Tour Rumours - 2013!

[cathouzouf]

But then it gets back to what I said originally in that if you couldn't even go to gigs or be involved with the fans who do, how much do you call yourself that kind of "fan"?

 

What if Mika started focusing his entire career around South Korea? Only touring Asia, releasing half his songs in Korean, doing all his interviews in Korean, our only contact with fans who have access to him are Koreans who are busy with their Korean-speaking communities, etc.

 

How long are you going to maintain an interest in that? I mean this is what is happening with France versus English speaking North America. You have to invest an inordinate amount of effort trying to stay connected to that and most people can't be bothered because there's so little payoff.

 

Yes Mika sold out the NYC shows but so many of the hardcores from 2009 didn't turn up. The Canadian contingency was there because I encouraged them to go. I'm the one who keeps them up to date on Mika news. I'm the one who tells them when there are gigs. I ask them if they want to travel with me and that's why they come.

 

These are fans who have followed Mika since very early days but life goes on and most people are not going to go to the trouble of trying to keep up with an artist when there is nothing of interest going on for them 99% of the time. When Mika disappears and doesn't communicate with his fans or spends 18 months pandering to France instead of getting an English album on the shelves they just can't be bothered with it.

 

I totally agree with everything you say in this and previously...

 

Where I tend to diverge is that I seem to like artists who are either from or popular in far away part of the world... So the music must be enough:thumb_yello: even if not very frequent:fisch:

[Pandora_Z]

But then it gets back to what I said originally in that if you couldn't even go to gigs or be involved with the fans who do, how much do you call yourself that kind of "fan"?

 

What if Mika started focusing his entire career around South Korea? Only touring Asia, releasing half his songs in Korean, doing all his interviews in Korean, our only contact with fans who have access to him are Koreans who are busy with their Korean-speaking communities, etc.

 

How long are you going to maintain an interest in that? I mean this is what is happening with France versus English speaking North America. You have to invest an inordinate amount of effort trying to stay connected to that and most people can't be bothered because there's so little payoff.

 

Yes Mika sold out the NYC shows but so many of the hardcores from 2009 didn't turn up. The Canadian contingency was there because I encouraged them to go. I'm the one who keeps them up to date on Mika news. I'm the one who tells them when there are gigs. I ask them if they want to travel with me and that's why they come.

 

These are fans who have followed Mika since very early days but life goes on and most people are not going to go to the trouble of trying to keep up with an artist when there is nothing of interest going on for them 99% of the time. When Mika disappears and doesn't communicate with his fans or spends 18 months pandering to France instead of getting an English album on the shelves they just can't be bothered with it.

 

It seems as if MIKA does spend more time pandering to France but that doesn't make me any less of a fan just because he doesn't tour in the US. I guess I am confused as to what makes someone a fan. Because of certain situations, I would not be able to go to many of his shows even if he did tour the US. But I can still be a fan because I love his music, I love his voice, I purchase his music, I give his music to friends as gifts, I follow what he is doing...I am his fan because of what he has given to me. Beautiful music, an angelic voice, hope and joy. He could be anywhere in the world and I would still be a fan.

 

Anyway, to throw a little reality on this...how do you really know the person on Twitter is the actual star themselves. You assume it is but...

[cathouzouf]

It seems as if MIKA does spend more time pandering to France but that doesn't make me any less of a fan just because he doesn't tour in the US. I guess I am confused as to what makes someone a fan. Because of certain situations, I would not be able to go to many of his shows even if he did tour the US. But I can still be a fan because I love his music, I love his voice, I purchase his music, I give his music to friends as gifts, I follow what he is doing...I am his fan because of what he has given to me. Beautiful music, an angelic voice, hope and joy. He could be anywhere in the world and I would still be a fan.

 

Anyway, to throw a little reality on this...how do you really know the person on Twitter is the actual star themselves. You assume it is but...

 

[Christine]

Where I tend to diverge is that I seem to like artists who are either from or popular in far away part of the world... So the music must be enough:thumb_yello: even if not very frequent:fisch:

 

But being a "fan" is never just about the music on a CD is it? If that were the case I'd call myself a fan of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people.

 

It seems as if MIKA does spend more time pandering to France but that doesn't make me any less of a fan just because he doesn't tour in the US.

