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Article in German music magazine


Petra

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I had to spend half an hour at the station today and I used this time to look through the lifestyle/teen/music-section of the magazine store there and I found the "Musikexpress". :naughty:

 

The article is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?3dmgd2bn9tn (zip-file, about 9MB)

I'm already working on the translation but the article is quite long and I have to work for uni and so if there is anyone here who speaks German... feel free to translate with me :mf_rosetinted: The article is quite good and mika-friendly but however, there are a lot of mistakes in it... :sneaky2: According to the author, Jodi Marr and Mika's singing teacher are men and Mika has been making jingles for milk-products... very strange :roftl: (apart from spelling names wrong and so on...)

 

The first part of the translation can be found in post 22 and part 2 in post 26! (Thank you, mellody!!!)

And here's the proof that some magazines cannot even write their articles themselves... http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/sh...520#post138520 (thank you, Jack!!)

 

me01bhj6.jpg

 

me04bid4.jpg

 

(Bigger versions of the pictures are in the download-file.)

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According to the author, Jodi Marr and Mika's singing teacher are men and Mika has been making jingles for milk-products... very strange :roftl: (apart from spelling names wrong and so on...)

 

that's.... new :roftl:

 

I'd really like to help you but I'm so busy at the moment..

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hannibal lector with a perm??!?! WTF! :shocked: that's what the text for the first pic says. i'm just downloading the article, thx for posting.

I didn't understand it at first but this refers to something in the article. and the perm... some writers are simply stupid.

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Hannibal Lecter mit Dauerwelle, ja genau! :lmao: Blöde deutsche Journalisten :sneaky2:

Die gute Frau Autorin hat den Schmus aber auch bloß übersetzt (steht zumindest drunter). Und sie hatte offenbar KEINE Ahnung, denn sonst wäre aus dem singing-teacher wohl nocht einfach ein Gesangslehrer geworden...

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Die gute Frau Autorin hat den Schmus aber auch bloß übersetzt (steht zumindest drunter). Und sie hatte offenbar KEINE Ahnung, denn sonst wäre aus dem singing-teacher wohl nocht einfach ein Gesangslehrer geworden...

 

ja siehste, hätten die mal uns gefragt :biggrin2:

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Petra you're my hero!:biggrin2:

 

oh thank you :blush-anim-cl: say that again when mellody and I have translated it... :naughty:

 

ja siehste, hätten die mal uns gefragt :biggrin2:

 

tut aber keiner. ist echt ne sauerei!

 

Thanks Petra! As always...you rock! :thumb_yello:

 

Hollis, I love you! :wub2:

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Here's the first part of the translation:

 

The real life and the rose-tinted glasses

 

The shooting-star of mainstream-pop is living in a fantasy-world. It's not surprising that Mika likes to get away of real life from time to time: his childhood was shaped by wars and nervous breakdowns.

 

Mika's limousine stops in the middle of the busy ado in San Remo – in a gigantic traffic jam. Mika just sits there, waiting and from time to time dozing off. Great Britain's newest pop-superstar was brought to San Remo to perform as special guest on the last evening of Italy's biggest talent-competition. "I have to perform shortly before the winners are disclosed", he says disbelieving. "Millions of people will watch. Millions."

The "Festival di Sanremo" is an institution (not sure if that's the fitting English term. It should mean that the festival is very very important and well-known). Since more than 50 years it is also shown on television, thus helping artists like Bobby Solo (1967) or I Pooh (1990) to national – if not international - fame. It seems that whole Italy has come to the city tonight. Either to be part of the audience in the studio (for up to 3.000 Euros) or to get a glimpse of the TV-stars that attend the show.

The limousine finally reaches the studio. Mika gets out of the car, wearing bright white Dolce&Gabbana-trousers and Converse-fakes to do a rehearsal of his smash-hit "Grace Kelly" (which he is going to sing live after midnight). After this song had been leading the charts in the UK for 5 weeks, it has now also stormed the hit-lists in other countries. Mika is number one in Russia, Norway, Hungary and here in Italy. Because of that he was also invited as a last-minute attendant at this show which had people like Elton John or the French chansonnier Charles Aznavour as their guests.

