Mika on Italian Magazine MAX

[Lucrezia]

Mika is on Italian Magazine "MAX" of Jenuary 2010!!

 

Here's the scan!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Translation Thanks Nezza!!

 

Mika is 26 and has the memory of an elephant. Or, more simply, I must’ve been the only pregnant woman to ever have interviewed him; because during an ordinary rainy afternoon in Milan he sees me and goes “Nice to see you again, how are you?”, indicating my belly which is, thankfully, flat again. When we first met, in 2007, I was seven months pregnant and he had already given birth to Life in Cartoon Motion, which sold 6 million copies worldwide. It was in this album that he declared that he wanted to be like Grace Kelly, even if the princess’s sadness had then convinced him to fall back on Freddie Mercury. Brian May, Queen’s legendary guitarist, showered him with compliments, filling up his inbox with moving emails of gratitude.

 

Now Michael Penniman gives us The Boy Who Knew Too Much, a return ticket to his fantastic teen circus launched by We Are Golden (which sounds like Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven is a Place on Earth: “Never heard it, I swear”), and Rain, the new single: “You listen to it and it makes you believe that you’re 16 again, you put a Farrah Fawcett wig on and you start dancing like an idiot.”

 

This CD sold a million copies the week it was released, when he invited his fans on Twitter to celebrate in the Portobello Star with him, the pub where he bought champagne for everyone. Amongst his fans are Adele, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga; and to tell the truth, Mika owes a lot to women, “At school bullies harassed me every day, and it was always the girls who defended me. But I also went in search of them a bit: I wore a bow-tie, I dressed like Lucky Luke or Astro Boy – my comic book heroes – and I could never be separated from my bag that I filled with comics, designs and cassettes. At the end of it, I seemed strange.”

 

A Lebanese mother and American father, Mika was born in Beirut, grew up in Paris, and at 9 years old moved to London, where he was instantly rejected. “I was dyslexic and they didn’t realise I was. I stayed at home for a year playing piano and having singing lessons with a Russian teacher until I found a special school. Instead of writing I drew, and joined the designs visually with arrows, I recorded lessons and listened to them again to memorise them. I wrote songs by ear, as I still do now. When I was 17 I solved the problem, but by then I was living in an imaginary world.” What made him find a way into Universal’s heart was when they offered him a contract, “I had 100 numbered demo CDs created, and I packaged them as if they were the CDs of someone famous. With my family’s help I designed, photocopied, cut out and pasted everything, making my case unique. They liked it, and here I am.”, he explains with the tone of someone who still doesn’t believe it.

 

His mother Joannie, an ex-designer of childrens’ clothes, designs outfits for his shows; his sister Yasmine deals with the graphics, under the penname DaWack; Paloma acts as a stylist and Zuleika and Fortuné are still studying. “At the beginning nobody wanted to work with me, and I had to ask my family, who luckily are all artists. Only my dad has a serious job, but I know that he would’ve preferred to study architecture instead of becoming a banker, poor thing.” Celeb status has let him drink whisky with James Bond (Sean Connery), shake hands with Nichole Kidman, and to collect rare comics, “Illustrations from the fifties, but also Peanuts and Mad Magazine – they’re my little perversion. But I’m not naïve. Take the new album. The music’s full of happiness, but the lyrics are gothic fairytales. Such as: Cinderella marries, her husband cheats on her, they divorce. He has custody of the children, she loses everything and goes back to being a maid. Stories like that, very pop.”, which have made him a very happy man.

[Nezza]

And here's the translation

 

Mika is 26 and has the memory of an elephant. Or, more simply, I must’ve been the only pregnant woman to ever have interviewed him; because during an ordinary rainy afternoon in Milan he sees me and goes “Nice to see you again, how are you?”, indicating my belly which is, thankfully, flat again. When we first met, in 2007, I was seven months pregnant and he had already given birth to Life in Cartoon Motion, which sold 6 million copies worldwide. It was in this album that he declared that he wanted to be like Grace Kelly, even if the princess’s sadness had then convinced him to fall back on Freddie Mercury. Brian May, Queen’s legendary guitarist, showered him with compliments, filling up his inbox with moving emails of gratitude.

 

Now Michael Penniman gives us The Boy Who Knew Too Much, a return ticket to his fantastic teen circus launched by We Are Golden (which sounds like Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven is a Place on Earth: “Never heard it, I swear”), and Rain, the new single: “You listen to it and it makes you believe that you’re 16 again, you put on a Farrah Fawcett wig and you start dancing like an idiot.”

 

This CD sold a million copies the week it was released, when he invited his fans on Twitter to celebrate in the Portobello Star with him, the pub where he bought champagne for everyone. Amongst his fans are Adele, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga; and to tell the truth, Mika owes a lot to women, “At school bullies harassed me every day, and it was always the girls who defended me. But I also went looking for them a bit: I wore a bow-tie, I dressed like Lucky Luke or Astro Boy – my comic book heroes – and I could never be separated from my bag that I filled with comics, designs and cassettes. At the end of it, I seemed strange.”

