Cassiopée Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Not so sure what to think of this... Mercury rising Richard Burnett rburnett@hour.ca http://www.hour.ca/columns/3dollarbill.aspx?iIDArticle=18298 Mika and Bugs in Old Montreal Mika turns to me, legs crossed and pretending to hold a cigarette, and does his finest imitation of Freddie Mercury. "Yes, dahling," Mika says à la Mercury. "Hello, dear!" Mika is looking somewhat, well, fabulously fey. "And he holds his beer like this," Mika continues, imitating Mercury from the famous backstage British TV interview on the Queen - We Will Rock You: Live in Montreal 1981 DVD. "And he hardly drinks it!" On this day, Mika is not backstage but, rather, sunk in an armchair at the rustic Auberge Le St-Gabriel, the oldest building in Old Montreal. And, I suspect, British pop phenom Mika shares more than just music with Mercury. "You must get a lot of comparisons with Freddie!" I say. "For being condescending?" Mika asks. "No, for being fabulous!" "Of all the comparisons with Freddie Mercury - which I don't think are fair because he was far more talented than I am - there was one I got from Brian May who came to my last show in London [this past June]. It was me on stage with 17 musicians, all acoustic, an orchestra with two classical singers, and [brian] went crazy! He said to me, 'You play the piano just like Freddie. You lead the band just like Freddie did.' Brian made me so happy, so proud." Like Mercury, who was born in the onetime British protectorate of Zanzibar and raised in India, Mika was born in Beirut, in the former French protectorate of Lebanon, before he too moved to London. And, like Mercury, questions about Mika's sexuality have dogged the singer since his rise to fame. But I was advised to only ask Mika questions about his new sophomore album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, in stores on Sept. 22, and which features his current chart-topping single We Are Golden. (The album also features the openly gay Owen Pallett from Final Fantasy/Arcade Fire.) "I'm not going to ask you any personal questions," I tell Mika, "but I will ask you this: You have always said your private life is private. But as a pop star, don't you think your private life is public property?" Mika stares at me. "Because I don't offer it up for sale." I say nothing. So Mika continues, "I'm [selling] my creative life. One must be careful with all that, especially in this day when everybody is selling everything. Just look on the Internet - sexuality has been cheapened. And I think girls are more the culprit than guys when it comes to that." Mika turns in his armchair and his eyebrows burrow. "So why are you asking me this?" "Because you've always said you don't want to talk about your private life." What I don't say is that, in my experience, the only people who never want to talk about their private life are publicly closeted gay pop stars and movie stars. "I'm not asking about your private life," I say. "I just want to know why you don't want to talk about it." Talking about it, of course, would likely ruin his career in America. You can't be a million-selling rock star and be gay, unless you're Elton John. Just ask Rufus Wainwright, who once told me, "If I knew I could have sold more records, I might have stayed in the closet." The closest Mika will allow himself to show vulnerability is when he discusses his favourite singers. "I love Patti Page and Nina Simone, and my favourite male singer is Mel Tormé," Mika says. "I prefer female singers because they were allowed to do a whole lot more. There's more range. And they didn't have to worry about being cool; they don't have to worry about swagger." Mika looks straight at me. "When you're a woman singing, you can evoke so many [poses]," he says. "You can be sexy, authoritative and ballsy. You can be motherly and confident, you can be strong or weak, in need. Traditionally male singers don't show vulnerability. Think of Sinatra, of Tormé, all the great singers [and] all the great [male] rock singers, they're never really vulnerable." And here Mika cops another Freddie Mercury pose and says, "Unless they're playing with gender." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 That's very interesting. Mika has been implying more and more these days that the ambiguity surrounding his sexual orientation has to do with wanting to be free as a performer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOUCHONNERET Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 mika is everwhere...thanks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Thanks for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Brian May said that to him? Oh gosssssh. That's so amazing, that's the best kind of comparison, not you sound this person or you look like that person, but you have the same attitude and presence as Freddie Mercury on a stage, that's a fricking comparison. And he's absolutely right, girls have totally cheapened sexuality, just look at all the girl bands and how very few clothes they wear and how they come across as nothing more than objects of sex. That's cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FREDDIESDOUBLE Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 This is fabby I can just see him doing that Freddie Impression "Talking about it, of course, would likely ruin his career in America. You can't be a million-selling rock star and be gay" Sad really , music is music who gives a stuffer who people sleep with:boxed: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANI56 Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 t4p!....very interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 T4P! interesting stuff!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatagordinha Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Interesting, thanks. I'd love to see his Freddie impression . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elise_xx Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Interesting, thanks. I'd love to see his Freddie impression . me too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura* Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 @M @interviewer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 :blink: ...not sure what to think of this interview. Quickly read through it and it sounds like it was written by a Queen fan who is struck by the fact that Mika freaking reminds him of Freddie Mercury. Shame the journalist can't move on from this point... perhaps he hasn't heard much of Mika's music yet ... In my experience, a lot of Queen fans are stuck in this stage of talking about first impressions instead of listening to what Mika is all about.