Mika on the cover of Metro Weekly magazine

[Christine]

Also, these kind of magazine interviews aren't the appropriate places to discuss such topics. But it's just my opinion.

 

I agree with that. If he has a complicated relationship with Catholicism and doesn't want to discuss it he should just beg off the topic IMO instead of being flip about it and trying to convince people that his contradictions are an adorable peraonality trait.

[Ellie13]

Just as I will allow myself the privelege of having a happy childhood and not bother empathizing with the bullying that he carries on and on about for the millionth time just moments earlier? I just can't get over the self absorption required to complain over and over about your childhood torment while wilfully ignoring that the fact that there is institionalized pedophilia in the Catholic church and thousands upon thousands of children have suffered not just because of the actions of local priests but the criminal way it was handled all the way up the chain to the former pope.

 

WTFever.

 

Well said! I find it horrifying that the (last) pope didn't lead on eradicating child abuse in the RC. Not sure what this one's views are.

[Ellie13]

That's one of the qualities in him I really don't appreciate Enough with the love for contradicting himself; It makes him look really ignorant in my opinion, especially in these kinds of statements he makes in interviews. Contradictions in music though, musically, fine, that's brilliant to me.

 

I wish he'd just be himself, and not hide still. That's a kind interpretation - alternative is apathy on his part which is the great enabler of abuse.

Wonder if his family is very religious and he doesn't want to offend them too much - they are his emotional centre.

[Ellenowl]

I actually see where Mika is coming from. As an atheist, when I go into church, I don't actually believe God is present, but there is a certain calming beauty about being in a place of worship. I also think regardless of religious beliefs, humans like rituals, Mika included. The music also probably draws him to the church too, despite not believing in their handling of 'issues' and theistic beliefs.

 

Although this isn't the place to discuss my entire reasons for being atheist (or anybody else's spiritual beliefs), I think it's important that we are allowed to express our opinions on what has been said in the interview-it's really quite interesting!

[astor]

Just as I will allow myself the privelege of having a happy childhood and not bother empathizing with the bullying that he carries on and on about for the millionth time just moments earlier? I just can't get over the self absorption required to complain over and over about your childhood torment while wilfully ignoring that the fact that there is institionalized pedophilia in the Catholic church and thousands upon thousands of children have suffered not just because of the actions of local priests but the criminal way it was handled all the way up the chain to the former pope.

 

WTFever.

 

Who said anything about Mika's fans saving the world? I'm talking about Mika's attitude towards the crimes of humanity perpetrated by his church. The church has been acting with impunity for centuries, doing whatever it wants and answering to no one because its one billion members turn a blind eye. Of course it can be stopped. By not being an active participant. At the very least you can protest in principle instead of acting like it doesn't matter. Would you vote for a Nazi or apartheid government even if your vote to the contrary wouldn't have much impact?

 

What is the point of protesting French politicians about gay rights and then turning a blind eye to the homophobia endemic in and being taught by the church?

 

What is the point of trying to draw attention to the cause of anti-bullying when you willfully turn a blind eye to institutionalized pedophilia?

 

If he's going to make these ridiculous comments about ceremony being more important than human rights and moral principles then he's going to receive criticism. He's the one who has made it a topic of discussion. I didn't know or care what he thought about Catholicism until he started writing songs about it.

I stopped quoting everything I agreed with because there's too much

 

Yes, it seems like he gets (justifiably) fired up about bullying - but then brushes off abhorrent actions of a corrupt institution in favour of their pretty buildings.

[Kumazzz]

UPDATE

 

https://www.metroweekly.com/2013/03/pop-and-circumstance/

 

Pop and Circumstance

Mika has taken inspiration from the Catholic Church, Cole Porter and being gay in developing his unique style of pop music

Interview by Doug Rule
March 27, 2013

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Kumazzz

[Kumazzz]

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/MetroWeekly/photos/a.10150668925972435/10151502379787435

 

[mellody]

3 hours ago, Kumazzz said:

UPDATE

 

https://www.metroweekly.com/2013/03/pop-and-circumstance/3/

Pop and Circumstance

Mika has taken inspiration from the Catholic Church, Cole Porter and being gay in developing his unique style of pop music

Interview by Doug Rule
March 27, 2013

 

 

Interesting to re-read such old interviews. Anyway your URL links to page 3, so I thought that was the whole interview, until I saw in the first post that there's a lot more. Here's the link to page 1: 

https://www.metroweekly.com/2013/03/pop-and-circumstance/

 

And looking back on the discussion, with today's knowledge I can well imagine why he finds (or at least found back then) comfort in the rituals of the church. His Mum, his childhood (the happy part of it), and also stability. He might say (in that French 2015 interview that was reposted yesterday) that he learned early on that stability is an illusion, but still it's a human need and it's something we look for if we don't have enough of it. Tho ofc some people might need more of it than others. I think it's, in a way, the opposite of freedom - but total freedom, without at least certain guidelines, is as unsatisfying as total stability, without any flexibility. So everyone needs to find their personal balance between these 2 extremes. And probably adjust it several times in their life, because as a teenager vs young adult vs parent vs career person, etc etc you might need a different balance at different times.

