haha.) With “Sweet Dreams,†there is no outside focus object, but instead Mika is internally focused, seemingly lost within himself during his performance. There is no flirtation with the audience, very little engagement of them in any intimate way whatsoever, and in fact at the height of both his “Love Today†stripping and his “Sweet Dreams†gyrations he hardly even looks up off-stage. He’s gone from the “go ahead, objectify me, I want you to†brand of sexuality to a more noncommittal “objectify me if you wish, and I know you will, but I am not really participating†type. As such he’s moved from female to ambiguous-male sexuality in his evolution as a performer, and I think he’s still moving in that direction.

 

I do wonder what exactly motivated this departure for him in the first place, however, and if it was all his idea.

 

--Jack

 

This looooong post brought to you by "Jack should really write essays on other subjects than Mika, but writes essays on Mika anyhow."

 

well explained diagnosis:thumb_yello: I have quite similar thoughts! :naughty:This is one of my favourite kind of post ( I love both the extremes, crazy-serious)

[CazGirl]

Wow, so many new interesting replies! I love it! Caz, I really like your idea of two intersecting sexualities.

 

And, Yop:

 

I would just like to stress again that I was not simply talking about the quite obvious change from the restraint of his early performances to the showmanship of his current ones. That is, I agree, mostly due to greater self-confidence and a better control of the stage through practice. (He has been on stage before, but not as a solo performer in the same way, so it makes sense he'd need some time to really hit his groove and own the entirety of it.) I was more concerned with the fact that, despite the early "shyness" and restraint, there was actually more playing-to-the-audience and flirting in some of the earlier performances than there would be in the middle ones--just of a different kind than what he does now.

 

For instance, I think his greater comfort with Big Girls and the way he interacts with them more nowadays is thanks to him becoming more comfortable with himself on stage--it's obvious from the song concept that they were always meant to dance with him like they do now; he just wasn't quite sure how to handle himself before. But I was interested in Yop's point about how not only are the Big Girls flirting with Mika more (and wise versa), but they're flirting with the rest of the band less. The focus has shifted a bit, it seems, and now the Big Girls serve to highlight Mika's masculine sexuality. And Mika did indeed go from being silly-jumpy around them to being more macho-sexy. There's still an extremely strong taste of campy cheekiness about it all, of course, but nevertheless, it's an interesting evolution.

 

It's 4 am here so I'm going to bed, sorry if my thoughts are a bit garbled right now.

 

--Jack

 

awww Yop gets two paragraphs and i get a sentence LMAO!

Joking, i'm glad you even mentioned me. Nice to know that my opinion was even read and considered, AND even liked! Maybe not agreed, but liked

[Gatagordinha]

Great thread, refreshing that we can discuss Mika's sexuality without discussing his sexuality!

 

Jack's first post was very thought-provoking, and other peoples' ideas have been too, thanks.

 

One word which always comes straight to my mind when I see Mika's early-middlish performances (Jan/Feb??) is fey. I don't have my dictionary to hand so I can't give any more description of that word but for me it is summed up in the Yahoo Extra Venue performances, and interview. When I watch these it almost doesn't seem like the same Mika we know now - whether it's the feminine/masculine subject/object crossover or just the fact he has naturally matured and changed over the last six months (he's still very young we mustn't forget..), or something more deliberate and orchestrated, I don't know.

 

Whatever, it's a fascinating thing to watch. Mika is a true chameleon, that's for sure, which is one of the reason he is so appealing!

[CazGirl]

Great thread, refreshing that we can discuss Mika's sexuality without discussing his sexuality!

 

Jack's first post was very thought-provoking, and other peoples' ideas have been too, thanks.

 

One word which always comes straight to my mind when I see Mika's early-middlish performances (Jan/Feb??) is fey. I don't have my dictionary to hand so I can't give any more description of that word but for me it is summed up in the Yahoo Extra Venue performances, and interview. When I watch these it almost doesn't seem like the same Mika we know now - whether it's the feminine/masculine subject/object crossover or just the fact he has naturally matured and changed over the last six months (he's still very young we mustn't forget..), or something more deliberate and orchestrated, I don't know.

 

Whatever, it's a fascinating thing to watch. Mika is a true chameleon, that's for sure, which is one of the reason he is so appealing!

 

well said *applauds*

[cath85]

Great thread, refreshing that we can discuss Mika's sexuality without discussing his sexuality!