 

I am not prescribing what makes one more or less of a fan. It's a matter of self-identification. You decide if you are a "Mika fan" or not by how much you invest in it (emotionally, timewise, whatever form that investment takes for you). My level of investment in Mika is way beyond what I invest in other artists and I can't imagine it's going to last forever.

 

I loved Rick Springfield for a couple of years because he was on my TV every day, one of my best friends was also a fan, he made a movie, he released a concert video and I had front row tickets to see him in Toronto. But how much could I have possibly cared about him in the ensuing 30 years when I never saw him (not in real life, not on TV, not anywhere), never spoke to any other Rick Springfield fans, never had any idea if he released new music or not, etc. Bon Jovi and Barry Manilow have been superstars since we were children/teens but if someone goes off into relative obscurity you have to be really heavily invested/motivated to track them down.

 

And some people are. I saw them at the last gig waiting for their backstage meet and greet. They are the "Rick Springfield fans" as far as I'm concerned, not me.

 

Anyway everyone is different so some people will still be "Mika fans" in 20 years and some won't.

 

Anyway, to throw a little reality on this...how do you really know the person on Twitter is the actual star themselves. You assume it is but...

 

I don't always assume it is. But I think it would be pretty easy to suss out if it's fake if you "know" the person at all. Mika for instance mentions Twitter in real life and talks to people on Twitter he knows in real life and they talk to him.

[Pandora_Z]

 

I am not prescribing what makes one more or less of a fan. It's a matter of self-identification. You decide if you are a "Mika fan" or not by how much you invest in it (emotionally, timewise, whatever form that investment takes for you). My level of investment in Mika is way beyond what I invest in other artists and I can't imagine it's going to last forever.

 

Yes, I do agree with you on this point. There are countless bands and songwriters whose music I enjoy but I don't invest much in them except the fact that I enjoy their music. It isn't really being the same sort of fan. I enjoy their music but if they were gone tomorrow it wouldn't affect me much.

 

But I am a fan of MIKA. I cannot let a day go by without listening to his music. Even during the three years of hiding, I listened to him everyday. His music causes my heart to want to sing out in joy. I know that probably sounds silly but that is the best way to describe it. So if MIKA dropped off the face of the earth (again!) I would still be a fan because I would still have his music. I would still listen to it everyday because it brings me so much joy. And someday MIKA will start to look older and his voice will go but the music he made will live on forever.

 

Anyway everyone is different so some people will still be "Mika fans" in 20 years and some won't.

 

This is true as well. It reminds me of the song "Mr. Richland's Favorite Song" by Harry Nilsson.

 

 

I don't always assume it is. But I think it would be pretty easy to suss out if it's fake if you "know" the person at all. Mika for instance mentions Twitter in real life and talks to people on Twitter he knows in real life and they talk to him.

 

And I hope you didn't think I meant you specifically. I meant in general. No one really knows who wrote the tweets except the person who wrote them.

[Christine]

And I hope you didn't think I meant you specifically. I meant in general. No one really knows who wrote the tweets except the person who wrote them.

 

I don't agree with that. Just because something happens out of your sight doesn't mean it can't be verified by other means and common sense. I once had a tweet from Mika about something that happened in private so I know he uses the account. Could an assistant be retweeting when someone posts a video or tweeting a link to buy his single or enter a FB contest? Sure. But many of the tweets are obviously written by him and in the first couple of years they were always personal and not promotional. He speaks with affection to people he knows, he gets moody, he gets intoxicated and embarrasses himself, he says things he regrets because he deletes it later, he moans about Twitter in real life and stops tweeting for long periods of time. He mentions Twitter incidents in real life - like wanting to block some kid who insulted his Christmas decorations but thinking better of it because it would make him look bad.

 

Even someone I've never had any interaction with like Calvin Harris. He rants like crazy about real things and about utter nonsense, he blocks people, he sicks his fans on haters, he speaks to other celebrities (he just invited Mika to his gig a couple of weeks ago actually). He once had a drama with Katy Perry on Twitter because she was upset with him for pulling out of a gig as his opening act. You'd have to be a real cynic to believe all these people's publicists are getting together to fake these interactions especially when a lot of this behaviour isn't exactly positive publicity and this stuff always ends up having real world consequences as it is brought up during TV interviews, etc.

[suzie]

@Alie yes, that's what I meant. Young fans like you are rare on MFC. Especially new ones. I also know others who are fans but don't like visiting or posting on forums so they need to be reached elsewhere.

