rusted.laurels Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hi everyone, I'm new here! I'm also really terrible at writing introductions! Sorry for that! You can call me Laurel (which, just to avoid misunderstandings, is (sadly) not my given name; I'm not going to mention my given name if I don't have to, because I hate that name). I'm 24 years old, and I'm from Germany, where I'm currently studying English and German at university; I also write and draw as a hobby, and I play a couple of musical instruments (accordion, guitar, ocarina, some ukulele, some tin whistle, can also kinda play the recorder if I have to) and enjoy singing (but badly, oops). TL;DR because I talk too much: always loved the music, never knew much about the artist, finally got off my butt and fixed that, am now completely and utterly smitten with the man and my friends will probably stage an intervention if I mention his name one more time, which is why I'm now here to grace you unfortunate people with my incessant rambling. - I've been aware of Mika's music since Grace Kelly came out in 2007 - and believe me, it was really hard to not be aware of that song since they played it on the radio so much - and have been stopping by to pick up a new favorite song every few years, more or less. Underwater, Rain, Kick Ass, Happy Ending and Toy Boy have been on my playlists and various MP3 players pretty much since they came out, and Blame It On The Girls joined that list eventually. Now, the thing is: I never had a look at Mika as an artist, really. I dug up a video of him singing either Grace Kelly or Rain on some talk show once back in about 2010 or so, and decided I didn't like him singing live very much and that bothered fourteen-year-old me. Yes, I have seen the error of my ways, but the point is that I only ever listened to his studio recordings and didn't know a thing about the guy behind the music, even though that music was always a part of my life. "Rain" was what I listened to when I did art for years, I had the thing on loop all the time, same with Kick Ass and all the other songs I listed earlier. I listened to Toy Boy a lot while writing, and was quietly amazed by how it's one of those very, very rare songs that's officially and pretty irrefutably gay. Also, that last verse still gets me all emotional. Grace Kelly was the soundtrack of my youth, at first just because it was catchy; then my English got better and the lyrics about having to bend over backwards to fit in and be marketable really resonated with me. I was a weird kid. Now I'm a weird adult, I guess. So, fast forward to the very recent past: I was just trying to dig up the Rain video again because I randomly remembered how absolutely gorgeous it is, and since I was listening to Kick Ass on youtube at that moment I figured I'd click through to the video via the official youtube channel instead of just searching for it. And then something caught my eye - the suit and frilly shirt in the thumbnail for Jealousy, I think, because it reminded me of the 3rd Doctor from Doctor Who. And the song's great, but the song and video in combination are striking. "Why hello there," I thought to myself, "that guy still makes music and it's still good and he still looks mesmerizing! Who'd have thought!" (okay actually it was less "mesmerizing" and more "why does he flail so much and how does his dancing look so good anyway, why can't I look away-" but I digress. I do love his dancing a lot, anyway.) And then, as one does, I threw myself down a youtube rabbit hole, wondering what else I'd missed. From Jealously to some of the other MNIMH stuff, then a swerve into some interviews after Sanremo ("Wait, gay? What happened to 'no labels'?" which should tell you how long it's been since I saw that talk show clip, lol, but that also made me really happy because I'm queer as heck myself), then to Boum Boum Boum (I'm a film nerd AND a huge history nerd; the thumbnail intrigued me, and the video warmed my geeky little heart, just because it was the last place I would ever have expected to find a Lawrence of Arabia reference of all things), and THEN the youtube recommendations threw his taxi driving shenanigans from CasaMika at me. Halfway through the second clip I watched, I realized how much he made me care about the random people he picked up, because somehow the segment was about them and not so much the famous guy behind the wheel, and that focus on other people was, paradoxically, what really cemented my newfound love for the guy behind my favorite music. (and then I realized that he was speaking Italian which I'd hardly even noticed before because I end up watching a fair chunk of Italian media due to my love for old Italian music, despite not actually speaking Italian myself and only understanding a tiny handful of it, and had some fun puzzling out why he was speaking Italian. Cue me complaining to my best friend how it's unfair that he can keep so many languages straight when I struggle with two, before realizing that he does not, in fact, always manage to keep all those languages straight and having a good laugh about how relatable that is) At that point I'd decided that I adored the man no matter what, so I decided to go and look at his live performances - the thing I originally really wasn't fond of as a kid. I think I started out with the Sinfonia Pop version of BBB - and THAT is obviously absolutely amazing and one of my new all-time favorite music things - before digging up a bunch of mixed TV and concert things from the entirely of the last decade and a bit and falling in love with his outfits and his sense of humor and his general live performance skills and the amount of love and energy he puts into all of it - good lord, he really does not do things by halves. Then I kinda stumbled through his TV work, and got another good look at all those fancy, fancy clothes, while also reading through a bunch of interviews and articles about him and started to reconcile all of those many, many different facets of him into one