Mika in French Press and Other Media - 2024

[carafon]

10 hours ago, mellody said:

 

To the French speakers, I think at the beginning when he talks about not hearing the interviewer's voice in the interview, he says "rien" and not "rire", right? 

 

 

He says "rire" 

 

" c'est dommage que ta voix ne soit pas dans cette interview car elle me fait rire" 

 

"It's a shame your voice isn't in this interview because it makes me laught "

Edited January 10 by carafon

[mellody]

1 hour ago, carafon said:

He says "rire" 

 

" c'est dommage que ta voix ne soit pas dans cette interview car elle me fait rire" 

 

"It's a shame your voice isn't in this interview because it makes me laught "

 

Thanks. Fixed it.

[mellody]

E.Leclerc interview, recorded last year, published today.

 

(found by @Kumazzz)

[Kumazzz]

L'Alsace

https://www.lalsace.fr/culture-loisirs/2024/01/11/mika-en-concert-surprise-a-strasbourg

11/01/2024

 

Mika en concert surprise à Strasbourg

Le programme mentionnait un « concert surprise d’une star internationale ».

Trois mille salariés alsaciens du Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, réunis ce jeudi 11 janvier au Zénith de Strasbourg pour assister au lancement du plan stratégique du groupe de bancassurance, ont effectivement eu droit à une tête d’affiche :

le chanteur Mika, qui s’est produit rien que pour eux une heure durant. L’artiste s’est en fait produit à deux reprises. Il a donné un second concert dans l’après-midi pour 3 000 autres salariés conviés à la même présentation.

 

 

Mika in surprise concert in Strasbourg

The program mentioned a “surprise concert by an international star”.

Three thousand Alsatian employees of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, gathered this Thursday, January 11 at the Zénith in Strasbourg to attend the launch of the bancassurance group's strategic plan, were indeed entitled to a headliner:

the singer Mika, who performed just for them for an hour. The artist actually performed twice. He gave a second concert in the afternoon for 3,000 other employees invited to the same presentation.

 

 

[mellody]

5 minutes ago, Kumazzz said:

L'Alsace

https://www.lalsace.fr/culture-loisirs/2024/01/11/mika-en-concert-surprise-a-strasbourg

11/01/2024

 

Mika en concert surprise à Strasbourg

Le programme mentionnait un « concert surprise d’une star internationale ».

Trois mille salariés alsaciens du Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, réunis ce jeudi 11 janvier au Zénith de Strasbourg pour assister au lancement du plan stratégique du groupe de bancassurance, ont effectivement eu droit à une tête d’affiche :

le chanteur Mika, qui s’est produit rien que pour eux une heure durant. L’artiste s’est en fait produit à deux reprises. Il a donné un second concert dans l’après-midi pour 3 000 autres salariés conviés à la même présentation.

 

 

Mika in surprise concert in Strasbourg

The program mentioned a “surprise concert by an international star”.

Three thousand Alsatian employees of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, gathered this Thursday, January 11 at the Zénith in Strasbourg to attend the launch of the bancassurance group's strategic plan, were indeed entitled to a headliner:

the singer Mika, who performed just for them for an hour. The artist actually performed twice. He gave a second concert in the afternoon for 3,000 other employees invited to the same presentation.

 

 

 

why is he collecting scarfs from the audience?

[Anna Ko Kolkowska]

8 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

why is he collecting scarfs from the audience?

Pickpocket!

[lormare73]

On 1/6/2024 at 8:17 AM, Kumazzz said:

 

Retrouvez l’interview de Mika qui s’est confié à Christian Eudeline dans le 22ème numéro de Vinyle & Audio, chez votre marchand de journaux préféré !

 

A question for the French fans. Has anybody bought this magazine and can share the screens here? Online it's available only the first question I think. 

[NaoMika]

MIKA will be a guest at 100% radio on January 22,  between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

 

Gagnez votre rencontre avec MIKA

 

https://www.centpourcent.com/gagnez-votre-rencontre-avec-mika

 

Gagnez votre rencontre avec MIKA lundi 22 janvier entre 17h et 18h en direct dans les studios de 100%. Quelle question aimeriez-vous lui poser ?

 

Win your meeting with MIKA Monday January 22 between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. live in the 100% studios. What question would you like to ask him?

 

Edited January 12 by NaoMika

[mellody]

8 hours ago, NaoMika said:

MIKA will be a guest at 100% radio on January 22,  between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

 

Gagnez votre rencontre avec MIKA

 

https://www.centpourcent.com/gagnez-votre-rencontre-avec-mika

 

Gagnez votre rencontre avec MIKA lundi 22 janvier entre 17h et 18h en direct dans les studios de 100%. Quelle question aimeriez-vous lui poser ?

 

Win your meeting with MIKA Monday January 22 between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. live in the 100% studios. What question would you like to ask him?

 

 

Ah, good to see that there'll be more NEW interviews soon!  (I really need to start catching up on the ones from last year! 😅). Where in France is their studio? The station seems to be for several regions in the south of France?

[Anna Ko Kolkowska]

47 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

Ah, good to see that there'll be more NEW interviews soon!  (I really need to start catching up on the ones from last year! 😅). Where in France is their studio? The station seems to be for several regions in the south of France?

 

It's in Mazamet - a town between Toulouse and Montpellier. In south of France.

[Hero]

16 hours ago, mellody said:

 

why is he collecting scarfs from the audience?

We know he's always cold. Big arena like that, it'll be chilly. 

[jajinka5]

https://www.liberation.fr/portraits/mika-bien-dans-sa-pop-20240114_6ZRMIFDHCBF4XAFO7NPR3ETIAM/

[mellody]

3 minutes ago, jajinka5 said:

https://www.liberation.fr/portraits/mika-bien-dans-sa-pop-20240114_6ZRMIFDHCBF4XAFO7NPR3ETIAM/

 

nice picture!  sadly the article is for subscribers only. can anyone who can read it copy it here please?

[vanessa-love-mika]

Here it is

 

Le chanteur né au Liban, qui navigue entre Miami et Londres, explore son univers singulier dans un sixième album, ode à la créativité et hommage à sa mère.

 

Son premier album, Life in Cartoon Motion, avait quelque chose des Beatles. Oui, rien de moins, et rien que ça. Il mêlait la musique classique et la pop, la fanfare et la symphonie, il était fantaisiste, inventif, farfelu et néanmoins très tenu, composé d’une guirlande de tubes (Lollipop en premier lieu). C’était un condensé de Grande-Bretagne. Rencontrer Mika, c’est se souvenir que, même si Londres ressemble désormais à une immense avenue Montaigne (le fric, à ce point-là, c’est pas très chic), cette capitale eut le génie de l’excentricité. Mika avait 23 ans seulement à la sortie de ce bijou. Certains aujourd’hui trouvent le chanteur et coach de The Voice ringard. D’après nous, c’est faux. Il est singulier. C’est un personnage. Il fait songer à Pee-wee, le héros du premier film de Tim Burton : «J’ai conscience qu’on me trouve étrange, mais je l’assume.» Mika est sincère et passionné.