[Kumazzz]

@mellody

Thanks a lot, edited my post.

[holdingyourdrink]

Love reading old interviews of Mika, especially as elaborate and candid as this one. It’s been almost 10 years since this one and I wonder what answers he would give today. He does admit he’s contradictory and that makes him unbearable , but I do believe at least 30% is still the same. I do have some thoughts, I will write them up in a separate reply.

[holdingyourdrink]

59 minutes ago, mellody said:

And looking back on the discussion, with today's knowledge I can well imagine why he finds (or at least found back then) comfort in the rituals of the church.

He spoke a lot about the church, but the first part of his answer in the interview struck me the most and explains (to me) his stance to the church: 

 

MIKA: Yes, I am still a Roman Catholic. And I grew up a Melchite, which is one of the oldest forms of Christianity. The Masses are in Aramaic, and it’s a Lebanese form of Christianity that is similar in some ways to Greek Orthodox, but it’s not. It recognizes the pope. And a big part of my life growing up was church, and the ceremony of church. Added to that, when you’re a child and you sing, inevitably, 50 percent of the material that you’re going to be doing, even for professional jobs, is going to be religious-based, in a church. So the show biz of church – the preparation that goes into those ceremonies – was a very big part of my training growing up.

 

A good friend of ours is Aramean and also speaks Aramaic with his children. Without getting into a religious or political debate that is connected to the church, Aramaic is believed to be the language Jesus and his disciples spoke and is one of the oldest languages in the Middle East. There is a strong history and tradition that comes with the language alone: imagine in combination with religion.

We do not speak about religion with our friend, but we notice what a profound part it is of his life and his identity. I can only imagine it was similar to Mika and his family. Despite being born in the 20th and growing up in the 21st century, to be confronted with such a huge contradiction (that is the church) that is part of your identity, I can understand why he doesn’t want to completely abandon that. Despite his views of the church, despite his views of stability. It gave him and his family, as he calls his siblings and himself “the nowhere children” a sense of community and belonging. And his views of stability may have changed; but his views of community and the importance of it have (I believe) not. He still speaks about communion of spirit to this day.

 

[holdingyourdrink]

MIKA: Oh, I was bullied my whole life. In some way I still feel like I am in some places — in some countries, let’s put it that way. People say they don’t judge me, but they do. They hate nonconformity in a lot of places. That kind of bullying is something that everyone experiences all the time, in some measure or another, in some way or another. I think it never really goes away.

 

I wonder how he feels about this today, 9 years after giving this answer. Today gender and sexual identity is much more normalized/present (is that the correct term, please do correct me if I’m wrong) than it ever was. What struck me from reading one of the reviews from Billy Porter’s movie “Anything’s Possible” (the movie Mika has written and sung “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now”), was that in the movie, the mother says of her son: “thankfully he’s only gay!” - just to illustrate the shift of view in the last (two) decades concerning sexuality. I believe in a normalizing way. 

 

And the feeling of still being bullied in some places: does he still experience this, has this declined, or has it changed? And I wonder if part of this feeling has to do with not feeling like he fully belongs somewhere? 

Then again these are questions I ask myself sometimes, so there is a whole lotta projection there! 

 

 

MIKA: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Can you imagine? My life was a giant dressing-up-off! Our apartment was a mess, because it was a workshop. And everyone knows that an apartment that’s a mess is the most creative place to ever grow up, because when it’s a mess, you make it into anything you want. And there were clothes everywhere – dressing up was actually quite the serious part of growing up. Dressing up wasn’t just a stupid thing that was done at some children’s party. We all dressed up, all the time, as different things and different people. And stay in character for, like, the whole day. It’s really weird. I look back on it now and I’m just like, well, no wonder I didn’t have many friends. [Laughs.] But you know, we were five — we were a gang. So it protected us.

 

I actually had to chuckle about this one, because we may not have five kids like the Pennimans, but we have a gang of three! And they stick together, have their own little rules and sometimes language. Especially during the pandemic they stuck together a lot, dressed up all day and were in their own little world. They still are, it’s pretty cool to witness it as a parent.

(And no they don’t get along a 100%, I mean, they’re still siblings!!) 

 

 

 

MIKA: Oh, I’m completely uncomfortable in my own skin. I’m completely uncomfortable. [Laughs.] I think that’s why I write songs, because I always want to be something else. And I can turn myself into anything if I write a song. I visualize that I want to sing like a 16-year-old goth, and then I write a song about it, and I feel like that person. I’m neurotic, self-contradictory and just unbearable. And for all those reasons, I write.

