Popular - with Ariana Grande

[Naectegale]

About the swearing words... well, it´s for America, so, he better buy a gun and kill people randomly in the street or schools instead of using the word "sh*t" or "b*tch" THIS-IS-AMERICA!!!!

 

 

 

But you misunderstand - it's not random that's allowed - the NRA says it's OK for GOOD guys to carry guns so they can shoot the BAD guys who carry guns. So that's OK then.

 

I'm a good guy (well - girl actually ) I think I will buy a gun and shoot the bad guys at the NRA so they can't spout such rubbish again. And then there might actully be a change to the law.

[Christine]

Btw... have you realised?? All Ariana´s fans love that song. I don´t konw how it will work, cause honestly in my case, when it´s Mika who sings with someone else as he did with Pharrell or Priscilla I didn´t even bothered... I have no idea how Pharrell or Priscilla look, or how their music sound, so I´m not sure if it´ll help Mika to sell more albums or not...

 

That's why I think they need to promote together for it to have any real impact. Even if it's just a video. At least Mika's face is on the cover of the single so if her fans are buying it on iTunes they've got some sense of what he looks like. And this is Mika's song so they already know how his music sounds.

 

The American thing is complicated. First of all what you hear in the media is not necessarily representative of how most Americans think. For example politicians and their media advocates will get into a bitter debate for months on end about raising taxes for the rich and you wonder how anyone can be so stupid as to support low taxes on the rich when they are not wealthy themselves. But you look at the polls and you see the public is all for taxing the rich. The problem is the politicians are corrupt and answer to the people who fund them (ie the rich) instead of the public majority. And the media perpetuates all this nonsense because they just like a lot of conflict and drama. It gives them something to talk about 24 hours a day on their news shows.

 

Secondly the swearing, the sexual prudishness, the gun loving and the religious fundamentalism are all in line with a generally conservate mentality and not as contradictory as it may seem. The US constitution provides them with a right to bear arms and unfortunately some have taken it to its absurd extreme and it's been impossible to go up against it without challenging the constitution itself.

 

At this point what you have is an arms race among the citizenry so even rational people can't help but think perhaps they need a gun to protect themselves in some situations. If your local criminals or disturbed teens are packing AK 47s who is going to protect you from that when they start shooting? Even if the cops get there in two minutes it's too late.

 

It's easy to look at it from the outside from a place like Canada where gun violence is much lower and these types of guns are prohibited. We can see how eliminating these weapons and not granting people a "right" to carry arms makes everyone safer. But how do you convince people to put down THEIR guns first?

 

I've seen this happen in South Africa as well. The police could not deal with the escalating violence after apartheid ended (for many reasons including the fact that the job of the police force had previously been to enforce apartheid rather than to serve and protect its citizens). So people had to deal with the criminals themselves. Once people started arming themselves carjackers would steal cars by shooting the driver before they tried to get inside. Then BMW started making cars with flames shooting out of the wheels so you could incinerate carjackers before they shoot you. Not only was this permitted, but the police endorsed it!

 

Anyway the American situation it is very complicated. The gun problem has been 200 years in the making and the US is a huge country with 50 states that operate independently in many ways. Not everyone thinks the same or believes the same things or lives the same way. When it comes to swearing or nudity all you need is a very small group of extremely vocal prudes to convince advertisers to pull their support for content that the small group finds offensive.

[Marilyn Mastin]

posted on one of the videos on youtube, good news i suppose.

 

Jewelloveslife

i love this i gotta listen to more of this mika guy

Result!!!!

[AnnaMariaPetra]

That's why I think they need to promote together for it to have any real impact. Even if it's just a video. At least Mika's face is on the cover of the single so if her fans are buying it on iTunes they've got some sense of what he looks like. And this is Mika's song so they already know how his music sounds.

