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2015 - MIKA @HMH, Amsterdam - 22 September : REPORTS/PICS/VIDEOS


Kumazzz

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My first Mika gig :excite:

 

Let me start off by saying that this was the best concert I've ever been to. I love how much he connects with the audience and the how much he lets the audience influence what he's doing on stage. Plus, I've never been so close to the stage before ;)

 

I don't want to talk to much about the queuing part, it's really about the concert after all! But I want to thank the people that I have been talking to, it was really nice all under our umbrellas (no it wasn't, it was cold and wet but at least we could share our misery :teehee: ) I was the blond girl with the flower headband in my hair waiting for my sister, by the way :naughty:

 

Then we could get in, and my sister and I ended up at the second row! I couldn't be happier, I didn't really need front row for my first concert but I wanted to at least be somewhat close to the stage. This was perfect. I have never waited so much on one day but once Mika got on stage, it had all been worth it. He started at his caravan which was on the other side of the stage, but he often came to our side as well and then he was standing right in front of us.

 

During Grace Kelly, he made Max play the bass veeeery slowwwllyyyyy..... then he sped up and sang the song normally. But, after the final chorus.. he started the song again! And made Max play slowly again! "Just because I can" :facepalm::lmfao:

Somewhat after that he said that just before they got on stage, he promised the band that he was going to behave that night. "I already F'ed that up", he said :naughty: As he had messed it up anyway, he decided to sing songs in French, even though he originally hadn't planned to. Boum Boum Boum came next and was so much fun. But as someone said before, L'Amour didn't work. People didn't know the lyrics (boum boum boum is easy to sing along to, même les Américains comprennent after all) and they started to lose attention. Even I started taking pictures instead of singing and dancing along. But this was the only song that this happened, with the rest of the gig, Mika had the audience with him. Speaking of which, I am soooo happy about finally having seen Underwater live. I have seen that in so many videos and now I could be a part of the audience and sing for him :wub: And the Relax jump! And "don't screeEEAAMMMM"! All those tiny things that I had seen so often on Youtube. That is all I wanted.

Promiseland live was something I didn't dare dream, when I got the album. So the fact that it happened.... :cheer::fangurl:

To my ears, he didn't make any mistakes at all during that song! I know he did in the previous gigs. But it was perfect. Instead of the first time "I've got no money in my pocket and the whole world's bringing me down" he said: "Heineken Hall..... dance with me". The second time round he did sing those lyrics. His voice was On Point. I was very happy that I could hear everything very well because during the support act Citizens, I did not hear a thing once the drum started. Mika's mic was louder, thankfully.

 

So then, at one point, Love Today ended, Mika disappeared, the audience was screaming We Want More and he came back to sing Last Party. At one point during the chorus he was standing right in front of me and I was singing and smiling really wide. He had a serious kind of look on his face but then he looked at me (of course, can't be sure. It was really close anyway) and started smiling really wide as well. Perfect ending for a gig.

 

Except, it wasn't! The audience had been demanding Lollipop for quite some time (screaming Hey, what's the big idea?! and Yo Mika! and simply yelling Lollipop!) soo... after Last Party he sat himself behind his keyboard (I did miss his beautiful piano to be honest) and said: "Normally, after this song, I just leave. But tonight..." and started Lollipop. This guy, who was standing right next to us, screamed so loud at the lyric "She's a player and a downright whore!" that Mika fell silent and smiled: "couldn't have said it better myself"! He searched for the guy and finally he found him, and got his name wrong (it was Frans and he called him Hans) and then he invited him on the stage! It was hilarious.

 

Eventually, the gig was over, Mika, Curtis, Tristan, Joy, Lewis and Max bowed and that was it. I bought the black shirt as a souvenir and my sister and I waited for Mika at the back. However, after 45 minutes or so we really had to leave. I was kind of sad but we just had to get home and we couldn't miss the last metro. I wasn't expecting to meet him anyway, the gig was all that really mattered to me. Maybe one day when I'm more prepared to meet him, I will.

 

I couldn't be happier. Well, maybe only if I still were experiencing the gig. His voice was on fire, the setlist was (almost) perfect, I love his outfits, the set design is AMAZING, we had better spots than I had hoped for.. Best concert ever. Thank you Mika :huglove:

 

By the way, I didn't take many pictures, and the pictures I have are not very good. This one is my favourite:

 

312i6x3.png

Lovely review. Great details, you caught the spirit perfectly. I had the same feeling as you had when I was at my first concert in Lokeren in august about finally joining in at all the things that i watched so many times on video. But this concert was so much better. I'm very happy for you that this was your first concert and that you had such a great spot. You totally deserve it after waiting so long in that horrible rain. 