 

 

that's true! but it sounds funny lol

[Mika_baby]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh i'm pretty sure he knows and is totally conscious about everything he does on stage now. For exemple, you can see the evolution through the 2 tours we've had so far. We could put it on the size of the venues and the stage, yes. Put we can also put it on a will to analyze the reaction of the audience. I mean, from the very first gigs (more or less 500 people), he could have easily filled up big venues, since the 2nd tour was still sold out in 2 days (about 2000 people)... Then the festivals. But let's not talk about the festivals, since we don't have so much to talk about ( ).

 

I mean : Mika is someone very smart and calculating. Not in the bad way, but in the "control-freak" way. So he tests then acts. Always like that. Even if he doesn't think about his performance WHILE he's doing it, he does think about it before and after. That's normal, too ! You can't progress if you can't evaluate and think about what you do.

 

Then we can't deny that Universal is a Major label, even if he's signed under Casablanca Records (which is "smaller" but still from Universal), and that they HAVE, wether he wants it or not, their word to say : they are in control of the sales, and if he doesn't sell, Uni is not happy to say it basically. So they do everything for him to sell, that's their role, you can't change it. And if they thought that his early performances were too "prostitute girl" for the market, they MAY (notice the use of the modal) have told him something about that for him to change it to something more "sexy man-ish". And IF they told him to do that, he had not so more many choices than to do what they wanted, or at least, modify his performance into their direction.

 

We can notice the use of the trash-can only from the 2nd tour, which is like Jack said, the most man-ish part of his performance. We can also notice the playing with Big Girls on stage which was waaaay less obvious, even if still there, for the first Tour. The Big Girls, as far as i remember, weren't even "touching him", they were dancing around, "flirting" with Martin and Mickey, also with Mika, but now, they're flirting with Mika and only Mika. And barely dancing around the stage.

 

You're all right, we can put it on the evolution of his self-confidence on stage, but i doubt, like Jack said (i think i will say that a bit more if i go on writing) that someone who was confident enough to wear red bow-ties at school whatever whoever could tell him (even if leading to bullying, he's not in control of what people do), to crash into someone's house to play his song just because he had heard that "i don't remember who" would be there, to crash in a hotel to play his songs at the piano, and to do everything he told us he did all along his life would be "impressed" by the audience. He was born for this, and even if it's still different to think about it and to do it, you may have a stress but that disappears as soon as you go on stage. And i think he's that kind of person. And let's not forget his previous experience on stage too ! He was definitely not a "stage-virgin".

 

So i don't think we can ALL put it on the gain of self-confidence. I do think someone (Uni or himself, or even both) suggested this evolution.

 

Now, personal thoughts : i did notice a change too in the audience through the 2 tours : age range decreasing. Once again, 500 people and 2000 people venues are not the same more people, more teenagers, but in that case, the audiences were totally different : there were still all ages represented, but much more teenagers (female) for the 2000 venues tour. I put it on the fact that there were more people, ok, and that the younglings had a tiny bit more time to convince and beg their parents to get the tickets, ok But i ALSO put it on the fact that his impact had touched different people during his appearances of "between the tours". The change in his performance we're talking about. Being less "girl prostitute" and more "playful sexy man-ish", he reached girl teenagers that MAY have not been touched by the first performances... Just hormonal. And just being descriptive, not judging bad/good/whatever Not even talking about the trash-can since he didn't have it between the tours, just from the 2nd tour. But the whole way he moved, sang, danced, played with the audience / interviewer during these in-between performances / interviews. Cause i forgot to mention the interviews since the beginning, but i do think there is a slight change / evolution / whatever into them too...

 

And it could be interesting to discuss about the different types of performances in the different countries, but in another thread, another day But someone said that they may be less "pinching" in Japan than in the US (for exemple), but they're the only ones who did what you are all dreaming of since the beginning (talking about Fuji Rock Festival picture)...

 

I think i said all i had to say

 

 

 

I think I prefer this essay,

"Mika is someone very smart and calculating. Not in the bad way"

"......you can see the evolution ...."

 

I've been watching him since March, and I also fascinated to surf all his early lives and interfews as i can(from youtube, and thank God I'm not crazy for him just now, or this is a big loading to watch all vedios in a short time!!)

 

and, yeah! I saw the evolution, and its make me marvel at his representation. He was so serious about his performance, that I believe he must be energetic to gain any idea which can make his performance batter in his every single gig! I could see his conscientious, hard learning attitude to his career.