 

The American thing is complicated. First of all what you hear in the media is not necessarily representative of how most Americans think. For example politicians and their media advocates will get into a bitter debate for months on end about raising taxes for the rich and you wonder how anyone can be so stupid as to support low taxes on the rich when they are not wealthy themselves. But you look at the polls and you see the public is all for taxing the rich. The problem is the politicians are corrupt and answer to the people who fund them (ie the rich) instead of the public majority. And the media perpetuates all this nonsense because they just like a lot of conflict and drama. It gives them something to talk about 24 hours a day on their news shows.

 

Secondly the swearing, the sexual prudishness, the gun loving and the religious fundamentalism are all in line with a generally conservate mentality and not as contradictory as it may seem. The US constitution provides them with a right to bear arms and unfortunately some have taken it to its absurd extreme and it's been impossible to go up against it without challenging the constitution itself.

 

At this point what you have is an arms race among the citizenry so even rational people can't help but think perhaps they need a gun to protect themselves in some situations. If your local criminals or disturbed teens are packing AK 47s who is going to protect you from that when they start shooting? Even if the cops get there in two minutes it's too late.

 

It's easy to look at it from the outside from a place like Canada where gun violence is much lower and these types of guns are prohibited. We can see how eliminating these weapons and not granting people a "right" to carry arms makes everyone safer. But how do you convince people to put down THEIR guns first?

 

I've seen this happen in South Africa as well. The police could not deal with the escalating violence after apartheid ended (for many reasons including the fact that the job of the police force had previously been to enforce apartheid rather than to serve and protect its citizens). So people had to deal with the criminals themselves. Once people started arming themselves carjackers would steal cars by shooting the driver before they tried to get inside. Then BMW started making cars with flames shooting out of the wheels so you could incinerate carjackers before they shoot you. Not only was this permitted, but the police endorsed it!

 

Anyway the American situation it is very complicated. The gun problem has been 200 years in the making and the US is a huge country with 50 states that operate independently in many ways. Not everyone thinks the same or believes the same things or lives the same way. When it comes to swearing or nudity all you need is a very small group of extremely vocal prudes to convince advertisers to pull their support for content that the small group finds offensive.

 

Thanks for explaining it so well, Christine!

[Kaito]

Well her video has more views than any of Mika's so...

 

[YOUTUBE]CC1cWrxk_mI[/YOUTUBE]

 

Guess I was way off the mark when I said Mika wasn't willing to do what it takes as far as the US is concerned.

 

She's a Nickelodeon star... My bro knows who she is * I wont comment my bro's tastes when it comes to TV programs

 

Well... I hope it'll help Mika. I don't really like this version of Popular, the original one is far better but if that can help Mika to sell & keep doing what he likes, why not.

[tiibet]

sometimes you have to compromise to get something better out of it... whether it's simply chart success in the US that he wants, or whether it's not getting dropped by his record label due to lack of success - i'm sure that if he acts against his own principles then only because he hopes to get something else that's even more important to him. for example regain his freedom. and he's smart, he knows it's better for marketing reasons in the US to skip the swear words - and just ONE hit would be enough to get him in the position again to do what he wants with the next single/album. if he fails, there might not be another album, at least not with this record label. if it's all or nothing, you might change your mind on unimportant stuff like swear words. and losing something you already have is always harder than not reaching a goal in the first place. as opposed to celebrate, this song has a meaning, it has a "character", if you know what i mean... and imo it still does in the new version, also without the swear words - and i find that much more important than hearing the word "sh*t" instead of "things" in the song. to me, the song always had both meanings, the f* you to the bullies as well as the stay true to yourself message. the f* you might not be as strong anymore without the swear words, but it's still there for me, in the line with the "working at the movies", or the toilet, for example.

 

Yes, I'm sure about that too and also believe that he gave his situation a lot of thought before doing something this far away from GK ideology. I hope this collaboration helps him with the US market and makes him more known there, he really deserves it.

[suzie]

I think at some point I can hear chipmunks doing backing vocals .....but maybe it's a good thing,I know chipmunks has a lot of fans too

 

Totally... And some of them seem to be on MFC already..

[Dreamy_Queen]

Well her video has more views than any of Mika's so...