 

Le jour du rendez-vous, juste avant Noël, présent à Paris pour la promotion de son nouvel album, le chanteur d’1m92 est habillé d’un costume rayé qui ne répond à aucune mode :«C’est moi qui l’ai dessiné. Ce n’est pas difficile de dessiner des vêtements. Essayez, vous y arriverez.» Il se lève gentiment pour faire bouillir de l’eau dans la cuisine du studio du photographe. Mika avait suggéré que cette rencontre se déroule au musée de la Magie, dans le IVe arrondissement, ce qui fut malheureusement impossible à organiser. Il est 13 heures, on boit de la tisane. Mika se nourrit une fois par jour, le soir. Il n’est pas maigre, il est mince.

 

Que ta tête fleurisse toujours est le titre de son sixième album et le vœu que sa mère a adressé au chanteur alors qu’elle allait s’éteindre, envahie par une tumeur au cerveau. Elle souhaitait à son fils de ne jamais perdre sa créativité. La couverture du disque montre le chanteur tout de blanc vêtu et assis sur un nuage, comme s’il était déjà au ciel. Mika n’est pas croyant mais, depuis quelques années, il discute régulièrement de théologie avec un universitaire, par Zoom : «Je suis un chrétien sécularisé.» Sa mère, libano-syrienne, était melkite : «Ce sont des Grecs orthodoxes qui suivent le Vatican», précise-t-il, souriant. «Enfant, à Londres, plusieurs jours par semaine, je chantais à l’église Brompton Oratory.» Il apprenait aussi le piano et le chant lyrique.

 

Londres est la ville dans laquelle la famille a grandi. Le père, un Américain wasp et homme d’affaires, est né à Jérusalem parce que le grand-père de Mika était diplomate : «Mon père est un modèle en voie de disparition : il est polyglotte, il s’exprime avec une grande politesse, il parle un anglais élégant.» Marc-Olivier Fogiel, proche ami du chanteur, connaît toute la famille et assiste parfois aux repas qui la réunissent : «Le père est un homme d’une civilité extrême. Il regarde chacun de ses enfants avec bienveillance, heureux de les avoir autour de lui.» L’une des sœurs fabrique des bijoux, un frère est architecte.

 

De nationalité américaine, Mika aime le Liban, son pays natal : «Je n’ignore pas que c’est un pays extrêmement chaotique mais il me donne une identité. Le Liban, c’est aussi de la douceur, l’arabe mélangé au français, des odeurs. Et l’homophobie.» Le chanteur est en couple avec le même homme, un vidéaste, depuis dix-huit ans. Mika vote aux Etats-Unis : «Ce n’est pas compliqué de deviner pour qui.» De la France, il admire «l’identité républicaine. Je suis un mélange entre la culture britannique, tolérante malgré le Brexit, et la culture républicaine française». Lors de sa tournée intitulée Apocalypse Calypso Tour, il donnera un seul concert à Londres, en avril : «Les 30 000 places sont parties tout de suite alors qu’on me prédisait le pire, étant donné que les paroles du nouvel album sont en français.» Il se produira aussi un soir à Paris, à l’Accor Arena. Tout est déjà vendu.

 

Mika parlait anglais et français dans son enfance, et un peu arabe. Il habite entre Miami et Londres et possède, dans les Pouilles, un «atelier» où se fabriquent les décors et les costumes de ses spectacles, de sacrés shows travaillés au millimètre près. Ses revenus sont «irréguliers». «J’ai souvent peur que l’année à venir soit désastreuse financièrement.» Marc-Olivier Fogiel : «Mika réinvestit une très grande partie de ce qu’il gagne dans ses spectacles. Pour le show qu’il a organisé en clôture de la Coupe du monde de rugby, il a pris de gros risques en ajoutant beaucoup de sa poche, parce qu’il voulait des choses bien précises, et très compliquées à réaliser. Ce fut une réussite. Il avait beaucoup à perdre.»

 

A Miami, le chanteur est propriétaire d’une maison «ouverte», comme l’était celle, à Londres, dans laquelle il fut élevé. Il décrit, sans niaiserie, un univers qui lui paraît féerique : «Le lieu était rempli de personnes du monde entier : il y avait une vieille dame espagnole qui a vécu chez nous jusqu’à sa mort, à 94 ans ; une Libanaise ; une Russe âgée qui ne parlait que russe. Elle possédait des vêtements en dentelle, très exotiques à mes yeux. Il y avait un jeune homme que nous avions rencontré au Holiday Inn, à Pékin, et qui est venu s’installer au sous-sol, et une vieille Indienne, couturière, avec laquelle ma mère, couturière elle aussi, travaillait. J’ai vu ces personnes disparaître. Ma mère fut l’artisane de ce mode de vie et de ce casting que j’ai aimés.» À cet enchantement se superpose un malheur qu’il a beaucoup raconté : le harcèlement scolaire, une mise au ban accomplie grâce à la complicité d’une enseignante. L’agression fut d’une telle portée que Mika fut déscolarisé un temps par ses parents. Marc-Olivier Fogiel : «Il est intense, très fort et très fragile. Il est volubile mais il garde les choses importantes pour lui. Il a surmonté beaucoup d’obstacles.»

 

De la guerre au Proche-Orient, Mika dit : «Je sais que renverser une organisation terroriste, c’est très difficile, mais il faut sortir de la situation actuelle.» Ce commentaire n’est pas original mais son auteur ne joue pas à l’expert en relations internationales et lui, au moins, rappelle que le Hamas est une organisation terroriste. Parmi les artistes qu’aime le chanteur se trouvent évidemment les Beatles : «Il faut écouter leurs albums du début à la fin, l’ordre des chansons a un sens. Ce sont des magiciens.» Il aime aussi Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Glenn Gould, Colette Magny et Fellini. Cary Grant est, selon lui, «le meilleur acteur de tous les temps. Les comédiens anglais ont pour eux la connaissance des grands textes et la cérébralité. Les Américains, c’est l’émotion et la technique pour la maîtriser». A ce moment-là, Mika s’improvise à sa façon un peu lunaire expert en stratégie internationale : «Les Australiens allient l’émotion des Américains et la culture des Britanniques. Clac ! Avec les deux ensemble, les Australiens sont dangereux.»

 

Google translate

Spoiler

The singer born in Lebanon, who travels between Miami and London, explores his unique universe in a sixth album, an ode to creativity and a tribute to his mother.
 
His first album, Life in Cartoon Motion, had something of the Beatles. Yes, nothing less, and nothing but that. It mixed classical music and pop, fanfare and symphony, it was fanciful, inventive, eccentric and nevertheless very well maintained, composed of a garland of hits (Lollipop in the first place). It was a summary of Great Britain. To meet Mika is to remember that, even if London now resembles an immense Avenue Montaigne (money, at that point, is not very chic), this capital had the genius of eccentricity. Mika was only 23 years old when this gem was released. Some today find the singer and coach of The Voice corny. In our opinion, this is false. He is singular. He's a character. He reminds us of Pee-wee, the hero of Tim Burton's first film: "I'm aware that people think I'm strange, but I accept it." Mika is sincere and passionate.
 
On the day of the meeting, just before Christmas, present in Paris to promote his new album, the 1m92 singer is dressed in a striped suit which does not respond to any fashion: "It's me who drawn. It's not difficult to draw clothes. Try, you will succeed.” He kindly gets up to boil water in the kitchen of the photographer's studio. Mika had suggested that this meeting take place at the Magic Museum, in the 4th arrondissement, which was unfortunately impossible to organize. It’s 1 p.m., we’re drinking herbal tea. Mika feeds once a day, in the evening. He's not skinny, he's thin.
 