 

big girl, we can see; perform special old songs we can see; the animals episode we can see; the speeches on his gig we can see...,and so many of lovly details between every gig we can see. That make me fussier of him and keep watching his gig over and over but don't get tired!!

 

He just has confidence in himself, and a professional performer. He doing the thing that was doing since his age 11, so i believe that he knows how to be a performer very welll.

 

and interviews! Oh, what can i say!!so clever and quick responses, maybe too courteous and elegant, but that's can keep eyes on it.But with an open mind that's make me fussier of him!!

 

so, i just watched his gig in Tokyo, very incredible, I was there, he had a duet with his younger sister, and put some properties in Grace Kelly, and shared his little story about songs, about last experience in Tokyo, that's all come from his heart, and i'm full of enjoy and thank for his gig!!

 

but there was a one thing need to talk about it, cus the ear's problem seems a problem for him!!

He said the earphones is killing him...

[Christine]

Oh i'm pretty sure he knows and is totally conscious about everything he does on stage now. For exemple, you can see the evolution through the 2 tours we've had so far. We could put it on the size of the venues and the stage, yes. Put we can also put it on a will to analyze the reaction of the audience. I mean, from the very first gigs (more or less 500 people), he could have easily filled up big venues, since the 2nd tour was still sold out in 2 days (about 2000 people)... Then the festivals. But let's not talk about the festivals, since we don't have so much to talk about ( ).

 

I mean : Mika is someone very smart and calculating. Not in the bad way, but in the "control-freak" way. So he tests then acts. Always like that. Even if he doesn't think about his performance WHILE he's doing it, he does think about it before and after. That's normal, too ! You can't progress if you can't evaluate and think about what you do.

 

 

I think he's very conscious of what he's doing as well, but believe he may be building on the audience's response rather than trying to manipulate it in a certain direction from the outset. The audiences did change in a very short period of time and so did Mika's performances, but he seemed to be responding to the new demographic rather than the other way around, at least in North America.

 

Most of the young girls who saw him in June weren't able to catch him in March because they didn't know he existed or he wasn't available to them since he only played a couple of small venues. I don't think they went to the June gigs because Mika's performances had started becoming more appealing to them, because...who knew? I had no idea Mika was capable of sexing it up to rooms full of screaming girls until it actually happened.

 

I remember thinking at the March gig that, unlike the Paolo Nutini gig I saw at the same club 2 weeks prior that was all boozing and rock n roll, I could have brought my 11 year old niece to see Mika. It was all circus performers, balloons, lollipops, bubbles and Teddy Bear's Picnic. I would imagine people who had seen videos and heard reports when they bought tickets to the June gigs were expecting more of the same.

[Blue]

Great thread, refreshing that we can discuss Mika's sexuality without discussing his sexuality!

Very well said!

 

It's nice reading all the thoughts about the subject. Don't have time to join the discussion myself though, but I will continue reading!

[mellody]

That was a little too overanalytical for me. Didn't he say somewhere that he doesn't sexualize his music?

i think he just said he doesn't POLITICALLY sexualize his music. and i think he really is very much aware of what he does. although i also don't think he changed his behaviour on purpose, but through becoming more confident and through interaction with the crowd. there is a youtube interview i think from japan or hongkong, where he says sth like that he doesn't plan the way he acts, like, in a marketing way, and i believe him that. i'm sure he goes along some guidelines, from himself and maybe also the management/record company, but most of it i think is just intuitition, just acting the way he feels at the moment.

[yuppymunch]

can you sum all that up in couple of sentences?

 

 

i did read it all! but i will need to read it again to process it i think!

 

 

great now i look dumb

[yuppymunch]

and personally, i havent studied all his performances that much

[Gatagordinha]

i think he just said he doesn't POLITICALLY sexualize his music. and i think he really is very much aware of what he does. although i also don't think he changed his behaviour on purpose, but through becoming more confident and through interaction with the crowd. there is a youtube interview i think from japan or hongkong, where he says sth like that he doesn't plan the way he acts, like, in a marketing way, and i believe him that. i'm sure he goes along some guidelines, from himself and maybe also the management/record company, but most of it i think is just intuitition, just acting the way he feels at the moment.

 

I agree with you on this; he appears to be a very instinctive and intuitive person in general, he adapts to his surroundings and the situation he finds himself in, I believe largely unconsciously so, though I can see why some might think it is a conscious and more cynical act..this is an issue I fear he is going to have to face time and time again in his career and inevitably he will split opinion! Well hey that's the way he likes it isn't it:naughty:

In my view he is taking his cue from the different audiences he finds himself performing to, in the same way a good teacher tailors a lesson to suit the demands of a particular class, often without being able to plan ahead much.