 

[YOUTUBE]CC1cWrxk_mI[/YOUTUBE]

 

Guess I was way off the mark when I said Mika wasn't willing to do what it takes as far as the US is concerned.

 

She's plagiarist

those He-ye-ye are exactly the same like of a band called "4 non-blonds" 15 years ago.

[krysady]

Totally... And some of them seem to be on MFC already..

 

Now I'm ready for Mika feat. Psy,that would break all the charts

[sariflor]

Now I'm ready for Mika feat. Psy,that would break all the charts

 

:lmfao:

[Lilasko]

So this is top comment on one of the videos. How do we interpret this? Good, bad?

 

xoniallatemynandos

Like if the only reason you listened to this is because Ariana's featured. ♥

[Kaito]

So this is top comment on one of the videos. How do we interpret this? Good, bad?

 

xoniallatemynandos

Like if the only reason you listened to this is because Ariana's featured. ♥

 

MMMmmm I didn't want to comment my bro's tastes... I'll also keep my mouth shut about it

[Yuna]

Now I'm ready for Mika feat. Psy,that would break all the charts

 

Oh Mika's gonna sing in Korean finally.. ?

 

Cooooooooooooooooool

[Christine]

She's plagiarist

those He-ye-ye are exactly the same like of a band called "4 non-blonds" 15 years ago.

 

And the "popular" is exactly the same as the song from Wicked. Does that make Mika a plagiarist?

[vixenbbw]

She's plagiarist

those He-ye-ye are exactly the same like of a band called "4 non-blonds" 15 years ago.

 

And the "popular" is exactly the same as the song from Wicked. Does that make Mika a plagiarist?

 

And what about those heart hand gestures??!!? Surely they're the sole property of Mika and his MFCers during the singing of TOOL!!!

[Christine]

I hate to say this but I think this single was released to promote Ariana more than it was to promote MIKA. She is going to release an album in 2013 and her voice is featured more on the single so that is what it seems like to me. Hopefully it will also help to promote MIKA but I can see it turning into people thinking "he's that guy who sang one song with Ariana" and not bother to check out his other music. I hope I'm wrong.

 

I think you may be right but I guess any exposure is better than none at all. There will be at least some people who will notice him the next time they hear his name and one day it may click for them and they'll start taking a real interest in his music. We've heard from a lot of people who were familiar with Grace Kelly or Love Today but had no idea who sang it but something caught their eye later on and they started checking out all his music.

 

I also think it helps to be able to say to the American media that Mika has written songs for Madonna or that he's sung with Ariana Grande. If I've never heard of someone but they seem to be well connected with popular artists I tend to think it's me who's out of the loop and not that they unknown.

 

One observation....If the single does do well and MIKA gets US airplay more Americans will be checking out this site. And how are they going to feel when they read the negative comments towards America? While it is true that everyone is entitled to their opinions, it doesn't put MIKA or MIKA's fans in a good light. I'm American and I am proud to be an American even with all of our faults. And I'm sure everyone else feels the same way about their own countries. We are all proud to be where we are from and we are all united because of our love of MIKA's music. But I have to be honest and say that sometimes I don't feel very welcome here because I am American.

 

Yes I noticed it too and that's why I tried to give my perspective as someone who is not American but understands the politics and culture pretty well (relatively speaking). It's very difficult to judge a country if all you really know about it is what you hear from the media. In fact I think the American media makes a mockery of Americans even more than international media, even if that's not their intention. The earnestness in reporting of some of the most outrageous and ignorant opinions gives the opinions more credibility than they deserve.

 

Even with music people should remember that if they are hearing crap American music it is often a reflection of their own country's tastes as well as what is being produced in the US. There are a lot of great Canadian artists but the ones that become most famous on the international stage are the most mediocre because that's what everyone else likes. You can't judge Canada for the fact that Justin Bieber is so popular in the UK. That's down to Britain's tastes.

 

Most people in Europe never hear whole genres of American music like country. They just import the poppy hip hop and poppy dance and some middle of the road bands like Maroon 5.