[Christine]

They were always talking about him when he came to Star Academie in March and when he came back for his show in August... He needs to come back to remember everyone that his CD is now launched...

 

Yes one of the Quebec MFCers was saying to me in January that people were so ready for a new album after the popularity of EMD and that he needed to release it NOW to capitalize on that success and momentum. And of course by March and Star Academie it was even more true. LICM was on the charts for weeks after that. If TOOL was out it would have been flying off the shelves. People have very short attention spans and most people who buy an artist's hit records are not the "fans" who follow their every move and seek them out on an ongoing basis.

 

I love Michael Buble a lot. I buy his records and go to his gigs. But if he is not in my face I have no idea what is going on with him and could easily miss a record release or a gig announcement. If you are a real music lover it's almost impossible to keep a close eye on everyone whose music you appreciate. Even with Mika the only reason I went to my first gig is because I was in a shop and I heard them discussing it on the radio. I wasn't following Mika online at that point and had no idea he was coming.

[mellody]

But then it gets back to what I said originally in that if you couldn't even go to gigs or be involved with the fans who do, how much do you call yourself that kind of "fan"?

 

What if Mika started focusing his entire career around South Korea? Only touring Asia, releasing half his songs in Korean, doing all his interviews in Korean, our only contact with fans who have access to him are Koreans who are busy with their Korean-speaking communities, etc.

 

How long are you going to maintain an interest in that? I mean this is what is happening with France versus English speaking North America. You have to invest an inordinate amount of effort trying to stay connected to that and most people can't be bothered because there's so little payoff.

 

Yes Mika sold out the NYC shows but so many of the hardcores from 2009 didn't turn up. The Canadian contingency was there because I encouraged them to go. I'm the one who keeps them up to date on Mika news. I'm the one who tells them when there are gigs. I ask them if they want to travel with me and that's why they come.

 

These are fans who have followed Mika since very early days but life goes on and most people are not going to go to the trouble of trying to keep up with an artist when there is nothing of interest going on for them 99% of the time. When Mika disappears and doesn't communicate with his fans or spends 18 months pandering to France instead of getting an English album on the shelves they just can't be bothered with it.

 

well yeah if he completely disappeared to another faraway country, it'd be hard, that's true. but luckily at least at the moment he updates his twitter regularly, his team updates his facebook regularly, so it's not that hard to follow him if you use those social networks. i just hope he (and his team) keep that up, even if he isn't touring in 2013.

 

btw, i noticed this tweet by felix today:

Very much looking forward to being in Australia in December/January and then to Asia in January... Tour dates coming soon

i'm sure he means his own tour dates as a DJ, but he's doing the DJ gigs also while on tour with mika, and since mika had mentioned to a fan in munich that he'd be in asia in january, there might be a connection.

[Christine]

btw, i noticed this tweet by felix today:

Very much looking forward to being in Australia in December/January and then to Asia in January... Tour dates coming soon

i'm sure he means his own tour dates as a DJ, but he's doing the DJ gigs also while on tour with mika, and since mika had mentioned to a fan in munich that he'd be in asia in january, there might be a connection.

 

Oh that would be great if there's a connection!

[guylainem123]

 

And I hope you didn't think I meant you specifically. I meant in general. No one really knows who wrote the tweets except the person who wrote them.

 

i've been a Mika fan for over 5 years and i've been on twitter for a long time. I only met Mika once (though i've seen him 5 times) & he called me "the famous Guylaine" when i asked him where he knew me from, he said from twitter & that he reads my tweets

[Pandora_Z]

i've been a Mika fan for over 5 years and i've been on twitter for a long time. I only met Mika once (though i've seen him 5 times) & he called me "the famous Guylaine" when i asked him where he knew me from, he said from twitter & that he reads my tweets

 

Maybe I am being a little too cynical about Twitter. I always thought of celebrities using Twitter as more of a promotional tool than as something personal. I have followed MIKA for years on Twitter but he has never replied to any of my tweets and I doubt that he bothers to read them. I mean how could he? He probably gets hundreds of tweets everyday from fans. But maybe he does read them. I guess I don't know because I don't know MIKA in real life.

 

I concede. Maybe he does write the majority of his tweets. I guess I'll believe it if he ever replies personally to one of my tweets.

