Kumazzz Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 (edited) Nouveau TÊTU. Dès mercredi chez votre marchand de journaux. New TÊTU. Wednesday at your newspaper shop. https://tetu.com/page/2/ Translated by @crazyaboutmika Spoiler Têtu interview in English Mika I wanted to love men freely Interview Romain Burrel Photos Jules Faure Stylist Nicolas Dureau We hadn't seen him in a long time. Mika takes advantage of his new album, My name is Michael Hoolbrook to speak freely about sex, show business and politics. And he speaks loudly. It's difficult to escape Mika. It's quite simple, the singer is everywhere. In a talent show on TF1, in commercials, in the evening news, in the subway. Omnipresent to the point of becoming invisible. Conscious of the fact that he might blend into the background, the singer understood he had to go back to music, setting all other matters aside. But twelve years after his first album and after six seasons of The Voice, does Mika still has things to say? Causes to defend? enough music in him? Yes to all three. His new album is also the best since Life in Cartoon Motion. This CD which is soberly called My name is Michael Holbrook (the real name of the British singer) as a promise of transparency. Because actually there are two Mikas. The one who doesn't know how to say no to a prime time TV show, obsessed by the idea of being a popular artist. And the one who wants to be a respected songwriter. During those last years, the face of pop music has changed, pushing to the front of the stage a whole generation of openly queer singers with sharp songs and versed into the socials. At the age of 36 the singer now feels on his neck the breath of Years and Years, Christine and the Queens or Troye Sivan. They all seem indifferent to the fact that when Mika came out to the American magazine Instinct in 2012, Mika and others as well of course, opened the way, rolling out the red carpet to a rainbow pop music and to the top of the charts. The singer has already ten years of career and he also took a few blows, but he is still ready to kick as he is proving in this wild interview in which he answered to questions with a rare and pleasant openness. Q: It's been a while since we hadn't talked about music together. If we wanted to see you, you were on TV in The Voice. Didn't you feel like singing anymore? A: My music requires great determination. I am not the kind of artist who can go and buy songs in one place or another. Even if it has become the truth in that business. Today records are made by boards with 14 accredited writers. And there is the record company in the USA, in France, in England...and all these people decide on what will be on the album. As for me, I write my songs. And I need to feel a full commitment. This feeling had shifted away from my daily life, it is true. For this record, I had to recover my colors, my spirit and a certain candor. I needed to step back. Q: Was TV too time consuming? A: TV shows are expensive to make, so they are made in a short span of time. I record a certain number of shows during a very intense period, and then they are aired over several weeks. I didn't realize that I was omnipresent. But I wanted to go back to the only thing that really gives me a sense of value: music. If I had let TV take over music, it would have changed me. I would have become more smooth. And it is something that terrifies me. Artists are like lovers. They have to be honest. I am extremely conscious of the very hard truth of my work. The only was to stay fresh is to stay involved, to evolve. I want to stay curious, but Q: On this album, we discover another Mika, almost activist. For exemple in Sanremo video, you disclose homophobia... A: The video depicts Italy at the end of the sixties, when being homosexual was not criminal, but where intolerance was very strong, with terrible consequences: you could lose your family, your job, you had to live a double life. You were exposed to hatred, to betrayal. I wanted to tell about that history which took place not so long ago and whose stigma still persist today. The week before the video was released, Sanremo mayor was saying everywhere how proud he was that I had dedicated a song to his city. Then the video was released. I don't know what he thought about it. ( He bursts into laughter) I don't like to make promotional videos but I figured as long as I'm doing one, it might as well tell something. What's the point of being stubborn if a 17 years old American girl can do an extremely efficient pop music video? I'm thinking about Billy Eilish - who I love. It's very pop, it's not a fake grunge produced by Dr Luke. The new generation is more genuine and less Kardashian Pop, today is Swedish people writing for Disney Club people. It can be seen as fabulous - and I'm the first who likes the melodies - but that kind of pop has nothing to say. Q: Can a popstar who gets involved make a difference? A: An individual can make the difference. Who cares if I'm a pop star? I have a certain voice, but it doesn't count more than another. It is the same when I talk openly about the couple I am in. I have been with the same guy for thirteen years. Through love, I found the trust to come out. First to my mother, who had always known