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I would like to see pictures from after the show. I wasnt able to wait until Mika came out (we did wait for 45 minutes but time was running out for us).

I had a friend give Mika a cartoonmagazine i found some time ago (from his birthyear 1983). If anyone happens to have pictures of that i'd appreciate it :).

 

I found a short clip on Twitter. Hope it helps you. ( Mika has books in his left hand.)

https://twitter.com/xRobintje/status/646656795818246144

MP4 https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/646656562786791425/pu/vid/352x640/ClePZUJRZ85KChaT.mp4

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I haven't been heer for ages, mostly because of health problems, but I had to look for reviews of yesterdays gig.

I'm a very spoiled girl, having seen U2 and Mika in nearly two weeks.

It was such a great gig yesterday, it gave me lots of energy and made me so so happy to be a Mika fan! I took my mum with me and she was blown away by his voice and energy.

There was no chance for me to wait for him outside because I was running out of oxygen (oh how I hate those failing, lazy lungs!!!) but it still was a great night which will be remembered for long long times!

Edited by Anouk
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This is a very strange (dutch) review of the concert.

http://www.podiuminfo.nl/review/3828/Mika_-_2209_-_HMH/

 

Basically the reviewer is saying that Mika is a good  performer with lots of energy but musically he falls short. She claims he is play-backing a lot in the gig, especially in the middle of the setlist.  Apparantly she thinks  (halfway the concert) he left the singing of all the higher tones  and a lot of the more complicated vocal parts to the other bandmembers and to the crowd. She suggests that he might have done this to give rest to his voice. According to her, he uses a lot of tricks to disguise this play-backing like pulling difficult faces and moving the microphone from his mouth. She mentions Relax and Grace Kelly as examples.

 

I think she is mistaken. Yes, I've noticed last year that Mika actually most of the time leaves the singing of the high notes in Relax to the crowd. And maybe there are a few other songs (Rain?) where he occasionally does that. But actually I thought he hardly did so yesterday. I was very impressed by his vocals. I thought they were much stronger and better now than at the summer gigs. There I was disappointed sometimes by his singing. I even thought that he'd better change the arrangements if he can't reach the higher tones anymore (or practise more). Yesterday I felt completely different. But because of this review I'm startin to have some doubts. 

 

I just watched Rain, Relax  and Grace Kelly in the following YouTube clips and I can't be sure whether the higher vocals are sung by Mika or by Max or Joy (or taped choirs). I think it is Mika singing almost all of the time with the support of the rest. In Grace Kelly, I'm absolutely sure that's his own voice. It's not very strong at the end of the song in the clip but I think it sounded stronger live.

 

Any opinions? About these clips or about other songs that are not on YouTube yet.

Grace Kelly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cy63ccucao

Relax:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DotIjuDXtEw

Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPLdCwcHAeo

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This is a very strange (dutch) review of the concert.

http://www.podiuminfo.nl/review/3828/Mika_-_2209_-_HMH/

 

Basically the reviewer is saying that Mika is a good performer with lots of energy but musically he falls short. She claims he is play-backing a lot in the gig, especially in the middle of the setlist. Apparantly she thinks (halfway the concert) he left the singing of all the higher tones and a lot of the more complicated vocal parts to the other bandmembers and to the crowd. She suggests that he might have done this to give rest to his voice. According to her, he uses a lot of tricks to disguise this play-backing like pulling difficult faces and moving the microphone from his mouth. She mentions Relax and Grace Kelly as examples.

 

I think she is mistaken. Yes, I've noticed last year that Mika actually most of the time leaves the singing of the high notes in Relax to the crowd. And maybe there are a few other songs (Rain?) where he occasionally does that. But actually I thought he hardly did so yesterday. I was very impressed by his vocals. I thought they were much stronger and better now than at the summer gigs. There I was disappointed sometimes by his singing. I even thought that he'd better change the arrangements if he can't reach the higher tones anymore (or practise more). Yesterday I felt completely different. But because of this review I'm startin to have some doubts.

 

I just watched Rain, Relax and Grace Kelly in the following YouTube clips and I can't be sure whether the higher vocals are sung by Mika or by Max or Joy (or taped choirs). I think it is Mika singing almost all of the time with the support of the rest. In Grace Kelly, I'm absolutely sure that's his own voice. It's not very strong at the end of the song in the clip but I think it sounded stronger live.

 

Any opinions? About these clips or about other songs that are not on YouTube yet.