[Dreamy_Queen]

And the "popular" is exactly the same as the song from Wicked. Does that make Mika a plagiarist?

 

Mika has an agreement with the author of Wicked, and tells about everywhere. I doubt she can boast the same

[Lilasko]

Mika has an agreement with the author of Wicked, and tells about everywhere. I doubt she can boast the same

 

Well I actually think she wrote it together with Linda Perry

[nico_collard]

I think the policy has always been we don't permit what is filtered out by the board's filter. It was just set up that way by Sunny Monkey and we never agreed to change it. I don't think any words in Mika's songs are banned on MFC. Although obviously it's not okay to go around calling other members bitches and whores, etc.

 

Hmmmmm.... I see we still can't write Sw ank (as in Hilary Sw ank) without part of it being blanked out

 

S****... see?

 

Ha, I had the opposite with Cee Lo's F*ck You. I found it on YouTube and didn't realize there was a boring version called Forget You until later

 

That reminded me of something... I was going through some music files on the external HDD I use to back up the kids school issued laptops and found the album version of Dedication to My Ex (Miss That) by Lloyd... I don't think I've heard that many mentions of slang referring to a certain part of female anatomy for ages

[Lilasko]

Hmmmmm.... I see we still can't write Sw ank (as in Hilary Sw ank) without part of it being blanked out

 

S****... see?

 

 

 

That reminded me of something... I was going through some music files on the external HDD I use to back up the kids school issued laptops and found the album version of Dedication to My Ex (Miss That) by Lloyd... I don't think I've heard that many mentions of slang referring to a certain part of female anatomy for ages

 

Just listened to it and wow that song got a whole new meaning

[Christine]

Mika has an agreement with the author of Wicked, and tells about everywhere. I doubt she can boast the same

 

Regardless of Mika's story about his chat with Stephen Schwartz, he also has legal permission so that the original writers get royalties. Everyone has to get legal permission when they are using other people's songs.

 

Mika also had to give credit to the Cutting Crew guy for Relax and I doubt it was through a personal negotiation between the two of them.

 

I doubt this girl wrote the song at all but that's another story. In any case it's not plagiarism if the original writers are credited.

[IngievV]

Girlfriend sure can sing though

 

Still not a fan of the new Popular.

[Marilyn Mastin]

I hate to say this but I think this single was released to promote Ariana more than it was to promote MIKA. She is going to release an album in 2013 and her voice is featured more on the single so that is what it seems like to me. Hopefully it will also help to promote MIKA but I can see it turning into people thinking "he's that guy who sang one song with Ariana" and not bother to check out his other music. I hope I'm wrong.

 

One observation....If the single does do well and MIKA gets US airplay more Americans will be checking out this site. And how are they going to feel when they read the negative comments towards America? While it is true that everyone is entitled to their opinions, it doesn't put MIKA or MIKA's fans in a good light. I'm American and I am proud to be an American even with all of our faults. And I'm sure everyone else feels the same way about their own countries. We are all proud to be where we are from and we are all united because of our love of MIKA's music. But I have to be honest and say that sometimes I don't feel very welcome here because I am American.

I agree with you, though I'm from the UK. I can't understand all the negativity just because he CHOSE to do a song with a young, up-and-coming American star. It was Mika's own choice!

Quite honestly, I think some fans have this rose-coloured impression of Mika and think he's not like any other popstar. He would sooner remain under the radar rather than (Heaven forbid) collabotate with other pop stars to become more famous.

Well he's not like any other popstar, music-wise, or performance-wise, but he IS a popstar and he's said as much, that his music is unappologetically pop. I can't see what good the sarcastic comments, inferring that he might as well collaborate with Psy (in effect, saying that Psy is rubbish and comparing Ariana with Psy) is going to do for Mika's popularity. It just sounds like his fans are nothing but a stuck-up bunch of brats who think Mika is too good to be linked with anyone who isn't more "exclusive".