it and who didn't give a care. To my sisters, for whom it was a lot more difficult to accept that I was gay. To my friends as well. And within an industry that was harassing me to do it for the sake of the media. My coming out made me stronger. It allows me to go and do concerts in countries that however are intolerant about my sexuality. Q:In a recent interview, you were telling about journalists who had put pressure on you for you to come out.... A: It was atrocious. I felt stalked. I feel chasing people to force them to come out is very old fashioned. Today the concept of fluidity is better understood and also the idea that things take time. That what you express through your sexual awakening also has a value. And it's not because at one point in hid career an artist is not ready yet to label himself sexually that what he lives is a lie. Following him to rip an intimate truth out off him, that is gross. All those people care about is the media impact and money, they couldn't care less about the human being. Q: Was life difficult for you at that time? A: I was mostly disappointed. I wanted to go on my journey to reach peace with myself. I wanted to be able to love men freely and express this desire I have always had in me. I understood I was gay as early as my eight year! When a gay media went and interviewed Jimmy Sommerville and Patrick Wolf so they would make comments about my sexuality, I felt a deep disillusion towards people that I admire however: "You craddled my teenage years. You have shaped my desire and inspired this balance that I'm seeking to reach each day of my life. And there, you judge me whereas you don't even know me?" I am not mad at them. It was the contest that I found despicable. I don't think they were spiteful. Except maybe Patrick Wolf. Today, if I am totally open about being gay, it doesn't mean I will try to give lessons to others. Q: In "Blue" you sing "blue is a feminine color". It is in order to piss off French right wing people who demonstrate against gay mariage and gay family? (La Manif pour tous) A: Totally! Things are not binary. I think formal labels of sexuality are old ideas. But that doesn't mean we must stop defending homosexuality and trans people. It's an exemple of the kind of political involment you can afford when you are a popular star. Q: On the record, there is also Ice Cream, a very erotic song in which you tell about your irrepressible desire to suck d****... A: Totally. But with a naive spirit. It's a wink to Lollipop in my first album. Back then, many people had not understood the lyrics: " Sucking too hard on your lollipop or love is gonna get you down" (laughs) It is a sexual song like "Les sucettes" by France Gall which I love. (Lollipops by Serge Gainsbourg) At a gig, the audience doesn't always know the meaning of the lyrics. And I must confess I find it fun. It's good to talk freely. Why would only straight people be allowed to talk about their wife or their husband? Why can't we talk about sex? As for me, the first time I slept with a boy, it was a disaster! Humiliating! I was 15 years old - I think - and I didn't understand anything. People should said more often that gay sex is not easy. Now it makes me laugh, but it wasn't always the case! It should be possible to talk about it. Q: There is a song called Dear Jealousy. Is it in your nature to be jealous? A: I am insanely jealous. Even paranoïd. You know I live a rich life, but life is always s*** with me. I am always between two planes and three countries. I always have something to say, always a story to steal into my relatives intimate life tp put it into my songs. It creates a stress. It's really not easy to live with someone like me. That's why I am extremely grateful to Andy (his partner) There isn't a "dark" Mika. But there is Mika the fighter. I want to defend my point of view. I get infuriated on my own. I never yield, never. It's exhausting. Q: Is it easy to be faithful? When you are a pop star it's hell to be chased all the time by girls and boys, isn't it? A: With Andy, we trust each other. Our relationship was born in atypical circumstances. Just before I met him, I was in a very short but very intense relationship with a guy from Northern Ireland. A character of Trainspotting. Very handsome. We were breaking up all the time. I was crazy about him, but he was not at all crazy about me. (Laughs) It is very cruel to live with a guy who has very high highs and very low lows, who takes drugs and so on...It was very hard on me. One night he went totally mad and he threw me out at 4 AM. I was in my boxers in the area of Shepherd Bush in London and he threw my belongings through the window. I was in such a state of shock that I vomited. I had imagined such a movie about the two of us in my head. The next day, I order a beer in a little pub and Andy was there. We start talking. We get on well. He lived outside of London so I offered him to get him to Victoria station in a taxi. When we were about to say good bye, he says to me: -"I want to stay with you."