[violet_sky]

Exactly! I have to say I really rather wish he might bring some of that flamboyant-flirty energy back into his act eventually. It's delicious, and I want more of it.

 

--Jack

 

I second that. Very much so. BTW congrats on your new verbally intellectual outburst, Jack, good to see you're back from your time consuming real life duties I enjoyed reading it as I always do with everything you write and show us.

Your post inspired me to watch some of the Koko videos again and I have to say (although this was not his earliest performance and he might have already taken back some of his female/gay/flamboyant moves) this performance is still my very favourite. He seems so childlike and untouched by the things to come up to him during the following weeks and months, somehow coy but still very appealing. I like this rather subtle (not really subtle but far more subtle than today) sexual radiation. To me, honestly, this worked far better than the topless steeldrum act. Back then he already 'had hips', for sure and there was something about his moves I can't get hold of until today. Even sitting on the piano he did this, rolling his shoulders and get up from his seat in between. It's hard to explain and I'm not quite sure if I got my point across here...

 

Oh, and sorry, I didn't read the whole thread yet, I just wanted to put down my thoughts as long as they were there... (it's hard without a brain... )

[Gatagordinha]

I second that. Very much so. BTW congrats on your new verbally intellectual outburst, Jack, good to see you're back from your time consuming real life duties I enjoyed reading it as I always do with everything you write and show us.

Your post inspired me to watch some of the Koko videos again and I have to say (although this was not his earliest performance and he might have already taken back some of his female/gay/flamboyant moves) this performance is still my very favourite. He seems so childlike and untouched by the things to come up to him during the following weeks and months, somehow coy but still very appealing. I like this rather subtle (not really subtle but far more subtle than today) sexual radiation. To me, honestly, this worked far better than the topless steeldrum act. Back then he already 'had hips', for sure and there was something about his moves I can't get hold of until today. Even sitting on the piano he did this, rolling his shoulders and get up from his seat in between. It's hard to explain and I'm not quite sure if I got my point across here...

 

Oh, and sorry, I didn't read the whole thread yet, I just wanted to put down my thoughts as long as they were there... (it's hard without a brain... )

 

I understand exactly what you mean violet sky and I agree. For me, subtle is sexier. He's still sexy, of course, but when I watch the Koko thing I think, God, he was irresistible then...

[CazGirl]

I understand exactly what you mean violet sky and I agree. For me, subtle is sexier. He's still sexy, of course, but when I watch the Koko thing I think, God, he was irresistible then...

 

!!

he still IS irresistable!! Please, choose your words wisely LMAO

[cath85]

I understand exactly what you mean violet sky and I agree. For me, subtle is sexier. He's still sexy, of course, but when I watch the Koko thing I think, God, he was irresistible then...

 

I can only agree with this...

[stien]

Great thread!

I have to say: sometimes it's interesting to look back. I hadn't done it myself. I remember that the first video of Mika I saw was the one of the KOKO performance. I was overwhelmed by the sound, and I remember thinking "well, this is a good-looking boy". So I didn't think: "oh my god he's so sexy" or anything. So (and I don't have enough vocabulary to use the correct words to express myself) I was kinda surprised when these other vids appeared: Mika without T-shirt, Mika dancing with Big Girl, Sweet Dreams,...

Not that I didn't like it, but it was indeed a bit surprising when you first saw the KOKO-vid.

 

Same thing with the Grace Kelly video. He is more feminin there. But I also noticed this: The Love today video was maybe more masculin, but the Big Girl video certainly isn't! Even though he sings while leaning on a Big Girls décolleté, he still looks very androgyn in it!

 

I do agree: we shouldn't underestimate him. He's been planning this succes for a long time and looking at interviews,... we know he's very clever. I also think that -since he had to answer the gay-question a million times- he has learned what to say to the press, and how to formulate it. Same thing with his performances: I'm sure he has used all the feedback from the first, small tour to modify it into the one we get to see now. And why not? He's an artist, he has to make an evolution...

 

The thing that fascinates me the most is what his performances will look like in, say 5 years.

He will be 28 then, have a lot of experience, and who knows what more...

It's up to us to to wait I guess.... :-)

 

S.

[Ioana]

 

 

A week ago or so, someone on gabbly linked me to a video of an “early†performance of “Grace Kelly,†back in last November.