Mika did send out that impression at first, with GK, but I never thought it was a good idea to limit himself, and I wasn't fooled really. He needed to learn to lighten up if he was to survive and that's what he's done, it is no bad thing. It had to happen, and in my view, its great.

But he still has kept his principles. The record company wanted to keep Heroes off the album, but Mika disagreed with them, and its on there. I'm sure he still has his way in most things. I also think he probably enjoyed singing Popular with Ariana, otherwise he wouldn't have done it. He's a grown man, and while we may not agree with everything he does (I don't always think he does the right thing either) but if its his choice to do something, who are we to say he shouldn't?

Well that's my two cents, I'm sorry if people don't like what I've said, but we've all hated reading negative comments about Mika from so-called haters. We should therefore, be better than that and stop insinuating that Ariana (or anyone else) is not good enough to work with Mika. It looks bad that some of his fans are acting like this. It puts his whole fanbase in a bad light.

Edited December 24, 2012 by Marilyn Mastin

[suzie]

It has to or it would be very weird. I wish Mika would say something about this collaboration, who came up with the idea and why?

I’d rather he just kept quiet about it.

Like @Silver, one listen was perfectly enough for me, no further tries needed.

O. M. G.

Mika.

This is truly appalling teeny pap.

You are capable of SO much more.

I honestly don’t see the situation that tragic. Mika did NOT have to go to the studio for his vocals to be used on this record, so I am not ‘worried’ about Mika’s taste turning that bad.

Someone wrote earlier that Mika’s reputation as a composer may suffer but of course it won’t, since he merely re-wrote the lyrics to an already popular Broadway song and made an awesome version with Priscilla that has completely the opposite meaning to the original song. That meaning is something the producers of this version completely neglected, or don’t even understand themselves, as they gave them to the mouth of this Disney princess. It’s not that her audience, young little girls will start wondering about the meaning, anyway. Or perhaps it is now trendy to be an outsider now.

 

sometimes you have to compromise to get something better out of it... whether it's simply chart success in the US that he wants, or whether it's not getting dropped by his record label due to lack of success - i'm sure that if he acts against his own principles then only because he hopes to get something else that's even more important to him. for example regain his freedom.

It does not work like that. If record company controls what he puts on an album they will insist on similar stuff from him if that’s what they see is selling from him. I think his record company is already in the false belief that it is fast, happy, silly songs that sell best when it comes to Mika, that’s why they chose to release Celebrate as the first single everywhere. Anyway, the reason I quoted you is because there were other similar post ‘allowing’ Mika to make this admittedly bad choice or even sell his soul should it help his career, but at the same time, often the same people (and not talking about you) totally oppose the slightest bit of criticism about even unreleased songs he can actually work on further, following fans’ feedback. To me that is a total lack of aesthetics and blindly approving anything as soon as Mika himself has done it.

If someone is going to ruin his songs at least he should distance his image from it.

I hope he does it – can’t wait for opinions to change all of a sudden

[Christine]

Girlfriend sure can sing though

 

Random vocal runs throughout a song is one of my pet peeves. But she really does sound like Christina under the autotune as I suspected. She has a nice tone and it's unfortunate that it's not in evidence on Popular.

 

Quite honestly, I think some fans have this rose-coloured impression of Mika and think he's not like any other popstar.

 

I totally agree with that. And that's why other artists are often criticized for things Mika does himself (eg plagiarism).

 

But Mika perpetuates this idea just about every time he opens his mouth while he's promoting his work so I'm not surprised I guess.

 

It just sounds like his fans are nothing but a stuck-up bunch of brats who think Mika is too good to be linked with anyone who isn't more "exclusive".

 

If you read the comments on the video I think "brats" is the perfect description but the comments are not coming from Mika fans.

 

there were other similar post ‘allowing’ Mika to make this admittedly bad choice or even sell his soul should it help his career, but at the same time, often the same people (and not talking about you) totally oppose the slightest bit of criticism about even unreleased songs he can actually work on further, following fans’ feedback.

 

I think we already established with the French songs in London discussion that Mika is always right and everyone else (ie any fan who questions his choices) is always wrong.