[RAK1]

Maybe I am being a little too cynical about Twitter. I always thought of celebrities using Twitter as more of a promotional tool than as something personal. I have followed MIKA for years on Twitter but he has never replied to any of my tweets and I doubt that he bothers to read them. I mean how could he? He probably gets hundreds of tweets everyday from fans. But maybe he does read them. I guess I don't know because I don't know MIKA in real life.

 

I concede. Maybe he does write the majority of his tweets. I guess I'll believe it if he ever replies personally to one of my tweets.

 

He's replied to quite a few people from here, and other fans too. He is a bit of an internet stalker

There are a lot of celebs that interact with their fans, I know Calvin Harris does regularly. I think they like to, so they can get feedback at a more one on one level

[Christine]

Maybe I am being a little too cynical about Twitter. I always thought of celebrities using Twitter as more of a promotional tool than as something personal.

 

Well for sure some of them have ghost writers. And someone like Justin Bieber - I think he uses Twitter but in all likelihood his management steps in to keep tabs on the fans and retweet them and follow them and just generally keep the buzz going. But if JB had nothing to do with his account and had no idea what was happening on Twitter it would only be a matter of time before he got caught out.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with people using some assistance as long as they have some kind of handle on and interest in what's going on. Like Mika obviously gets annoyed with Twitter sometimes but I've always thought he could just stop reading it if he wants to. He could have someone else go through his @replies on occasion and just give him some general feedback. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If he takes a pic of his dog and tells Yasmine to tweet it I don't think there's anything wrong with that either. The thought is there and therefore his "presence" is legitimate IMO.

 

But as Rose says he's always been on the internet so there's no reason to think he never uses his account. People can sense when Mika is present and when he's not. That's why the communities on mikasounds.com never take off and when he stopped using his MySpace account to speak to fans and stopped using his blog people disappeared.

 

There are a lot of celebs that interact with their fans, I know Calvin Harris does regularly. I think they like to, so they can get feedback at a more one on one level

 

Yes Ricky Gervais loves it. He tweets all day long about atheism just to wind people up. Then he retweets them and mocks them and blocks them. EVERY DAY.

 

There is no way he has hired someone to do this. Or to post non-stop pics of his cat.

 

I don't think you need to know people in their real lives. You just have to be familiar with their personality (even just their public persona) to know if it's really them. Especially since a lot of this Twitter stuff spills over into other media and is discussed on TV and print interviews.

[Yuna]

i've been a Mika fan for over 5 years and i've been on twitter for a long time. I only met Mika once (though i've seen him 5 times) & he called me "the famous Guylaine" when i asked him where he knew me from, he said from twitter & that he reads my tweets

 

You believed that words? Hey....I bet, he got your name from MFC, here At least, think you know you did nothing 'famous' things on your twitter

 

Evidence here, He mentioned he saw 2000 paper planes flying through the arena in 2010 Seoul, and 3000 toilet paper rolls in 2011 Seoul. How could he knew that numbers of paper planes and toilet papers? No one, but only I knew the approx numbers like 2000 or 3000, and I mentioned '2000 paper planes' on once Korean thread Only, mentioned '3000 toilet papers' just once on gig report thread only. No other threads, never on twitter.

 

Oh one more thing, in one interview he mentioned 'about 30 ppl are picked out of the front row and taken to the ambulance during the gig' . It was me, who posted that '30 ppls are pulled out of the front row' things on the Korean thread. And its not true! I just exaggerated that for fun there.

How could he mentions 'exactly same numbers' as I did here, 30, 2000 , 3000 things?

only coincidence? Then I gotta marry him. He's my soulmate

 

See it..... He even runs google translater.. beware this guy

 

 

 

Hi Mika This thread is probably not very fun for you ..but fans have right to discuss things like that so... you please move on to another places - like reports thread

Edited November 23, 2012 by Yuna

[Christine]

You believed that words? Hey....I bet, he got your name from MFC, here At least, think you know you did nothing 'famous' things on your twitter

 

He also mentioned "the crazies" on Twitter. And if you were following his @replies in August (or ever) you'll know he's not making that up.