Grace Kelly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cy63ccucao

Relax:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DotIjuDXtEw

Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPLdCwcHAeo

I've seen this "review" too. I completely disagree with it. He did not playback, I am sure I heard his voice. It was very strong and very much live, even often not singing the recorded version of the song. She mentioned his trick being "pulling a troubled face while pretending to sing" but he has always done that while singing high notes. With Relax in the past recent gigs he often let the audience sing "easy", but here he only did so at the final chorus. The choruses before that he sang it himself.

 

Let me say that literally anyone can become a critic. There's no reason she has a better ear than any of us. I haven't watched any videos yet but his voice was indeed strong in reality.

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Wow is the perfect word to describe the show!

This was my first time seeing Mika live (yay), and he most certainly didn't disappoint!

 

The evening started with the Citizens (pre-show) and they were good, though the lead's mic was horrible

and I didn't understand a word he sang!

 

After that we had to wait for another 30 minutes, and we were all looking at the caravan thinking he would come out of it.

But of course he didn't! He walked on stage from the other side and started singing No Place In Heaver which was a surprise to me,

but I liked it, it got us all in a good mood! Soon after the caravan opened and turned into a mini stage with things coming out of the top, it looked very cool.

 

The backdrop was just a black curtain, and I already had a feeling something was hidden behind it, and I was right! It dropped, revealing a BEAUTIFUL set!

 

I loved the fact that he didn’t just sing songs from NPIH but also loads of his past albums! I almost heard all my favourite songs live.

He’s so good live too, I was immensely impressed by his vocals. He didn’t miss a note, not even the really high ones in the older songs.

Great set list (though I really missed All She Wants)!

 

 

Another thing I liked is that Mika is so funny. Not scripted, but just interacting with the audience and being goofy haha.

24 hours later, I’m still on cloud 9!  :wub2: Thank you Mika for an amazing night! 

 

ps, i uploaoded Grace Kelly to YouTube > 

Edited by lisc
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I've seen this "review" too. I completely disagree with it. He did not playback, I am sure I heard his voice. It was very strong and very much live, even often not singing the recorded version of the song. She mentioned his trick being "pulling a troubled face while pretending to sing" but he has always done that while singing high notes. With Relax in the past recent gigs he often let the audience sing "easy", but here he only did so at the final chorus. The choruses before that he sang it himself.

 

Let me say that literally anyone can become a critic. There's no reason she has a better ear than any of us. I haven't watched any videos yet but his voice was indeed strong in reality.

I just read some other reviews this Kim Raven made: they are all a bit sour, so no suprise she did that with Mika too.

Ofcourse there's a 'twitter fight' going on between her and someone who saw the concert. https://twitter.com/tisniewat/status/646595106754174976

Better not react on her, she isn't worth it!

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I just read some other reviews this Kim Raven made: they are all a bit sour, so no suprise she did that with Mika too.

Ofcourse there's a 'twitter fight' going on between her and someone who saw the concert. https://twitter.com/tisniewat/status/646595106754174976

Better not react on her, she isn't worth it!

 

That was my first idea too, to not react :) My post was merely to help Pascale, in the hope that she would stop doubting herself. You saw a great concert, don't give someone like this authority she doesn't deserve. Don't let her dictate what you heard and saw and enjoy your memories :hug:

Edited by Manon14
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Wendy (Shady) and I weren't very close to the stage, but we still had a good view. It was a good gig. Mika was energetic as usual and he put on a good show. I always enjoy what he does with his songs live, giving them a new vibe. Like the intro for Love Today, mainly with the bass, powerful! I loved Boum Boum Boum (a song that I had to get used to to be honest), Promiseland, No Place In Heaven and Last Party, and my all time favourite Happy Ending. A real surprise was the appearance of Paul de Leeuw.

Seeing Mika live always brings the fangirlness to a higher level :wub:

 

I didn't bring my good camera with me, but I managed to take a few pics that are okay.

P1110668_zpsbpnnfoni.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Karin!  You're still alive !!  :hug:

 

My first Mika gig :excite:

 

Let me start off by saying that this was the best concert I've ever been to. I love how much he connects with the audience and the how much he lets the audience influence what he's doing on stage. Plus, I've never been so close to the stage before ;) ......

 

I couldn't be happier. Well, maybe only if I still were experiencing the gig. His voice was on fire, the setlist was (almost) perfect, I love his outfits, the set design is AMAZING, we had better spots than I had hoped for.. Best concert ever. Thank you Mika :huglove:

 

 

Manon, great review :thunb_yello:  I'm so pleased you enjoyed it so much

 

I haven't been heer for ages, mostly because of health problems, but I had to look for reviews of yesterdays gig.

I'm a very spoiled girl, having seen U2 and Mika in nearly two weeks.