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatagordinha Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 :blink: ...not sure what to think of this interview. Quickly read through it and it sounds like it was written by a Queen fan who is struck by the fact that Mika freaking reminds him of Freddie Mercury. Shame the journalist can't move on from this point... perhaps he hasn't heard much of Mika's music yet ... In my experience, a lot of Queen fans are stuck in this stage of talking about first impressions instead of listening to what Mika is all about.... Yes, it's so old now isn't it. :yawn smiley: TBH I have never ever got the comparison anyway. Maybe that's because I am not a Queen fan, I dunno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 (edited) Yes, it's so old now isn't it. :yawn smiley: TBH I have never ever got the comparison anyway. Maybe that's because I am not a Queen fan, I dunno Well, it did strike me via the radio waves without having seen him or heard anything about him previously - but I AM a Queen fan:teehee: It is not even the song GK, but the way he sings it, the way he presents himself and the way some of his songs are built up. ..not going to start explaining though as I accept it might only work for Queen fans. Edited September 17, 2009 by suzie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FREDDIESDOUBLE Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 I saw it hugely in the early days of MFC , not so much now .. I still see it though a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyn Mastin Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 That's good, but I'm still sick of this Freddie comparison. They need to realise he's Mika, not Freddie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxxy Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Thanks for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louiza Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 the last paragraph is really interesting. it reminded me of what he said in other interviews about admiring bowie and prince. wish there was a vid of the freddie impersonation! thanks for posting cassiope!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soaring Simpson Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 :blink: ...not sure what to think of this interview. Quickly read through it and it sounds like it was written by a Queen fan who is struck by the fact that Mika freaking reminds him of Freddie Mercury. Shame the journalist can't move on from this point... perhaps he hasn't heard much of Mika's music yet ... In my experience, a lot of Queen fans are stuck in this stage of talking about first impressions instead of listening to what Mika is all about.... He certainly didn't seem to be interested in Mika- not as a creative artist anyway I don't see the Queen thing at all- and I was a huge fan back in the 70s. Possibly Brian May is a better judge of that though . But he does seem to appreciate Mika as Mika as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkly1 Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 I can get the "presence" of Freddie in MIka, he does seem to have a similar kinda of...charisma thing going on, he also has a very powerful voice, and wears white a lot guess he also likes to dress up and stuff. He sounded rather pleased with BM's comparisons though and rightly so, it was a HUGE compliment. I got more annoyed at the interviewers tone over Mika's decision to NOT tell him about his sexuality etc, It felt like he was having a "dig" at him and was hoping to get him to spill...ha ha he knows NOTHING about Mika if he thinks he will spill to someone like that. Mika is very VERY careful about what and HOW he presents himself to the outside world. He's way to smart too be caught out by irritating journalists and interviewers I reckon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celien Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 t4p! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikjass Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Well, it did strike me via the radio waves without having seen him or heard anything about him previously - but I AM a Queen fan:teehee:It is not even the song GK, but the way he sings it, the way he presents himself and the way some of his songs are built up. ..not going to start explaining though as I accept it might only work for Queen fans. Totally agree... my first impression of him even before I heard .. the freddie line was.. OMG it's Freddie! I saw it hugely in the early days of MFC , not so much now .. I still see it though a lot Yup, yup.. occasionally I see it too.. That's good, but I'm still sick of this Freddie comparison. They need to realise he's Mika, not Freddie! This reporter is obviously not interested in anything about Mika.. he is just picking on old news.. but with Mika doing ambiguous things lately and hinting a lot.. i fear a lot of questions abt his sexuality will arise.. It's interesting to know about the 'creative private life' part, i've always wondered why he gives out so much sometimes.. and then at times we learn that he makes things up... that's the creative part see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil'Violet Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 interesting interview!!! thanks for posting Cassiopée!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickadee Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Well, he interpreted Mika very differently, didn't he? Still a little puzzled... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzy Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 I always sense such a confidence in the way Mika continues to address these questions. And he doesn't even answer exactly the same way each time. But in contrast, it makes the journalist asking the same old question appear soooo boring. *yawn* Do they think they are finally going to be the one to break him down? Thanks for posting Cassiopée! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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