[robertina]

He also mentioned "the crazies" on Twitter. And if you were following his @replies in August (or ever) you'll know he's not making that up.

especially when he's drunk and deletes immediately after

[Yuna]

btw, i noticed this tweet by felix today:

Very much looking forward to being in Australia in December/January and then to Asia in January... Tour dates coming soon

i'm sure he means his own tour dates as a DJ, but he's doing the DJ gigs also while on tour with mika, and since mika had mentioned to a fan in munich that he'd be in asia in january, there might be a connection.

 

Hey did he delete that? I just ran to his account but found nothing

[cathouzouf]

Hey did he delete that? I just ran to his account but found nothing

 

Felix has 2 account, that post was under plastic plates:thumb_yello:

[cathouzouf]

He also mentioned "the crazies" on Twitter. And if you were following his @replies in August (or ever) you'll know he's not making that up.

 

yes, he also mentionned in an Irish interview that TOOL was #1 in Quebec and I'm pretty sure he got that from tweets we had sent him... certainly not from the record company:naughty:

[cathouzouf]

Yes one of the Quebec MFCers was saying to me in January that people were so ready for a new album after the popularity of EMD and that he needed to release it NOW to capitalize on that success and momentum. And of course by March and Star Academie it was even more true. LICM was on the charts for weeks after that. If TOOL was out it would have been flying off the shelves. People have very short attention spans and most people who buy an artist's hit records are not the "fans" who follow their every move and seek them out on an ongoing basis.

 

I love Michael Buble a lot. I buy his records and go to his gigs. But if he is not in my face I have no idea what is going on with him and could easily miss a record release or a gig announcement. If you are a real music lover it's almost impossible to keep a close eye on everyone whose music you appreciate. Even with Mika the only reason I went to my first gig is because I was in a shop and I heard them discussing it on the radio. I wasn't following Mika online at that point and had no idea he was coming.

 

Well, given the almost non-existent promo, I think it did pretty well. It was still in the top 20 anglo CD on Archambault last week:thumb_yello:

 

We'll see soon if the Journal de Québec xmas suggestion will bring more sales:blush-anim-cl:

[tiibet]

For some reason I never feel I'm writing to directly him when I tweet. It feels I'm just writing things "in the air", not sure how to say it in English, but mostly to share my thoughts with people on my timeline. He has never replied anything I say and I don't think he ever will, I really don't expect it. But I have seen he replies to some people he knows and I have heard several times him saying "yes, I read that on twitter" to people next to me. And in Luxembourg I told him I'm coming to see the Iceland gig and he was like "yes, you told me you are coming to Reykjavik" and I didn't know what to say (because I really couldn't remember saying that) but I did told him on twitter, so maybe he really reads his tweets

[willywonka]

A bird told us he'd be back soon to lisbon to compensate the faltering on his voice...

 

As if, Mika, as if....

[camille*]

For some reason I never feel I'm writing to directly him when I tweet. It feels I'm just writing things "in the air", not sure how to say it in English, but mostly to share my thoughts with people on my timeline. He has never replied anything I say and I don't think he ever will, I really don't expect it. But I have seen he replies to some people he knows and I have heard several times him saying "yes, I read that on twitter" to people next to me. And in Luxembourg I told him I'm coming to see the Iceland gig and he was like "yes, you told me you are coming to Reykjavik" and I didn't know what to say (because I really couldn't remember saying that) but I did told him on twitter, so maybe he really reads his tweets

 

I feel a bit like you do when I tweet him. I don't write to him having really in mind that it will eventually reach him (even though I'm careful not to write to him as if he was really one of my friends). So when I read some of his replies, or some stories like yours about the Iceland gig, I'm even more surprised to think he might have read our tweets.

 

I think it's maybe easier for tweets from people he knows to stand out though, like yours or Rose's. So I still don't expect replies or anything for my part

[Christine]

I think it's normal to feel like you're tweeting into the ether but Mika replied to me the first week he was on Twitter so I have always been cognizant that he's reading tweets in general even if he doesn't read this particular tweet or that particular tweet. Of course he's not on there all the time reading everything but that doesn't mean he's never seen your tweets so don't think that.

 

Camille I think Mika's pretty responsive to people who chat to him in a familiar manner so I wouldn't worry about that. I am assuming that's what you mean by "as if he was really one of" your friends. If you're one of those people who wants to tell him all your life troubles or every detail of your daily routine that's probably going to land you on the crazies list.

 

I don't think he responds to explicit demands for attention either. (Like please retweet me, please follow me, please answer me, etc.)