-"Do you mean tonight?" - "No for life." I wasn't interested at all. As for him, he was totally convinced. Andy believed in our story for the two of us. Q: Where you going out in gay London at night? A: Of course. As soon as I turned 14, I hang around at night in the gay area. At Earl's Court, I went to school. And in Soho, there were the gay bars, the prostitutes, people who told me how to manage the night. There was this wonderful nightclub, l'Astoria. All the balloons and the confettis at my gigs are inspired by the end of the evenings in Astoria. I knew the guys at the door and I never paid. From time to time they waited to get their reward and I had to escape before giving it to them! This shaped my teenage years. In the day I sang Schubert, Brahms at Westminster School, at night I went out. My first songs were born from this: Love Today, Grace Kelly. Q: Do you have friends among openly gay stars? A: Not really. I find we deeply lack a sense of community. At any rate one thing is sure I don't belong to EltonJohn gang... (He stays silent for a while and smiles mischeavously) But, thanks to instagram, artists start talking together. Since several weeks we talk everyday Sam Smith and I. However we never met physically. The only one I listen to is Ian McKellen. He has helped me a lot. I call him "my London grandma." (Laughs) I often phone him to ask for his advice. At the beginning of my career, he told me: "One day you will realize that your sexual preferences are not only relegated to your bedroom, they are a background for inspiration that will open many friendships. Not only to gay or bi friends, but also heterosexual friends who love life." He was right. One day I called him to tell him I had been given the medal of chevalier des arts et des lettres. He told me: "oh my dear, don't be so vulgar! Listen, I have all the medals. You have to wear them with pride, but inside your jacket. Q: Not long ago you were invited at the Elysée. Do you have time to give to messages to politicians when you meet them? A: I try. But when you talk with a man like Emmanuel Macron, you're talking to a professional politician.This is not the kind of meeting that will win a positive decision. Yet you have to do it all the same. The experience that marked me the most in my adult life is when I went to visit a shelter for young LGBT+ refugees in Beirut. They came from Irak, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria. While listening to their stories I understood their sufferings. In the world, there are more than 70 countries where men homosexuality is illegal, punished by death, corporal punishments or total discrimination. If it is found out that you are gay, you can lose everything in a day. And it is a reality in countries that sometimes have strong links with France, like Algeria, Morocco or Lebanon too. This last one is important for me, because this is where I have my roots. I am uprooted, but I know my privileges. Q: Should France do more for LGBT+ migrants? A: I think we forget the humanity of those people. We have to tell their stories. So that refugees don't become statistics. Because today, we have so much information about people who died in trucks, about people locked in cages and so on...Can we tell the truth about Kadhafi? That he got money from many developped countries to secure the fronteers and prevent refugees from coming to Europe? Those I met in Beirut had all ages - there was a gay man who was 65 and a young trans girl who was 15. All of them were rejected by their families, chased by extremists, betrayed by their friends, their country - but also by the country in which they seeked asylum - thrown into the street by landlords who didn't want "freaks." So where do they go those people? They are perfect to be used by prostitution or smugglers rings. They have no money, no support, no political protection...They don't exist. We have to tell their stories to give them back their humanity. Edited November 28, 2019 by Kumazzz updating 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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Kumazzz Posted November 26, 2019 Author Share Posted November 26, 2019 TÊTU IG stories https://www.instagram.com/stories/tetumag/ 78286731_1260782317450300_3965549109375389187_n.mp4 79156250_503022593890137_3472267772573447113_n.mp4 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kumazzz Posted November 26, 2019 Author Share Posted November 26, 2019 without letters 4 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Kumazzz said: Nouveau TÊTU. Dès mercredi chez votre marchand de journaux. New TÊTU. Wednesday at your newspaper shop. https://tetu.com/page/2/ This cover picture is killing me 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kumazzz Posted November 27, 2019 Author Share Posted November 27, 2019 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kumazzz Posted November 27, 2019 Author Share Posted November 27, 2019 2 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Can't wait to read the interview... does any of you have it yet and can upload photos, please? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 I wish I could buy it here... They never sell the interesting magazines at the train station... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