It was such a great gig yesterday, it gave me lots of energy and made me so so happy to be a Mika fan! I took my mum with me and she was blown away by his voice and energy.

There was no chance for me to wait for him outside because I was running out of oxygen (oh how I hate those failing, lazy lungs!!!) but it still was a great night which will be remembered for long long times!

 

Anouk, good to know you are still getting to gigs :huglove:

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This is a very strange (dutch) review of the concert.

http://www.podiuminfo.nl/review/3828/Mika_-_2209_-_HMH/

 

Basically the reviewer is saying that Mika is a good  performer with lots of energy but musically he falls short. She claims he is play-backing a lot in the gig, especially in the middle of the setlist.  Apparantly she thinks  (halfway the concert) he left the singing of all the higher tones  and a lot of the more complicated vocal parts to the other bandmembers and to the crowd. She suggests that he might have done this to give rest to his voice. According to her, he uses a lot of tricks to disguise this play-backing like pulling difficult faces and moving the microphone from his mouth. She mentions Relax and Grace Kelly as examples.

 

I think she is mistaken. Yes, I've noticed last year that Mika actually most of the time leaves the singing of the high notes in Relax to the crowd. And maybe there are a few other songs (Rain?) where he occasionally does that. But actually I thought he hardly did so yesterday. I was very impressed by his vocals. I thought they were much stronger and better now than at the summer gigs. There I was disappointed sometimes by his singing. I even thought that he'd better change the arrangements if he can't reach the higher tones anymore (or practise more). Yesterday I felt completely different. But because of this review I'm startin to have some doubts. 

 

I just watched Rain, Relax  and Grace Kelly in the following YouTube clips and I can't be sure whether the higher vocals are sung by Mika or by Max or Joy (or taped choirs). I think it is Mika singing almost all of the time with the support of the rest. In Grace Kelly, I'm absolutely sure that's his own voice. It's not very strong at the end of the song in the clip but I think it sounded stronger live.

 

Any opinions? About these clips or about other songs that are not on YouTube yet.

Grace Kelly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cy63ccucao

Relax:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DotIjuDXtEw

Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPLdCwcHAeo

Pascale, such things have been said before and always by people who wanted to get attention to them , basically she's some sort of a troll, and trolls shouldn't be fed...we have been to many gigs , we've watched so many on youtube and periscopes and if Mika did that , I mean if it was organized the way this person says, the sound of each song would be exactly the same , right? Well Mika never sings a song in the same exact way , everyone who's seen him live several times has experienced that, so there's not a shadow of a doubt that Mika sings his songs by himself :biggrin2: and if he allows his fans to sing with him, that's because he knows how much we love to :swoon: , just don't pay attention to that woman, that's an attention seeker, that's all. I have listened to many songs of his new tour shared by other fans and he doesn't sing the same song in the same way once, so no worries :biggrin2:

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Thanks for answering to my post. you're all right. I shouldn't doubt my own ears and memory. It's just that I have heard myself that he sometimes really has had some trouble reaching the high notes. And this time it all seemed so easy.

But let's forget about this. I shouldn't pay attention to reviews anyway. I had a fantastic time, so why spoil it afterwards.

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Thanks for answering to my post. you're all right. I shouldn't doubt my own ears and memory. It's just that I have heard myself that he sometimes really has had some trouble reaching the high notes. And this time it all seemed so easy.

But let's forget about this. I shouldn't pay attention to reviews anyway. I had a fantastic time, so why spoil it afterwards.

I think part of the "problem" is that, most of the time, Mika's vocals are so much better than most singers, for the casual listener, it might seem like playback...

 

But that's not the case. ;)

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Still shaking?

Have you seen this video. One birthday to remember!

 

 

Aww this brings me lovely memories to me :wub:  but I had to translate full sentences, not fair  :naughty:

Thanks for the vid  :flowers2:

Edited by Mikasister
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Aww this brings me lovely memories to me :wub:  but I had to translate full sentences, not fair  :naughty:

Thanks for the vid  :flowers2:

 

:) I think the "language help" you did with MIKA on stage was very unique, and you can be happy and proud  - for a looong time... :teehee:  :wub: 

 

Love,love

me 

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I was the girl on stage translating! I'm still shaking!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yDKQ8AQYJAs&feature=youtu.be

 

thanks to the italians in front of us (i guess)

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Never got such mixed feelings while reading the reports section... On the one hand I'm sincerely happy to read and see that you all had such a lovely evening in Amsterdam, on the other hand I'm really sad that I couldn't attend the gig because I got the flu. Hope that this feeling fades away after a period of time!

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