cohesive image and I love all his little contrasts - from that heartbreaking last verse to Toy Boy and the strange, fey beauty of the Rain video and his Imaginarium Tour (I'm incredibly disappointed by the lack of a DVD for that one, by the way) and his collected competence during Sinfonia Pop, to that kind, warm person chatting to random people in Italy and the incredibly lovable dork getting his butt stuck in a trashcan during a concert. A billion shining, sparkling sides all coming together in that magnificent being that influenced my youth so much, and I never even knew. Well, and now I'm here. I was a bit hesitant about showing up here since I don't usually do fan communities, I much prefer inflicting all of my interests upon my poor, poor followers in one place so I can switch topics better, but the fan club is pretty impressive and I do love good old internet forums so I'm here anyway. Hi folks, nice to meet y'all, so sorry for the wall of text. (also, German sadly isn't the most useful language for Mika fans, but if anybody ever needs something translated, I'm always happy to volunteer; I'm a German native speaker and my English should be passable, lol) OH, also, I do digital art (loosely based on this Voice screencap: [click]) Don't have his face down very well yet, but I have endless opportunities to practice I guess - the man is such a never-ending well of amazing facial expressions and general unbelievable prettiness. Funny how it's still his personality that won me over in the end. 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabine64 Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hi Laurel and welcome to the MFC, have a lot of fun here. I´m Sabine and I come from Germany too. We Germans are always very happy to see another fan from our country as there is no promotion or radioplays here. Your introduction is very beautiful, thank you for this. I can tell you Mika´s live performances are really wonderful and also very addictive. From which part of Germany do you come? If you want to talk in German we also have a German thread here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hi Laurel I think that must be the most detailed introduction EVER Welcome to the MFC, we like to talk about Mika a lot too There might just be something you haven't seen yet here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hello! Nice to meet you, it's a pleasure to see more German fans! I'm Elena and I'm from Germany as well. Your introduction is very detailed! Mika's music is magical, but there's nothing like experiencing him live on stage. Great that you finally decided to like his live performances, too. If you ever want to talk too much about Mika, you're in the right place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlelady Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hi Laurel, welcome and enjoy MFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siri Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hi Laurel! Gosh, and you said you're not good at writing introductions it was a pleasure to read your story and to remember when I discovered the artist and fell into the YouTube rabbit hole too I think everyone is really disappointed by the lack of an imaginarium tour DVD If you want to see Mika's Italian show with subtitles you can have a look here: See you around the forum! (If you want to chat about random things - Mika does count as well - you can join the middlelings thread, we are actually not very active here but we can fix that ) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikasister Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hi Laurel and welcome to the MFC. Have a lot of fun!! Here you are a thread to know how the forum works. Enjoy the place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusted.laurels Posted February 29, 2020 Author Share Posted February 29, 2020 Thanks for the beautifully warm welcome, everyone! Right, I forgot how much of a chicken I am about interacting with people, so this was written over the course of six hours; hope it's still coherent anyway. @Sabine64 - I'm stuck in the northern part of Bavaria, to my eternal annoyance x'D And thanks for the thread recommendation, too! I'll be sure to stop by @silver - yes, well, I'm irredeemably terrible at keeping things short, lol. I either don't talk at all, or I'm a veritable waterfall of words. I've had a peek at that thread you've linked and already found a handful of videos that I knew existed but had never seen, along with some that were completely new to me - I'm an archivist at heart, who thrives on creating massive bookmark collections and pulling out obscure clips on demand, so this makes me extremely happy. Not that I'll have much to do with my magical google skills in this particular fandom, I think - you folks are exceptionally well-organized. @Starlight - "detailed" is such a kind way of putting it, hah. Thanks! And believe me, I'm glad I'm finally appreciating his live performances, too - 14-year-old me had such a narrow view on what constituted a good live performance ("as accurate to the studio recordings as possible, and how dare they get creative with it" - which, for added hilarity, is something that Mika is absolutely capable of, just not something he does terribly often... that's why I get for judging someone from one video, lol. Lesson duly learned!), and I really missed out. I'd love to actually see him live at some point, too, especially since he's the only musician I like that I actually could feasibly see on tour - I'm usually more of a 70's person, so almost all of my faves are dead, long since retired, or stopped making good music in 1982... and the sole exception to all of that rarely sets foot outside the Americas. @Siri - Aw, thank you kindly The Imaginarium tour is one of the most visually stunning things I've seen lately and I'm honestly wondering why they went through all the trouble just to not release a DVD. It's the one tour I really would've expected to have one. And yup, I found the