 

The soundcheck is finally done and the crew applauds enthusiastically. Everybody wants to shake Mika's hand as well as a souvenir photo. The hymns of praise that the people produce (hope that's the right word here) with a strong Italian accent make Mika cringe. It seems that it has just come up to his mind how fast his degree of popularity has risen. He seems nervous and spends the time until his gig with biting his thumbnail.

"It's becoming alarming", he says after that. Meanwhile, his management is thinking about following his wish to take him to his hotel in Cannes which is about one hour's drive away. Mika needs a rest to gain new energy. Even if it's just a quarter of an hour. "I often think that not thinking about all that is probably the best thing to do. If I make myself aware of what is happening in my life at the moment…". He shakes his head confusedly.

 

In the few months since the release of his debut album "Life in Cartoon Motion" Michael Holbrook Penniman has become an artist that gets as much attention in England as only few others. As a charismatic, energetic popstar following the big tradition of Freddie Mercury, Elton John or George Michael, he has polarised the public opinion like just very few others. "Why don't you like me?", he asks in "Grace Kelly". "Love love me!" he urges in the following single "Love Today".

 

The more than 400,000 Brits that have bought LiCM did that for the same reason as Brian May, the guitarist of Queen. His website is full of praise for Mika ("I like courageous, innovative people", May writes). But his critics are likewise forthright and label Mika as annoying, kitschy and unbearably needy. The English newspaper "The Guardian" compared listening to his album to "being held hostage by Bonnie Langford".

 

"Good God, what a ****er!" was May's answer to that sharp review. Mika reacts more tempered. "This criticism was just made because I'm commercially successful now", he says while he is sitting cross-legged in a chair in his small room. The management finally decided that the way back to Cannes was too intricate. "A few months ago, when I was still a tip for insiders, I was supported by everyone. But commercial success changes everything. But it's ok like that. These analysis don't impress me very much because my motivation for song-writing has a lot to do with instinct and this is very personal."

 

He gets up to get a bottle of water and straightens his body to its full length of 1,90m. He looks very thin, just skin and bones. In addition he has pre-raphaelic curls that frame his cheekbones so beautifully that it becomes clear why the fashion-label Paul Smith has booked him for the coming season. He sits down again and victimises his thumbnail again. A revealing picture: Mika looks like an infant that sucks its thumb to calm itself down. "To be number one in the charts suddenly gives everyone the right to have an opinion about you and to start spreading all kinds of stories" he says. Just recently it was reported that he was going to be the opening act of Take That but then it was said that he drew back because he thought himself to be too popular and too successful to be just a supporting act. "Total bollocks! Sometimes I really want to bite these people! Really, believe me! Just like Silvia Plath did it to Ted Hughes, I want to bite chunks out of people's cheeks." Mika draws his lips back from his teeth and makes his teeth close with a snap. Hannibal Lecter with a perm. Mika is the perfect popstar with a history that Hollywood would have dismissed due to incredibility. He was born in Beirut in 1983 as the son of an American banker and a Lebanese mother. Within a year, the family (with five children; three daughters and two sons) was forced to escape from the Lebanon because of the civil war. They were brought to Cyprus by boat with other refugees until his father found a new job in Paris. Mika doesn't remember all the details of the escape but he is aware of "certain deprivations" during his childhood. "My parents held problems as far away from us as possible" he says. "We lived in a nice apartment, where we were living, if I can say so, a typically Lebanese way – loud, extravagant, creative. Thus my childhood was in many aspects a charming time."

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wie würdet ihr denn das mit der schwäche für freddie mercury übersetzen? leo.org sagt "soft spot for so.", aber weiß net ob das so passt...

 

i'm almost finished with part 2 ;)

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wie würdet ihr denn das mit der schwäche für freddie mercury übersetzen? leo.org sagt "soft spot for so.", aber weiß net ob das so passt...

 

i'm almost finished with part 2 ;)

*blättert im dicksten englischwörterbuch, das es in der buchhandlung gab*

 

usually leo is right! i think you can use it!

but my Pons also gives this here: eine/jds Schwäche für jdn/etw = a/sb.'s weakness for sb/sth

 

aber soft spot ... doch, klingt gut (oder zumindest brauchbar). ich hab auch häufig einfach mal ins blaue rein übersetzt... :blink:

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