virgi Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 6 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeirdChild Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 23 minutes ago, virgi said: hes so pretty, im gonna pass out 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Ko Kolkowska Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Do you remember this Instagram post? Was it this photo session? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeirdChild Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 His hair looks different but maybe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irem Aytepe Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 SOOOO PERFECT SHOOTING 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 1 hour ago, virgi said: 51 minutes ago, WeirdChild said: hes so pretty, im gonna pass out I love it!!! and the pictures are fabulous! Want it so bad... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Ko Kolkowska Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Wow. I have finish the intrview. Very, very open and talking about his personal life - how he met Andy and the story he mentioned at London gig talking about Shephered Bush area where an a...hole dumped him. But as well about gay refugees, music industry.... I will translate it soon. 6 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 17 minutes ago, Anna Ko Kolkowska said: Wow. I have finish the intrview. Very, very open and talking about his personal life - how he met Andy and the story he mentioned at London gig talking about Shephered Bush area where an a...hole dumped him. But as well about gay refugees, music industry.... I will translate it soon. It's a beautiful interview 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kumazzz Posted November 27, 2019 Author Share Posted November 27, 2019 OUTTAKE https://www.instagram.com/stories/nicolasdureau/ 3 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kumazzz Posted November 27, 2019 Author Share Posted November 27, 2019 7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Aww that story about him and Andy! Quick summary: Mika came out of a bad relationship with that guy who threw him out at 4am in Shepherd's Bush, the story he told in London. The next day, he met Andy in a pub, and when they separated, Andy told him he wants to spend the rest of his life with him. Mika wasn't interested, but Andy believed in it so much that it was enough for both of them. Well done Andy!! When I read some of Mika's answers, I think Andy must have really strong nerves to stay with Mika for all those years! Seems Mika knows what he has in him though. Makes me very happy to know they have each other! 16 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Ko Kolkowska Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 12 minutes ago, mellody said: Aww that story about him and Andy! Quick summary: Mika came out of a bad relationship with that guy who threw him out at 4am im Shepherd's Bush, the story he told in London. The next day, he met Andy in a pub, and when they separated, Andy told him he wants to spend the rest of his life with him. Mika wasn't interested, but Andy believed in it so much that it was enough for both of them. Well done Andy!! When I read some of Mika's answers, I think Andy must have really strong nerves to stay with Mika for all those years! Seems Mika knows what he has in him though. Makes me very happy to know they have each other! "... Thank God that you found me".... is not for granted Andy really found Mika and he new from the start that he was the only one 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 22 minutes ago, mellody said: Aww that story about him and Andy! Quick summary: Mika came out of a bad relationship with that guy who threw him out at 4am im Shepherd's Bush, the story he told in London. The next day, he met Andy in a pub, and when they separated, Andy told him he wants to spend the rest of his life with him. Mika wasn't interested, but Andy believed in it so much that it was enough for both of them. Well done Andy!! When I read some of Mika's answers, I think Andy must have really strong nerves to stay with Mika for all those years! Seems Mika knows what he has in him though. Makes me very happy to know they have each other! I really hope they will be happy forever. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikasister Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 40 minutes ago, mellody said: Aww that story about him and Andy! Quick summary: Mika came out of a bad relationship with that guy who threw him out at 4am im Shepherd's Bush, the story he told in London. The next day, he met Andy in a pub, and when they separated, Andy told him he wants to spend the rest of his life with him. Mika wasn't interested, but Andy believed in it so much that it was enough for both of them. Well done Andy!! When I read some of Mika's answers, I think Andy must have really strong nerves to stay with Mika for all those years! Seems Mika knows what he has in him though. Makes me very happy to know they have each other! I've always thought the same. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyaboutmika Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 On 11/26/2019 at 4:42 PM, Kumazzz said: without letters I'm in love with this photo 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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