subtitles thread already, but thanks a bunch for the link anyway! @Mikasister - Thanks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 @rusted.laurels you will see him live for sure! He maybe won't come back to Germany (due to several reasons), but if he comes closer again, you can get your chance! That's my hope, too. I mean I already saw him live some years ago and that's okay, but he's so addictive... I actually miss him... Northern Bavaria? I'm also from there. could you give a bigger city name next to your place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusted.laurels Posted February 29, 2020 Author Share Posted February 29, 2020 @Starlight - I'm in the *very* rough vicinity of Nuremberg, I suppose. And yeah, I've gathered that some nasty stuff must've happened on at least one of the Germany gigs in the past - I haven't looked into it though because I honestly don't want to know; it'd just make me sad. I'm kind of hoping for Milan and some excellent timing on his part - I'm a broke university student and I can't drive, but I utterly fell in love with the city when I was there for university stuff a while back to spend five days with various medieval manuscripts and ancient churches, and my family's promised me a trip there at some point... so if the stars align, I might be able to get there on family vacation. It's definitely extremely unlikely, but I guess weirder things have happened. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krysady Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 Hi, Laurel! Wow, what an impressive introduction! Welcome to MFC, the majority of us have never been a member of any other fanbase before so you're not alone on this Have fun and if you need any help, just ask, you can use this thread for any questions about Mika and his work: https://www.mikafanclub.com/topic/28644-the-looking-for-something-thread-part-ii/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 @rusted.laurels aaaaah so I'm living between Bayreuth and Hof. So that's not really too far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabine64 Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, rusted.laurels said: @Starlight - I'm in the *very* rough vicinity of Nuremberg, I suppose. And yeah, I've gathered that some nasty stuff must've happened on at least one of the Germany gigs in the past - I haven't looked into it though because I honestly don't want to know; it'd just make me sad. I'm kind of hoping for Milan and some excellent timing on his part - I'm a broke university student and I can't drive, but I utterly fell in love with the city when I was there for university stuff a while back to spend five days with various medieval manuscripts and ancient churches, and my family's promised me a trip there at some point... so if the stars align, I might be able to get there on family vacation. It's definitely extremely unlikely, but I guess weirder things have happened. So I live near Würzburg and my sister and nieces live near Nürnberg too. It´s always nice to know there are other fans not too far away. Edited February 29, 2020 by Sabine64 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 Welcome! Fab to see more Germans here, I live in the Munich area. And thanks for your introduction, ha, that could be totally me, writing for 6 hours on one post! See my gig reports, especially the older ones. On 2/28/2020 at 6:01 PM, rusted.laurels said: Imaginarium Tour (I'm incredibly disappointed by the lack of a DVD for that one, by the way) 5 hours ago, rusted.laurels said: And yeah, I've gathered that some nasty stuff must've happened on at least one of the Germany gigs in the past At the gigs? Not that I know of, and I've been to all of the German ones, except two in 2007. No one knows exactly what the reason is for Mika ignoring Germany, but I can assure you that he does love his German fans. My assumption is that he's not on good terms with German music industry people and wants to stay away from them. I know that Universal Germany didn't want to promote him here anymore after his 3rd album flopped - and that was also the last time he came here for gigs, so I suppose it's related and was somewhat more severe than "we won't invest money in your promo anymore". Just my personal interpretation tho. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sara09 Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 Hello Laurel, I'm Sara! Nice to meet you On 2/28/2020 at 6:01 PM, rusted.laurels said: And then, as one does, I threw myself down a youtube rabbit hole, wondering what else I'd missed. Nothing more accurate was ever written about the initial phase of discovering Mika's universe On 2/28/2020 at 6:01 PM, rusted.laurels said: Also, that last verse still gets me all emotional. Exactly that! Every time I listen to it I feel like I'm discovering something new about this song, it's so powerful and brilliant. On 2/28/2020 at 6:01 PM, rusted.laurels said: and then I realized that he was speaking Italian which I'd hardly even noticed before because I end up watching a fair chunk of Italian media due to my love for old Italian music, despite not actually speaking Italian myself and only understanding a tiny handful of it, and had some fun puzzling out why he was speaking Italian. Oh that's nice, I'm curious now!! If you could choose a favorite singer who would it be? Thanks for sharing your thoughts and this wonderful introduction with us! I'm glad you joined the MFC, I really hope to see you around here 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabry74 Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Hi Laurel, Thanks for your introduction, I'm Gabriella and I live in Italy, nice to meet you and welcome to the MFC! Have fun here and see you around... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serendipity Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Hello Laurel! I'm Camilla from Italy.. I definitely loved your introduction!!! Where can we have a look at your works?? Have a nice time here 🖤💙💚💛🌈 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusted.laurels Posted March 1, 2020 Author Share Posted March 1, 2020 Oooh, so many amazing new replies! Okay, let's see... First of all, hi to everyone I'm not mentioning in person! You messages have been noted and appreciated, I just don't want to ping you just for a simple "thanks" @Starlight - ah yeah, that's relatively close indeed! Fascinating! @mellody - I vaguely remember somebody talking about bad fan behavior or similar in, uh, Düsseldorf (or something) over ten years ago... but admittedly, I doubt he'd still remember even if I did pick up on that correctly, lol. @sara09 Quote Exactly that! Every time I listen to it I feel like I'm discovering something new about this song, it's so powerful and brilliant. It really is! I'm honestly a little bit baffled by how long I've been aware of it without getting terribly curious about the person who sang it - that's not like me at all, I usually know everything about the music I really love. Then again, maybe it says something about his music that I was so happy to let it speak for itself. Point is, I missed out x'D Quote Oh that's nice, I'm curious now!! If you could choose a favorite singer who would it be? Out of everything, or just the Italian stuff? Either way (aside from Mika, if generally speaking) that'd have to be Gigliola Cinquetti. I know she sings sappy stuff that stopped being cool when my parents were kids, but she has a voice like a warm hug and a really nice repertoire of songs... but honestly, throw together a playlist of particularly corny popular music from Italy circa 1940-1980 with a dash of folk music thrown in there and chances are that I'll be pretty fond of it. @Serendipity - First of all, thank you! Quote Where can we have a look at your works?? oomph, well I got terribly lazy about uploading stuff I do anywhere over the years... Generally speaking, art goes [here] and writing goes [here] or [here] (and music I rarely inflict upon anyone, lol) but none of this is truly up to date. I will probably show up in the fanart thread a lot, because Mika's face is pretty inspiring, lol 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzPz_german_squeezy Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Am I too late for this? I don't think so 😁 Hey nice to meet you Laurel 🤗 I'm also a part of the german community and you can't believe how happy I am that there is a new member from Germany here on MFC 😍😅 I'm so glad you've found us. I can assure you that behind the MIKA Community there are so many nice people with so much love in their hearts. Even though I am not active that often, I always feel like I am part of a big family here. I hope that you will feel the same way and once again a warm welcome.🥰Something about me: My name is Isabelle and I'm 19 years old. I live in the capital of Baden-Wuerttemberg and I think a lot of German fans live in the south of Germany. 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siri Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 4 hours ago, rusted.laurels said: Generally speaking, art goes [here] Ooh, I did see nerd stuff in here btw I like your drawings 🤩 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serendipity Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Ouuuuu your drawings are cool!!! I like them very much!!! And you know what?? I know a girl that is absolutely like this https://www.deviantart.com/guardy/art/Shut-up-Nando-603971041 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 6 hours ago, rusted.laurels said: - I vaguely remember somebody talking about bad fan behavior or similar in, uh, Düsseldorf (or something) over ten years ago... but admittedly, I doubt he'd still remember even if I did pick up on that correctly, lol Yeah, I guess you're right, bad fan behaviour happens so often, unfortunately, that he'd have to skip a lot of countries if it was for that. I wasn't at his Dusseldorf gig in 2007, and of the 2010 one I just remember that he was ill and couldn't meet fans, I think he just quickly waved and said goodnight. But I might just feel motivated now to re-read the old gig reports, as I remember far too little from back then. 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabine64 Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 2 minutes ago, mellody said: Yeah, I guess you're right, bad fan behaviour happens so often, unfortunately, that he'd have to skip a lot of countries if it was for that. I wasn't at his Dusseldorf gig in 2007, and of the 2010 one I just remember that he was ill and couldn't meet fans, I think he just quickly waved and said goodnight. But I might just feel motivated now to re-read the old gig reports, as I remember far too little from back then. 😅 wasn´t it Düsseldorf 2007 where someone threw their bra on stage and Mika put it on a security´s head? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellody Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 Just now, Sabine64 said: wasn´t it Düsseldorf 2007 where someone threw their bra on stage and Mika put it on a security´s head? As I said, I wasn't at that gig, and I don't remember reading that (but maybe I did and just decided to forget it quickly ) - I just remember that Mika got fans on stage there and I was jealous and angry with myself that I had decided to see Take That in Stuttgart instead that day. 🙈 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabine64 Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 12 minutes ago, mellody said: As I said, I wasn't at that gig, and I don't remember reading that (but maybe I did and just decided to forget it quickly ) - I just remember that Mika got fans on stage there and I was jealous and angry with myself that I had decided to see Take That in Stuttgart instead that day. 🙈 there must be a video on YT, I´m sure I saw it. And he was very sick at that time and sang GK without a shirt because he had a fever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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