May your head always bloom is the title of his sixth album and the wish that his mother addressed to the singer when she was about to die, invaded by a brain tumor. She wished her son never to lose his creativity. The cover of the record shows the singer dressed all in white and sitting on a cloud, as if he were already in heaven. Mika is not a believer but, for several years, he has regularly discussed theology with an academic, by Zoom: “I am a secularized Christian.” His mother, Lebanese-Syrian, was Melkite: “They are Orthodox Greeks who follow the Vatican,” he explains, smiling. “As a child, in London, several days a week, I sang at the Brompton Oratory church.” He also learned piano and lyrical singing.
 
London is the city in which the family grew up. The father, an American wasp and businessman, was born in Jerusalem because Mika's grandfather was a diplomat: "My father is a disappearing model: he is polyglot, he expresses himself with great politeness , he speaks elegant English.” Marc-Olivier Fogiel, close friend of the singer, knows the whole family and sometimes attends the meals that bring them together: “The father is a man of extreme civility. He looks at each of his children with kindness, happy to have them around him.” One of the sisters makes jewelry, one brother is an architect.
 
An American national, Mika loves Lebanon, his native country: “I am aware that it is an extremely chaotic country but it gives me an identity. Lebanon is also sweetness, Arabic mixed with French, smells. And homophobia.” The singer has been in a relationship with the same man, a videographer, for eighteen years. Mika votes in the United States: “It’s not difficult to guess who for.” From France, he admires “the republican identity. I am a mix between British culture, tolerant despite Brexit, and French republican culture. During his tour entitled Apocalypse Calypso Tour, he will give a single concert in London, in April: “The 30,000 seats left immediately even though I was predicted the worst, given that the lyrics of the new album are in French .” He will also perform one evening in Paris, at the Accor Arena. Everything is already sold.
 
Mika spoke English and French as a child, and a little Arabic. He lives between Miami and London and has, in Puglia, a “workshop” where the sets and costumes for his shows are made, great shows crafted down to the millimeter. His income is “irregular”. “I often worry that the coming year will be financially disastrous.” Marc-Olivier Fogiel: “Mika reinvests a very large part of what he earns in his shows. For the show he organized at the end of the Rugby World Cup, he took big risks by adding a lot from his own pocket, because he wanted very specific things, and very complicated to achieve. It was a success. He had a lot to lose.”
 
In Miami, the singer owns an “open” house, like the one in London in which he was raised. He describes, without nonsense, a universe that seems magical to him: “The place was filled with people from all over the world: there was an old Spanish lady who lived with us until his death, at age 94; a Lebanese woman; an elderly Russian woman who only spoke Russian. She had lace clothes, very exotic to me. There was a young man we met at the Holiday Inn in Beijing, who came to stay in the basement, and an old Indian woman, a seamstress, with whom my mother, also a seamstress, worked. I saw these people disappear. My mother was the architect of this way of life and this casting that I loved.” Superimposed on this enchantment is a misfortune that he has recounted a lot: school bullying, an ostracism accomplished thanks to the complicity of a teacher. The attack was so widespread that Mika was taken out of school for a time by his parents. Marc-Olivier Fogiel: “He is intense, very strong and very fragile. He is talkative but he keeps important things to himself. He overcame a lot of obstacles.”
 
Of the war in the Middle East, Mika says: “I know that overthrowing a terrorist organization is very difficult, but we have to get out of the current situation.” This comment is not original but its author does not play the international relations expert and he, at least, points out that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Among the artists the singer likes are obviously the Beatles: “You have to listen to their albums from start to finish, the order of the songs makes sense. They are magicians.” He also likes Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Glenn Gould, Colette Magny and Fellini. Cary Grant is, according to him, “the best actor of all time. English actors have on their side knowledge of great texts and cerebrality. The Americans are about emotion and the technique to control it.” At that moment, Mika improvises himself in his own somewhat lunar way as an expert in international strategy: “The Australians combine the emotion of the Americans and the culture of the British. Clack! With the two together, the Australians are dangerous.”

 

[mellody]

7 minutes ago, vanessa-love-mika said:

Here it is

 

Le chanteur né au Liban, qui navigue entre Miami et Londres, explore son univers singulier dans un sixième album, ode à la créativité et hommage à sa mère.

 

Son premier album, Life in Cartoon Motion, avait quelque chose des Beatles. Oui, rien de moins, et rien que ça. Il mêlait la musique classique et la pop, la fanfare et la symphonie, il était fantaisiste, inventif, farfelu et néanmoins très tenu, composé d’une guirlande de tubes (Lollipop en premier lieu). C’était un condensé de Grande-Bretagne. Rencontrer Mika, c’est se souvenir que, même si Londres ressemble désormais à une immense avenue Montaigne (le fric, à ce point-là, c’est pas très chic), cette capitale eut le génie de l’excentricité. Mika avait 23 ans seulement à la sortie de ce bijou. Certains aujourd’hui trouvent le chanteur et coach de The Voice ringard. D’après nous, c’est faux. Il est singulier. C’est un personnage. Il fait songer à Pee-wee, le héros du premier film de Tim Burton : «J’ai conscience qu’on me trouve étrange, mais je l’assume.» Mika est sincère et passionné.

 

Le jour du rendez-vous, juste avant Noël, présent à Paris pour la promotion de son nouvel album, le chanteur d’1m92 est habillé d’un costume rayé qui ne répond à aucune mode :«C’est moi qui l’ai dessiné. Ce n’est pas difficile de dessiner des vêtements. Essayez, vous y arriverez.» Il se lève gentiment pour faire bouillir de l’eau dans la cuisine du studio du photographe. Mika avait suggéré que cette rencontre se déroule au musée de la Magie, dans le IVe arrondissement, ce qui fut malheureusement impossible à organiser. Il est 13 heures, on boit de la tisane. Mika se nourrit une fois par jour, le soir. Il n’est pas maigre, il est mince.

 

Que ta tête fleurisse toujours est le titre de son sixième album et le vœu que sa mère a adressé au chanteur alors qu’elle allait s’éteindre, envahie par une tumeur au cerveau. Elle souhaitait à son fils de ne jamais perdre sa créativité. La couverture du disque montre le chanteur tout de blanc vêtu et assis sur un nuage, comme s’il était déjà au ciel. Mika n’est pas croyant mais, depuis quelques années, il discute régulièrement de théologie avec un universitaire, par Zoom : «Je suis un chrétien sécularisé.» Sa mère, libano-syrienne, était melkite : «Ce sont des Grecs orthodoxes qui suivent le Vatican», précise-t-il, souriant. «Enfant, à Londres, plusieurs jours par semaine, je chantais à l’église Brompton Oratory.» Il apprenait aussi le piano et le chant lyrique.

 

Londres est la ville dans laquelle la famille a grandi. Le père, un Américain wasp et homme d’affaires, est né à Jérusalem parce que le grand-père de Mika était diplomate : «Mon père est un modèle en voie de disparition : il est polyglotte, il s’exprime avec une grande politesse, il parle un anglais élégant.» Marc-Olivier Fogiel, proche ami du chanteur, connaît toute la famille et assiste parfois aux repas qui la réunissent : «Le père est un homme d’une civilité extrême. Il regarde chacun de ses enfants avec bienveillance, heureux de les avoir autour de lui.» L’une des sœurs fabrique des bijoux, un frère est architecte.