 

why dose that remind me very much of Enrique Iglesias? I've noticed that hand movement,like he's calling the crowd

[Yoppappop]

just quickly-I wasnt meaning "interesting" in a sarcastic way - worth of re-read and attention and further analysis and comparison (and still envious of those who has been at smaller gigs )...now have to run for real

 

I never thought you said it in a sarcastic way, i was really touched

 

awww Yop gets two paragraphs and i get a sentence LMAO!

Joking, i'm glad you even mentioned me. Nice to know that my opinion was even read and considered, AND even liked! Maybe not agreed, but liked

 

I got a love emoticon (which is normal cause Jack and I have been a happy couple for a few months now ) and a quote, the 2 paragraphs weren't all about what i said

 

Most of the young girls who saw him in June weren't able to catch him in March because they didn't know he existed or he wasn't available to them since he only played a couple of small venues. I don't think they went to the June gigs because Mika's performances had started becoming more appealing to them, because...who knew? I had no idea Mika was capable of sexing it up to rooms full of screaming girls until it actually happened.

I remember thinking at the March gig that, unlike the Paolo Nutini gig I saw at the same club 2 weeks prior that was all boozing and rock n roll, I could have brought my 11 year old niece to see Mika. It was all circus performers, balloons, lollipops, bubbles and Teddy Bear's Picnic. I would imagine people who had seen videos and heard reports when they bought tickets to the June gigs were expecting more of the same.

 

Nobody had the idea he would "transform" his performance of the tiny venues to the sexy trash-can beating... I'm not saying that people were expecting a different type of performance, i said that the exposure he got from his performances in-between the 2 tours was different and MAY have interested a different audience (i.e. teenager girls). And we should not forget about the videos that NOT EVERYBODY looks on youtube for Mika concerts videos all day long like most of us do here. Some people have a life Just kidding, but it's true, the population here is not really representative of the real population, just because we know everything about everything he does (performances, interviews, stunts ). People who go to his concerts are not like people here : they hear him on the radio, watch him on TV, and that's about all, read about him in magazines... So that's where the "in-between" performances interfere with what the audience they appealed between the 2 tours... In my opinion. And those "in-between" performances were different from the early ones, and are different from the ones we see now... And it will go on that way, still in my opinion.

 

and personally, i havent studied all his performances that much

 

Personally, i didn't study his performances, i just have a memory which stores everything i don't need to store... And sometimes what i do need to store

[suzie]

When I saw Jack's first mail on this thread in the morning I knew I'd need some time to read all replies before I comment.

So, having finished work I spent the last hour or so reading all the replies...

 

I must tell you that I think this is the best thread ever started on this site and the comments added so far are intelligent as well.

 

I guess everything I would have commented has already been said, so let me just add one thing: the way his performances changed in the last half year have been perfectly observed and described by most of you but when it comes to his motives, I am on the opinion that it was more of an unconscious move as he has been gaining more and more confidence as a performer, backed by audience's response rather than anyone else, especially record company manipulating him to do that.

 

I am also on the opinion that all the dressing up is just a sign of him not being confident enough to pull off a one man show...

So, I expect several further changes in his show in the future - hopefully returning to basics and winning over the audience with his charm mainly and not by the chicken costume....

[Christine]

And we should not forget about the videos that NOT EVERYBODY looks on youtube for Mika concerts videos all day long like most of us do here.

 

Really? Unimaginable!

 

I must tell you that I think this is the best thread ever started on this site and the comments added so far are intelligent as well.

 

Oh Jack has plenty more where that came from don't you Jack??

[violet_sky]

Oh Jack has plenty more where that came from don't you Jack??

 

...and her stories...

[suzie]

Oh Jack has plenty more where that came from don't you Jack??

 

Christine, your wisdom is badly needed here as well:wink2:

[DaMango]

 

I remember thinking at the March gig that, unlike the Paolo Nutini gig I saw at the same club 2 weeks prior that was all boozing and rock n roll, I could have brought my 11 year old niece to see Mika. It was all circus performers, balloons, lollipops, bubbles and Teddy Bear's Picnic. I would imagine people who had seen videos and heard reports when they bought tickets to the June gigs were expecting more of the same.

 

I was one of those unsuspecting people, Christine! Haha! I even wrote in my concert review of the June 8th show that I was surprised at his sexier stage show. I'm no prude, but based on the performance videos I had seen prior, it was a bit shocking. (But I enjoyed it anyway...)