 

Oh I really would like to know what he says now! MNIMH is said to be more open and transparent than ever. Has he reconciled with himself and he is a little more bearable now? 

[mellody]

3 hours ago, holdingyourdrink said:

He spoke a lot about the church, but the first part of his answer in the interview struck me the most and explains (to me) his stance to the church: 

 

MIKA: Yes, I am still a Roman Catholic. And I grew up a Melchite, which is one of the oldest forms of Christianity. The Masses are in Aramaic, and it’s a Lebanese form of Christianity that is similar in some ways to Greek Orthodox, but it’s not. It recognizes the pope. And a big part of my life growing up was church, and the ceremony of church. Added to that, when you’re a child and you sing, inevitably, 50 percent of the material that you’re going to be doing, even for professional jobs, is going to be religious-based, in a church. So the show biz of church – the preparation that goes into those ceremonies – was a very big part of my training growing up.

 

A good friend of ours is Aramean and also speaks Aramaic with his children. Without getting into a religious or political debate that is connected to the church, Aramaic is believed to be the language Jesus and his disciples spoke and is one of the oldest languages in the Middle East. There is a strong history and tradition that comes with the language alone: imagine in combination with religion.

We do not speak about religion with our friend, but we notice what a profound part it is of his life and his identity. I can only imagine it was similar to Mika and his family. Despite being born in the 20th and growing up in the 21st century, to be confronted with such a huge contradiction (that is the church) that is part of your identity, I can understand why he doesn’t want to completely abandon that. Despite his views of the church, despite his views of stability. It gave him and his family, as he calls his siblings and himself “the nowhere children” a sense of community and belonging. And his views of stability may have changed; but his views of community and the importance of it have (I believe) not. He still speaks about communion of spirit to this day.

 

 

Thanks, that's interesting about this language. And you're right, the culture you grow up with of course influences your identity, you won't just abandon that because you learn later that parts of it are actually really despicable, because you'd be giving up a part of yourself. Also the communities you are or were part of, define a part of your identity - and they definitely can give stability, same as rituals can. It's not easy to distance yourself from a community that protects you, or did protect you at some point - such contradictions can be really hard to handle, and saying, like Mika did, that you take the privilege to pick the parts you want, can only be a very short summary of all the contradicting feelings.

 

1 hour ago, holdingyourdrink said:

actually had to chuckle about this one, because we may not have five kids like the Pennimans, but we have a gang of three! And they stick together, have their own little rules and sometimes language. Especially during the pandemic they stuck together a lot, dressed up all day and were in their own little world. They still are, it’s pretty cool to witness it as a parent.

(And no they don’t get along a 100%, I mean, they’re still siblings!!) 

 

My kids are very strong-minded individuals and usually go their own ways (a bit like me, I suppose 🙈😅), instead of sticking together. It's rare that they actually play something together - indeed during the pandemic it got more, as they didn't have alternatives. I don't know tho why they don't like dressing up, I used to do that all the time as a kid. 😅

 

1 hour ago, holdingyourdrink said:

Oh I really would like to know what he says now! MNIMH is said to be more open and transparent than ever. Has he reconciled with himself and he is a little more bearable now? 

 

I would assume that he feels a lot more comfortable in his skin as he did back then. How bearable he is, no idea - as the journalist wrote, that Mika is unbearable is not the impression you get if you meet him.  I'd say he's only human, with all the contradictions, good and bad sides that come with it.

[Paoletta]

7 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

Thanks, that's interesting about this language. And you're right, the culture you grow up with of course influences your identity, you won't just abandon that because you learn later that parts of it are actually really despicable, because you'd be giving up a part of yourself. Also the communities you are or were part of, define a part of your identity - and they definitely can give stability, same as rituals can. It's not easy to distance yourself from a community that protects you, or did protect you at some point - such contradictions can be really hard to handle, and saying, like Mika did, that you take the privilege to pick the parts you want, can only be a very short summary of all the contradicting feelings.

 

 

My kids are very strong-minded individuals and usually go their own ways (a bit like me, I suppose 🙈😅), instead of sticking together. It's rare that they actually play something together - indeed during the pandemic it got more, as they didn't have alternatives. I don't know tho why they don't like dressing up, I used to do that all the time as a kid. 😅

 

 

I would assume that he feels a lot more comfortable in his skin as he did back then. How bearable he is, no idea - as the journalist wrote, that Mika is unbearable is not the impression you get if you meet him.  I'd say he's only human, with all the contradictions, good and bad sides that come with it.

unbearable Mika ? does not seem ..  i don't know 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Paoletta

[Hero]

2 hours ago, mellody said:

How bearable he is, no idea - as the journalist wrote, that Mika is unbearable is not the impression you get if you meet him.  I'd say he's only human, with all the contradictions, good and bad sides that come with it.

That's interesting. I was asked before at the dinner in NY what Mika meant to me. I said that to me, he is the epitome of what it is to be human.