 

De nationalité américaine, Mika aime le Liban, son pays natal : «Je n’ignore pas que c’est un pays extrêmement chaotique mais il me donne une identité. Le Liban, c’est aussi de la douceur, l’arabe mélangé au français, des odeurs. Et l’homophobie.» Le chanteur est en couple avec le même homme, un vidéaste, depuis dix-huit ans. Mika vote aux Etats-Unis : «Ce n’est pas compliqué de deviner pour qui.» De la France, il admire «l’identité républicaine. Je suis un mélange entre la culture britannique, tolérante malgré le Brexit, et la culture républicaine française». Lors de sa tournée intitulée Apocalypse Calypso Tour, il donnera un seul concert à Londres, en avril : «Les 30 000 places sont parties tout de suite alors qu’on me prédisait le pire, étant donné que les paroles du nouvel album sont en français.» Il se produira aussi un soir à Paris, à l’Accor Arena. Tout est déjà vendu.

 

Mika parlait anglais et français dans son enfance, et un peu arabe. Il habite entre Miami et Londres et possède, dans les Pouilles, un «atelier» où se fabriquent les décors et les costumes de ses spectacles, de sacrés shows travaillés au millimètre près. Ses revenus sont «irréguliers». «J’ai souvent peur que l’année à venir soit désastreuse financièrement.» Marc-Olivier Fogiel : «Mika réinvestit une très grande partie de ce qu’il gagne dans ses spectacles. Pour le show qu’il a organisé en clôture de la Coupe du monde de rugby, il a pris de gros risques en ajoutant beaucoup de sa poche, parce qu’il voulait des choses bien précises, et très compliquées à réaliser. Ce fut une réussite. Il avait beaucoup à perdre.»

 

A Miami, le chanteur est propriétaire d’une maison «ouverte», comme l’était celle, à Londres, dans laquelle il fut élevé. Il décrit, sans niaiserie, un univers qui lui paraît féerique : «Le lieu était rempli de personnes du monde entier : il y avait une vieille dame espagnole qui a vécu chez nous jusqu’à sa mort, à 94 ans ; une Libanaise ; une Russe âgée qui ne parlait que russe. Elle possédait des vêtements en dentelle, très exotiques à mes yeux. Il y avait un jeune homme que nous avions rencontré au Holiday Inn, à Pékin, et qui est venu s’installer au sous-sol, et une vieille Indienne, couturière, avec laquelle ma mère, couturière elle aussi, travaillait. J’ai vu ces personnes disparaître. Ma mère fut l’artisane de ce mode de vie et de ce casting que j’ai aimés.» À cet enchantement se superpose un malheur qu’il a beaucoup raconté : le harcèlement scolaire, une mise au ban accomplie grâce à la complicité d’une enseignante. L’agression fut d’une telle portée que Mika fut déscolarisé un temps par ses parents. Marc-Olivier Fogiel : «Il est intense, très fort et très fragile. Il est volubile mais il garde les choses importantes pour lui. Il a surmonté beaucoup d’obstacles.»

 

De la guerre au Proche-Orient, Mika dit : «Je sais que renverser une organisation terroriste, c’est très difficile, mais il faut sortir de la situation actuelle.» Ce commentaire n’est pas original mais son auteur ne joue pas à l’expert en relations internationales et lui, au moins, rappelle que le Hamas est une organisation terroriste. Parmi les artistes qu’aime le chanteur se trouvent évidemment les Beatles : «Il faut écouter leurs albums du début à la fin, l’ordre des chansons a un sens. Ce sont des magiciens.» Il aime aussi Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Glenn Gould, Colette Magny et Fellini. Cary Grant est, selon lui, «le meilleur acteur de tous les temps. Les comédiens anglais ont pour eux la connaissance des grands textes et la cérébralité. Les Américains, c’est l’émotion et la technique pour la maîtriser». A ce moment-là, Mika s’improvise à sa façon un peu lunaire expert en stratégie internationale : «Les Australiens allient l’émotion des Américains et la culture des Britanniques. Clac ! Avec les deux ensemble, les Australiens sont dangereux.»

 

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  Reveal hidden contents

The singer born in Lebanon, who travels between Miami and London, explores his unique universe in a sixth album, an ode to creativity and a tribute to his mother.
 
His first album, Life in Cartoon Motion, had something of the Beatles. Yes, nothing less, and nothing but that. It mixed classical music and pop, fanfare and symphony, it was fanciful, inventive, eccentric and nevertheless very well maintained, composed of a garland of hits (Lollipop in the first place). It was a summary of Great Britain. To meet Mika is to remember that, even if London now resembles an immense Avenue Montaigne (money, at that point, is not very chic), this capital had the genius of eccentricity. Mika was only 23 years old when this gem was released. Some today find the singer and coach of The Voice corny. In our opinion, this is false. He is singular. He's a character. He reminds us of Pee-wee, the hero of Tim Burton's first film: "I'm aware that people think I'm strange, but I accept it." Mika is sincere and passionate.
 
On the day of the meeting, just before Christmas, present in Paris to promote his new album, the 1m92 singer is dressed in a striped suit which does not respond to any fashion: "It's me who drawn. It's not difficult to draw clothes. Try, you will succeed.” He kindly gets up to boil water in the kitchen of the photographer's studio. Mika had suggested that this meeting take place at the Magic Museum, in the 4th arrondissement, which was unfortunately impossible to organize. It’s 1 p.m., we’re drinking herbal tea. Mika feeds once a day, in the evening. He's not skinny, he's thin.
 
May your head always bloom is the title of his sixth album and the wish that his mother addressed to the singer when she was about to die, invaded by a brain tumor. She wished her son never to lose his creativity. The cover of the record shows the singer dressed all in white and sitting on a cloud, as if he were already in heaven. Mika is not a believer but, for several years, he has regularly discussed theology with an academic, by Zoom: “I am a secularized Christian.” His mother, Lebanese-Syrian, was Melkite: “They are Orthodox Greeks who follow the Vatican,” he explains, smiling. “As a child, in London, several days a week, I sang at the Brompton Oratory church.” He also learned piano and lyrical singing.
 
London is the city in which the family grew up. The father, an American wasp and businessman, was born in Jerusalem because Mika's grandfather was a diplomat: "My father is a disappearing model: he is polyglot, he expresses himself with great politeness , he speaks elegant English.” Marc-Olivier Fogiel, close friend of the singer, knows the whole family and sometimes attends the meals that bring them together: “The father is a man of extreme civility. He looks at each of his children with kindness, happy to have them around him.” One of the sisters makes jewelry, one brother is an architect.
 
An American national, Mika loves Lebanon, his native country: “I am aware that it is an extremely chaotic country but it gives me an identity. Lebanon is also sweetness, Arabic mixed with French, smells. And homophobia.” The singer has been in a relationship with the same man, a videographer, for eighteen years. Mika votes in the United States: “It’s not difficult to guess who for.” From France, he admires “the republican identity. I am a mix between British culture, tolerant despite Brexit, and French republican culture. During his tour entitled Apocalypse Calypso Tour, he will give a single concert in London, in April: “The 30,000 seats left immediately even though I was predicted the worst, given that the lyrics of the new album are in French .” He will also perform one evening in Paris, at the Accor Arena. Everything is already sold.
 
Mika spoke English and French as a child, and a little Arabic. He lives between Miami and London and has, in Puglia, a “workshop” where the sets and costumes for his shows are made, great shows crafted down to the millimeter. His income is “irregular”. “I often worry that the coming year will be financially disastrous.” Marc-Olivier Fogiel: “Mika reinvests a very large part of what he earns in his shows. For the show he organized at the end of the Rugby World Cup, he took big risks by adding a lot from his own pocket, because he wanted very specific things, and very complicated to achieve. It was a success. He had a lot to lose.”
 
In Miami, the singer owns an “open” house, like the one in London in which he was raised. He describes, without nonsense, a universe that seems magical to him: “The place was filled with people from all over the world: there was an old Spanish lady who lived with us until his death, at age 94; a Lebanese woman; an elderly Russian woman who only spoke Russian. She had lace clothes, very exotic to me. There was a young man we met at the Holiday Inn in Beijing, who came to stay in the basement, and an old Indian woman, a seamstress, with whom my mother, also a seamstress, worked. I saw these people disappear. My mother was the architect of this way of life and this casting that I loved.” Superimposed on this enchantment is a misfortune that he has recounted a lot: school bullying, an ostracism accomplished thanks to the complicity of a teacher. The attack was so widespread that Mika was taken out of school for a time by his parents. Marc-Olivier Fogiel: “He is intense, very strong and very fragile. He is talkative but he keeps important things to himself. He overcame a lot of obstacles.”
 
Of the war in the Middle East, Mika says: “I know that overthrowing a terrorist organization is very difficult, but we have to get out of the current situation.” This comment is not original but its author does not play the international relations expert and he, at least, points out that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Among the artists the singer likes are obviously the Beatles: “You have to listen to their albums from start to finish, the order of the songs makes sense. They are magicians.” He also likes Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Glenn Gould, Colette Magny and Fellini. Cary Grant is, according to him, “the best actor of all time. English actors have on their side knowledge of great texts and cerebrality. The Americans are about emotion and the technique to control it.” At that moment, Mika improvises himself in his own somewhat lunar way as an expert in international strategy: “The Australians combine the emotion of the Americans and the culture of the British. Clack! With the two together, the Australians are dangerous.”

 

 

thank you! I added the automatic English translation.

[Ax07]

A new french article:⬇️

 

 

https://www.liberation.fr/portraits/mika-bien-dans-sa-pop-20240114_6ZRMIFDHCBF4XAFO7NPR3ETIAM/?fbclid=PAAaaNevHwOQLGz8PiEiNArg7pMXGF1kQp0eZ5T6RpfienRVN8ZEo3wa5zL3M_aem_AZYnQNATMo7ZeQxZ1y-1RCBfAaAHKkwi3N67wvD6e9zxuHrbv0ls9qAl9yFpBc729Ig

 

 

[mellody]

Ooops sorry, I hadn't seen that the posts about this were in the 2023 thread! Moved it here.

[crazyaboutmika]

On 1/11/2024 at 10:29 PM, lormare73 said:

 

A question for the French fans. Has anybody bought this magazine and can share the screens here? Online it's available only the first question I think. 

I  meant to but I forgot

Hopefully it is still on sale

[Kumazzz]

Libération - 15 Janvier 2024 (No. 13231)

 

 

• PDF file ( 1 page / 627 kb ) Liberation_2024_01_15_p.28.pdf
• Pressreader https://pressreader.com/article/281887303158933
• WEB https://www.liberation.fr/portraits/mika-bien-dans-sa-pop-20240114

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/p/C2F41JvLxkV/

 

1600 x 2000

 

Page 28

 

8 hours ago, Ax07 said:

A new french article:⬇️

 

https://www.liberation.fr/portraits/mika-bien-dans-sa-pop-20240114_6ZRMIFDHCBF4XAFO7NPR3ETIAM/?fbclid=PAAaaNevHwOQLGz8PiEiNArg7pMXGF1kQp0eZ5T6RpfienRVN8ZEo3wa5zL3M_aem_AZYnQNATMo7ZeQxZ1y-1RCBfAaAHKkwi3N67wvD6e9zxuHrbv0ls9qAl9yFpBc729Ig

 

 

 

9 hours ago, vanessa-love-mika said:

Here it is

 

Le chanteur né au Liban, qui navigue entre Miami et Londres, explore son univers singulier dans un sixième album, ode à la créativité et hommage à sa mère.

 

Son premier album, Life in Cartoon Motion, avait quelque chose des Beatles. Oui, rien de moins, et rien que ça. Il mêlait la musique classique et la pop, la fanfare et la symphonie, il était fantaisiste, inventif, farfelu et néanmoins très tenu, composé d’une guirlande de tubes (Lollipop en premier lieu). C’était un condensé de Grande-Bretagne. Rencontrer Mika, c’est se souvenir que, même si Londres ressemble désormais à une immense avenue Montaigne (le fric, à ce point-là, c’est pas très chic), cette capitale eut le génie de l’excentricité. Mika avait 23 ans seulement à la sortie de ce bijou. Certains aujourd’hui trouvent le chanteur et coach de The Voice ringard. D’après nous, c’est faux. Il est singulier. C’est un personnage. Il fait songer à Pee-wee, le héros du premier film de Tim Burton : «J’ai conscience qu’on me trouve étrange, mais je l’assume.» Mika est sincère et passionné.

 

Le jour du rendez-vous, juste avant Noël, présent à Paris pour la promotion de son nouvel album, le chanteur d’1m92 est habillé d’un costume rayé qui ne répond à aucune mode :«C’est moi qui l’ai dessiné. Ce n’est pas difficile de dessiner des vêtements. Essayez, vous y arriverez.» Il se lève gentiment pour faire bouillir de l’eau dans la cuisine du studio du photographe. Mika avait suggéré que cette rencontre se déroule au musée de la Magie, dans le IVe arrondissement, ce qui fut malheureusement impossible à organiser. Il est 13 heures, on boit de la tisane. Mika se nourrit une fois par jour, le soir. Il n’est pas maigre, il est mince.

 

Que ta tête fleurisse toujours est le titre de son sixième album et le vœu que sa mère a adressé au chanteur alors qu’elle allait s’éteindre, envahie par une tumeur au cerveau. Elle souhaitait à son fils de ne jamais perdre sa créativité. La couverture du disque montre le chanteur tout de blanc vêtu et assis sur un nuage, comme s’il était déjà au ciel. Mika n’est pas croyant mais, depuis quelques années, il discute régulièrement de théologie avec un universitaire, par Zoom : «Je suis un chrétien sécularisé.» Sa mère, libano-syrienne, était melkite : «Ce sont des Grecs orthodoxes qui suivent le Vatican», précise-t-il, souriant. «Enfant, à Londres, plusieurs jours par semaine, je chantais à l’église Brompton Oratory.» Il apprenait aussi le piano et le chant lyrique.

 

Londres est la ville dans laquelle la famille a grandi. Le père, un Américain wasp et homme d’affaires, est né à Jérusalem parce que le grand-père de Mika était diplomate : «Mon père est un modèle en voie de disparition : il est polyglotte, il s’exprime avec une grande politesse, il parle un anglais élégant.» Marc-Olivier Fogiel, proche ami du chanteur, connaît toute la famille et assiste parfois aux repas qui la réunissent : «Le père est un homme d’une civilité extrême. Il regarde chacun de ses enfants avec bienveillance, heureux de les avoir autour de lui.» L’une des sœurs fabrique des bijoux, un frère est architecte.

 

De nationalité américaine, Mika aime le Liban, son pays natal : «Je n’ignore pas que c’est un pays extrêmement chaotique mais il me donne une identité. Le Liban, c’est aussi de la douceur, l’arabe mélangé au français, des odeurs. Et l’homophobie.» Le chanteur est en couple avec le même homme, un vidéaste, depuis dix-huit ans. Mika vote aux Etats-Unis : «Ce n’est pas compliqué de deviner pour qui.» De la France, il admire «l’identité républicaine. Je suis un mélange entre la culture britannique, tolérante malgré le Brexit, et la culture républicaine française». Lors de sa tournée intitulée Apocalypse Calypso Tour, il donnera un seul concert à Londres, en avril : «Les 30 000 places sont parties tout de suite alors qu’on me prédisait le pire, étant donné que les paroles du nouvel album sont en français.» Il se produira aussi un soir à Paris, à l’Accor Arena. Tout est déjà vendu.

 

Mika parlait anglais et français dans son enfance, et un peu arabe. Il habite entre Miami et Londres et possède, dans les Pouilles, un «atelier» où se fabriquent les décors et les costumes de ses spectacles, de sacrés shows travaillés au millimètre près. Ses revenus sont «irréguliers». «J’ai souvent peur que l’année à venir soit désastreuse financièrement.» Marc-Olivier Fogiel : «Mika réinvestit une très grande partie de ce qu’il gagne dans ses spectacles. Pour le show qu’il a organisé en clôture de la Coupe du monde de rugby, il a pris de gros risques en ajoutant beaucoup de sa poche, parce qu’il voulait des choses bien précises, et très compliquées à réaliser. Ce fut une réussite. Il avait beaucoup à perdre.»

 

A Miami, le chanteur est propriétaire d’une maison «ouverte», comme l’était celle, à Londres, dans laquelle il fut élevé. Il décrit, sans niaiserie, un univers qui lui paraît féerique : «Le lieu était rempli de personnes du monde entier : il y avait une vieille dame espagnole qui a vécu chez nous jusqu’à sa mort, à 94 ans ; une Libanaise ; une Russe âgée qui ne parlait que russe. Elle possédait des vêtements en dentelle, très exotiques à mes yeux. Il y avait un jeune homme que nous avions rencontré au Holiday Inn, à Pékin, et qui est venu s’installer au sous-sol, et une vieille Indienne, couturière, avec laquelle ma mère, couturière elle aussi, travaillait. J’ai vu ces personnes disparaître. Ma mère fut l’artisane de ce mode de vie et de ce casting que j’ai aimés.» À cet enchantement se superpose un malheur qu’il a beaucoup raconté : le harcèlement scolaire, une mise au ban accomplie grâce à la complicité d’une enseignante. L’agression fut d’une telle portée que Mika fut déscolarisé un temps par ses parents. Marc-Olivier Fogiel : «Il est intense, très fort et très fragile. Il est volubile mais il garde les choses importantes pour lui. Il a surmonté beaucoup d’obstacles.»

 

De la guerre au Proche-Orient, Mika dit : «Je sais que renverser une organisation terroriste, c’est très difficile, mais il faut sortir de la situation actuelle.» Ce commentaire n’est pas original mais son auteur ne joue pas à l’expert en relations internationales et lui, au moins, rappelle que le Hamas est une organisation terroriste. Parmi les artistes qu’aime le chanteur se trouvent évidemment les Beatles : «Il faut écouter leurs albums du début à la fin, l’ordre des chansons a un sens. Ce sont des magiciens.» Il aime aussi Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Glenn Gould, Colette Magny et Fellini. Cary Grant est, selon lui, «le meilleur acteur de tous les temps. Les comédiens anglais ont pour eux la connaissance des grands textes et la cérébralité. Les Américains, c’est l’émotion et la technique pour la maîtriser». A ce moment-là, Mika s’improvise à sa façon un peu lunaire expert en stratégie internationale : «Les Australiens allient l’émotion des Américains et la culture des Britanniques. Clac ! Avec les deux ensemble, les Australiens sont dangereux.»

 

Google translate

  Reveal hidden contents

The singer born in Lebanon, who travels between Miami and London, explores his unique universe in a sixth album, an ode to creativity and a tribute to his mother.
 
His first album, Life in Cartoon Motion, had something of the Beatles. Yes, nothing less, and nothing but that. It mixed classical music and pop, fanfare and symphony, it was fanciful, inventive, eccentric and nevertheless very well maintained, composed of a garland of hits (Lollipop in the first place). It was a summary of Great Britain. To meet Mika is to remember that, even if London now resembles an immense Avenue Montaigne (money, at that point, is not very chic), this capital had the genius of eccentricity. Mika was only 23 years old when this gem was released. Some today find the singer and coach of The Voice corny. In our opinion, this is false. He is singular. He's a character. He reminds us of Pee-wee, the hero of Tim Burton's first film: "I'm aware that people think I'm strange, but I accept it." Mika is sincere and passionate.
 
On the day of the meeting, just before Christmas, present in Paris to promote his new album, the 1m92 singer is dressed in a striped suit which does not respond to any fashion: "It's me who drawn. It's not difficult to draw clothes. Try, you will succeed.” He kindly gets up to boil water in the kitchen of the photographer's studio. Mika had suggested that this meeting take place at the Magic Museum, in the 4th arrondissement, which was unfortunately impossible to organize. It’s 1 p.m., we’re drinking herbal tea. Mika feeds once a day, in the evening. He's not skinny, he's thin.
 
May your head always bloom is the title of his sixth album and the wish that his mother addressed to the singer when she was about to die, invaded by a brain tumor. She wished her son never to lose his creativity. The cover of the record shows the singer dressed all in white and sitting on a cloud, as if he were already in heaven. Mika is not a believer but, for several years, he has regularly discussed theology with an academic, by Zoom: “I am a secularized Christian.” His mother, Lebanese-Syrian, was Melkite: “They are Orthodox Greeks who follow the Vatican,” he explains, smiling. “As a child, in London, several days a week, I sang at the Brompton Oratory church.” He also learned piano and lyrical singing.
 
London is the city in which the family grew up. The father, an American wasp and businessman, was born in Jerusalem because Mika's grandfather was a diplomat: "My father is a disappearing model: he is polyglot, he expresses himself with great politeness , he speaks elegant English.” Marc-Olivier Fogiel, close friend of the singer, knows the whole family and sometimes attends the meals that bring them together: “The father is a man of extreme civility. He looks at each of his children with kindness, happy to have them around him.” One of the sisters makes jewelry, one brother is an architect.
 
An American national, Mika loves Lebanon, his native country: “I am aware that it is an extremely chaotic country but it gives me an identity. Lebanon is also sweetness, Arabic mixed with French, smells. And homophobia.” The singer has been in a relationship with the same man, a videographer, for eighteen years. Mika votes in the United States: “It’s not difficult to guess who for.” From France, he admires “the republican identity. I am a mix between British culture, tolerant despite Brexit, and French republican culture. During his tour entitled Apocalypse Calypso Tour, he will give a single concert in London, in April: “The 30,000 seats left immediately even though I was predicted the worst, given that the lyrics of the new album are in French .” He will also perform one evening in Paris, at the Accor Arena. Everything is already sold.
 
Mika spoke English and French as a child, and a little Arabic. He lives between Miami and London and has, in Puglia, a “workshop” where the sets and costumes for his shows are made, great shows crafted down to the millimeter. His income is “irregular”. “I often worry that the coming year will be financially disastrous.” Marc-Olivier Fogiel: “Mika reinvests a very large part of what he earns in his shows. For the show he organized at the end of the Rugby World Cup, he took big risks by adding a lot from his own pocket, because he wanted very specific things, and very complicated to achieve. It was a success. He had a lot to lose.”
 
In Miami, the singer owns an “open” house, like the one in London in which he was raised. He describes, without nonsense, a universe that seems magical to him: “The place was filled with people from all over the world: there was an old Spanish lady who lived with us until his death, at age 94; a Lebanese woman; an elderly Russian woman who only spoke Russian. She had lace clothes, very exotic to me. There was a young man we met at the Holiday Inn in Beijing, who came to stay in the basement, and an old Indian woman, a seamstress, with whom my mother, also a seamstress, worked. I saw these people disappear. My mother was the architect of this way of life and this casting that I loved.” Superimposed on this enchantment is a misfortune that he has recounted a lot: school bullying, an ostracism accomplished thanks to the complicity of a teacher. The attack was so widespread that Mika was taken out of school for a time by his parents. Marc-Olivier Fogiel: “He is intense, very strong and very fragile. He is talkative but he keeps important things to himself. He overcame a lot of obstacles.”
 
Of the war in the Middle East, Mika says: “I know that overthrowing a terrorist organization is very difficult, but we have to get out of the current situation.” This comment is not original but its author does not play the international relations expert and he, at least, points out that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Among the artists the singer likes are obviously the Beatles: “You have to listen to their albums from start to finish, the order of the songs makes sense. They are magicians.” He also likes Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Glenn Gould, Colette Magny and Fellini. Cary Grant is, according to him, “the best actor of all time. English actors have on their side knowledge of great texts and cerebrality. The Americans are about emotion and the technique to control it.” At that moment, Mika improvises himself in his own somewhat lunar way as an expert in international strategy: “The Australians combine the emotion of the Americans and the culture of the British. Clack! With the two together, the Australians are dangerous.”

 

 

9 hours ago, jajinka5 said:

https://www.liberation.fr/portraits/mika-bien-dans-sa-pop-20240114_6ZRMIFDHCBF4XAFO7NPR3ETIAM/

 

[mellody]

15 hours ago, Kumazzz said:

Libération - 15 Janvier 2024 (No. 13231)

 

 

• PDF file ( 1 page / 627 kb ) Liberation_2024_01_15_p.28.pdf
• Pressreader https://pressreader.com/article/281887303158933
• WEB https://www.liberation.fr/portraits/mika-bien-dans-sa-pop-20240114

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/p/C2F41JvLxkV/

 

1600 x 2000

 

Page 28

 

 

 

 

 

I gotta say tho, as nice as that photo is, I find the writer of this article quite annoying. First thing is this "ringard". I'm not sure how to understand it, but the first translation it gives me is something like "outdated", and wtf?! Yeah, they say "no he isn't", but why even mention that in the first place?! People might say a lot about Mika, but I never heard anyone say that he's outdated. He keeps reinventing himself and surprising his audience. Anyway, maybe one of the French speakers has a better idea of what they mean with this expression? I also saw translations that say something like "nerdy", maybe that's why they added this quote about weirdness.

 

Anyway, it's not just that but also that she tries to depict him as super eccentric - or maybe he did that himself because that was the only way this woman would accept him? Like, I wonder where those 30,000 tickets for London came from...  And also in the last part, where she gives her opinion on what he says about the war in Middle East. "Not very original" and "at least points out that Hamas is a terrorist organization". I'm kinda glad he's not clearer about it, this woman sounds like she would have roasted him otherwise. It's a dangerous topic and Mika did really well in voicing his opinion in a very diplomatic way. It's wrong what's happening in Gaza, and imo the Israeli government is at least as much terrorizing the civilians in Gaza as Hamas was/is terrorizing the civilians in Israel, and yes, as Mika says, it has to stop. 

 

[camille*]

'Ringard' does mean outdated or has-been.. I'm sorry to break it to you but he does have this image from a part of the French audience. Because most of them still only know him from his 2007 hits, or more recently but still quite old now, Elle Me Dit. It's generally a description of him you would hear from people who have no clue what he is doing these days (apart from The Voice).. People who don't follow the music industry but Mika's success has been so huge in the past that they only remember that.

I actually like what the journalist says,  especially since probably her readers would think that way. 'You might think that about him but that's wrong'. Reestablishing the truth 

 

I also don't feel the same as you about his 'eccentricity', I really don't see it as negative but showing he is not ordinary but in a good way. I guess the 30000 tickets were actually supposed to be 3000 ? Or 30000 for the whole UK tour ? I don't know who got it wrong

And about politics, for the context Libération is a left wing newspaper. An important Left political leader has refused to call Hamas a terrorist organisation so I would imagine the journalist wanted to emphasize that, although obviously she knows Mika is not a political analyst

[crazyaboutmika]

To be honest I'm not keen about this article either... they didn't bother to write a full new text about the interview and part of it is from 2009 ...then at the end they mention the 2024 tour like it was forgotten then remembered at the very last minute....

Calling someone a has been after saying they are absolutely wonderful when they started being famous is a French journalists thing unfortunately. And Mika had a hard time after his success getting back being played on the radios (except for his first album songs) Doing The Voice in France and XFactor in Italy was a great idea to get more media attention.

As far as French normal people I meet everyday in real life when they see my tatoo they all tell me they know and like Mika and do not think he is a has been. They have a good image of the artist and of the man.

I enjoy interview when you can read Mika's words but this is more like the journalist giving her opinion on Mika and piling up facts....

About Mika being excentric if artists have to be as grey as the world we live in how sad! We live in a time period in which French humorists end up not being funny  because if you laughat anything it is an offense and if you laugh at yourself it is therapy and in which commercials for food end with "pour votre santé bougez" and car commercials end with "for short trips use a bike or walk" and so on and so forth. I came to Mika because he was colorful and his sound was like breathing fresh air....thankfully he is still that way, more surprising and wearing his colors more and more over time

Not sure the journalist is specialized in music or not

 

 

 

 

[mellody]

Thanks @camille* and @crazyaboutmika for sharing your interpretations.

Well, I know very well what you're talking about, people in Germany only know Mika as the Grace Kelly guy, if at all... I'm surprised it's the same in France, because he has been doing The Voice kinda like forever (or so it feels), and tons of interviews too, so wouldn't they be familiar with seeing him on the media? Or could it be BECAUSE he's on The Voice? I often get the impression (in Germany) that artists who judge these casting shows or go on shows like Masked Singer or Jungle camp have stopped being successful with their art, and that's why they do these shows. I don't know how it is in France - it seems Vianney and BigFlo&Oli are quite successful, so maybe the impression people get from it is different and it's just one of many promo tools for the artists. 

However, writing in an article that some people see him as a has-been, whether that is true or not, is unnecessary imo, because people tend to keep the negative things in mind of what they read, and not the "but it's not true". Especially, as Anne says, if it's connected with praise about his early success. Well, if journalists in France tend to do that, maybe it's not this specific writer then, but still I find it annoying.

[SusanT]

I had seen the interview below on social media but only today did I find a video with French subtitles, which is always a help for fans like me who are still learning French.  If the subtitled version has already been posted somewhere, I can delete this post.  

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8ray8

 

One more thing, at 1.47  Mika's talking about "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", isn't he?   I read it the first time when my daughter got it as a present. It's also been translated into Italian.

Edited January 19 by SusanT

[mellody]

34 minutes ago, SusanT said:

I had seen the interview below on social media but only today did I find a video with French subtitles, which is always a help for fans like me who are still learning French.  If the subtitled version has already been posted somewhere, I can delete this post.  

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8ray8

 

One more thing, at 1.47  Mika's talking about "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", isn't he?   I read it the first time when my daughter got it as a present. It's also been translated into Italian.

 

It's here, also with an English translation of the transcript:

On 1/9/2024 at 11:45 PM, Kumazzz said:

Pure Charts

 

Mika en interview : son album, son compagnon, The Voice...

 

"Chaque grande histoire d'amour est faite de ruptures" Mika se confie en interview au micro de Purecharts sur son nouvel album, ses chansons coquines, son compagnon ou "The Voice".

 

Autogenerated TEXT file [Français (autogenerated)] Mika en interview son album, son compagnon, The Voice... [DownSub.com].txt

 

Dailymotion

hhttps://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8ray87

 

Translation of the text file, with questions 

  Reveal hidden contents

It's a shame your voice isn't in this interview, because it makes me laugh.  I expect to hear the interviewer's voice.

  Trust me, you really miss half of the show.

 

Why now an album in French?

  I've been really wanting something new for a few years now. A first film, a first film soundtrack, symphonic projects,  a lot of things in my personal and also creative life. The album in French is part of that. I've wanted to sing in French for a long time, I've wanted to write a whole collection of songs in French for a long time,  but I didn't have an idea how to do it.  Really it comes out the same way as when I write in English. The melody, the text, at the same time.  And the moment I realized that I could really be myself, it became a sort of refuge.  I had to forget the language, uninhibit myself in relation to the language of Molière  to accept Mika's French. That's really what I experienced.

 

Is it harder to write in French?

  So, I sang in German in my life, I sang in English, I sang in French, in Italian.  For me, the most beautiful language to listen to is probably Italian,  but it's the most difficult to sing because everything is open. The easiest language to sing is English.  It lends itself very well, especially to pop and rock. Really, it slides.  The most fun language, because it's so impactful, is French.  It allows us to say things where rhythm is involved. So, it's like using the voice as a percussive instrument.  I use French to really get back to this very English approach in pop.

 

The album is an hommage to your mother, but it's very colourful...

  I love the idea of freezing the spell.  There is a book from my childhood that I always loved. It was a book about some kind of earthworm, I don't know how to say it, a thousand-footer that gradually eats up all the pages, all the leaves.  And all of a sudden, bam, it becomes a butterfly.  I like the idea that an album and the songs can do the same thing, even when it's something painful,  like a breakup or the passing of someone.  And that's a bit of this, it's this metamorphosis.

 

There are very naughty lyrics on the album...

  The, let's say, carnal or naughty side in several of the songs is super important. When I make music and when I'm on stage, I'm so liberated that...  It's a kind of nonchalance that's very liberating, I think. But also, it’s in French, that lends itself, French lends itself to that.  If I say, as in the song Apocalypso, "une bulle, on baise",  I could never say that the same way in English. It's just horrible. But in French, it remains beautiful. Why do the French, in a pop song,  that can go on the radio, can very easily say "je baise"  and in English, it sounds completely lame and vulgar?  This is the pleasure of being able to write in different languages. We can express ourselves in a different way.  I can express myself in a completely different way.

 

The song for your partner is a breakup song...

 (Mika starts interviewing the interviewer) Please introduce yourself for the Pure Charts audience.

  Julien Gonçalves (?)

  And your longest relationship?

  Two and a half years.

  And in the two and a half years that you were together with this person,  how many times did you argue?

  A lot.

 

  And here is the answer. Me, we've been together for 18 years, but every great story, we're going to say of love, if you want to call it that,  it is formed by many ruptures. When we succeed in building a bridge between a big breakup, this becomes a strength.  And the more bridges we have like that,  and the more we manage to train and have muscles like that, the most we can possibly resist. 

(text on the screen: "not understood")

 

Have you sometimes thought of stopping everything for him?

  To stop everything, I don't know what it is. Because I always...  Since I started very young, you see, my value system for myself, it's horrible to say it, but it's also connected to the fact that I love my work and I want to do it.  Stop everything for a private life, I think it would be impossible  because privacy will suffer enormously as a result, because I would be completely intolerable.  You have to find a balance. Maybe for now, I haven't found it.  Maybe that’s a challenge for the future.

 

Is it important to sing about your love for a boy?

  I remember, I wanted to write for a group. I went to see them. And I said, look, you come from here, from there, I would love it if it was French. It would be very nice to hear that coming out of your mouths. They told me, those are messages.  I say, it's not a commitment, but yes, there is a message.  "No, but messages are for the post office". I say, but why is there this tendency not to commit in one direction? For me, I don't block what comes out of my head  and with my mouth because I want to say it.  So it's this idea of having a constant commitment, but a commitment that remains poetic and artistic.  I wasn't like that when I was younger, but music gave me the opportunity to be.  You have to find your own way. 

 

Doucement - does it talk about bullying?

It starts from the feeling of being isolated, of not having value for oneself.  It could be the result of many things, general harassment, school harassment. And above all, it says, if you slow down, you can see further. And this long view will give you perspective  about what they are going through in your life. In English, we say "to see the forest from the trees",  be able to tell or see the difference between the trees and the forest. 

 

Did it do you good to speak about this topic?

I spoke in front of the children.  They were much, much, much more impressive than the Minister of Education or Ms. Brigitte Macron, frankly.  They were the ones who scared me in this context. I am in a high school, there were 350, there were 11 years. And I didn't know what I was going to say.  I hadn't written anything and all of a sudden I start talking and I really just feel this need to be completely transparent compared to what I experienced. It happened like that and it was really bad. And let me tell you how bad it was. But there was a solution.  And there you have it, with a little perspective, now I'll explain it to you. And maybe, you can make some of this story your own in your own challenge, your own challenge.  This is super important.  We cannot teach empathy lessons,  but much more can be done to strengthen and encourage a sense of community and of reciprocity of consequences.

 

You're returning to The Voice. Don't you have to go on tour?

  It’s obviously a show that I really like. and it’s this version in France that I really like.  Between the two brothers, on my left, between Vianney and Zazie, even Zazie, she is different. It speaks very quickly and very loudly. And this atmosphere is very important. It is fundamentally important.  If it doesn't have that vibe, you're not going to like the show. I'm sure.

 

 

I guess this interview was recorded on the same day.

 

 

 

And yes, he talks about The Very Hungry Caterpillar, they translated that correctly for the written version of this interview, which was published in December. It was one of my fave books too as child, I loved the holes in the book where the caterpillar had eaten the food, and the picture of the beautiful butterfly.  Another one of my fave books of this author Eric Carle was The Pancake Book, where a boy asks his Mum to make him pancakes, but she has no time and tells him he needs to get all the ingredients, which he does, so you get to know all the details of how each of the ingredients is produced naturally / by hand's work. Unlike today's children's books where they just go to the supermarket and buy everything.