 

A Lebanese mother and American father, Mika was born in Beirut, grew up in Paris, and at 9 years old moved to London, where he was instantly rejected. “I was dyslexic and they didn’t realise I was. I stayed at home for a year playing piano and having singing lessons with a Russian teacher until I found a special school. Instead of writing I drew, and joined the designs visually with arrows, I recorded lessons and listened to them again to memorise them. I wrote songs by ear, as I still do now. When I was 17 I solved the problem, but by then I was living in an imaginary world.” What made him find a way into Universal’s heart was when they offered him a contract, “I had 100 numbered demo CDs created, and I packaged them as if they were the CDs of someone famous. With my family’s help I designed, photocopied, cut out and pasted everything, making my case unique. They liked it, and here I am.”, he explains with the tone of someone who still doesn’t believe it.

 

His mother Joannie, an ex-designer of childrens’ clothes, designs outfits for his shows; his sister Yasmine deals with the graphics, under the penname DaWack; Paloma acts as a stylist and Zuleika and Fortuné are still studying. “At the beginning nobody wanted to work with me, and I had to ask my family, who luckily are all artists. Only my dad has a serious job, but I know that he would’ve preferred to study architecture instead of becoming a banker, poor thing.” Celeb status has let him drink whisky with James Bond (Sean Connery), shake hands with Nichole Kidman, and to collect rare comics, “Illustrations from the fifties, but also Peanuts and Mad Magazine – they’re my little perversion. But I’m not naïve. Take the new album. The music’s full of happiness, but the lyrics are gothic fairytales. Such as: Cinderella marries, her husband cheats on her, they divorce. He has custody of the children, she loses everything and goes back to being a maid. Stories like that, very pop.”, which have made him a very happy man.

 

---------

 

Why do journalists have to use language that's so difficult to translate??

[Guest]

Thanks for posting

[Droopsy]

Wooop, again thank you!

[FREDDIESDOUBLE]

Thanks so much ladies

 

"I had 100 numbered demo CDs created, and I packaged them as if they were the CDs of someone famous. With my family’s help I designed, photocopied, cut out and pasted everything, making my case unique. They liked it, and here I am"

 

<wants one>

[DANI56]

 

thank you Lucrezia e Neys!

[Nezza]

Thanks so much ladies

 

"I had 100 numbered demo CDs created, and I packaged them as if they were the CDs of someone famous. With my family’s help I designed, photocopied, cut out and pasted everything, making my case unique. They liked it, and here I am"

 

<wants one>

 

When I was going through that bit I knew you'd say something like that

[keti]

Wow wow wow wow wow!!!!

 

I LOVE this!!! the pictures are amazing!!

 

Thanks loads for posting and translation!!

 

I want a copy so badly:aah:

[DANI56]

Thanks so much ladies

 

"I had 100 numbered demo CDs created, and I packaged them as if they were the CDs of someone famous. With my family’s help I designed, photocopied, cut out and pasted everything, making my case unique. They liked it, and here I am"

 

<wants one>

 

ok, FD....ok!

[FREDDIESDOUBLE]

yes they are out there somewhere ... wants wants <stamps feet>

[mari62]

ok, FD....ok!

Dani, i think FD wants a numbered demo CD, not the mag

[RAK1]

T4P! ;-)

 

Okay, firstly we were in the Ground Floor pud on Portebello Road, and what Champagne???

I never saw any!!!

And wasn't it Daniel Craig he was drinking with at the Vanity Fair Oscar party!?

[Nezza]

T4P! ;-)

 

Okay, firstly we were in the Ground Floor pud on Portebello Road, and what Champagne???

I never saw any!!!

And wasn't it Daniel Craig he was drinking with at the Vanity Fair Oscar party!?

 

Italy isn't a country known for its' truthfulness and accuracy... *hides from the Italians*

[FREDDIESDOUBLE]

Dani, i think FD wants a numbered demo CD, not the mag

 

yeh .. you got it

[keti]

And wasn't it Daniel Craig he was drinking with at the Vanity Fair Oscar party!?

 

That's what I was thinking too!

[RAK1]

Thanks so much ladies

 

"I had 100 numbered demo CDs created, and I packaged them as if they were the CDs of someone famous. With my family’s help I designed, photocopied, cut out and pasted everything, making my case unique. They liked it, and here I am"

 

<wants one>

And how much did they cost to make?

Check out my siggy! Ha ha!

[Lucrezia]

I edited the pics!! Now they are better than original

 

 

 

[keti]

 

Pity about this one

 

 

 

 

[keti]

I edited the pics!! Now they are better than original

 

 

 

 

That's great!

[DEMI94]

Those pictures... wow.

And good interview. Thanks!

 

His hair looks straight on the last pic

[xxmika-maddo-joxx]

[Cherol]

Thanks for posting guys, that was a great interview!

How has he not heard Heaven Is A Place On Earth?

The pictures are awesome too. I love this one:

 

[Iridaceae]

WOW!! Nice!

Thanks for posting.

[Lollipop Love]

I edited the pics!! Now they are better than original

 

 

 

 

 

 

what a gorgeous man, my God !

 

I would like to see this entire photoshoot, they take so many pics and only use 3 in the magazine

[IngievV]

As long as he doesn't touch my Peanuts Pyjama, we're good:mf_rosetinted: