Sweet article

[paula.pop]

http://www.accessatlanta.com/music/content/music/stories/2007/02/16/0217LVmika.html

 

you have to put some details but you can see it on google cached without having to

[tantastic]

thank you for that!!

[xxchrystalxx]

i like that article, i wish he was at the brits tho, that would have been really good...

[EnFa]

Haha! Nice article! It says, that his name is pronounced: MEE-kuh.. haha:roftl:

Miko!

[curly]

Really Nice i like the bit about the helium...

[EnFa]

Really Nice i like the bit about the helium...

 

I'd like to see that, or just hear it!

[fadette]

have you ever tried to do the same with helium?? ahah i've tried it last year, that's so weird when you hear your voice...

I'd like to hear Mika's voice after having inhaled helium!

when i'll go to his concert in Paris, i'll take some balloons with me...hinhinhin

[lylemma]

Here is the article :

 

 

British pop sensation Mika is tough to classify, but easy to love

Radio slowly warming up to unconventional 23-year-old artist

 

By NICK MARINO

 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

 

Published on: 02/17/2007

 

England's brightest new pop star has long fingers, gangly limbs and a tiny waist. His hair falls in dark ringlets. The American pop star he most resembles is John Mayer. The animal he most resembles is a giraffe.

 

His name is unisex. In his 23 years, he's only met one other Mika, and that was a Japanese lady who accompanied him on piano in music college.

 

 

This Mika  the English one, whose name is pronounced MEE-kuh  has the No. 1 song in Britain at the moment, "Grace Kelly." Perhaps you've heard it. It's a real piano-pounder with giant chord progressions and a stratospheric falsetto chorus. The song's lyrics allude to Freddie Mercury, the flamboyant Queen singer whose showtuney sensibility resonates in Mika's melodies.

 

Some American radio stations, including local adult-alternative station Dave FM, have begun playing "Grace Kelly," while others are thinking about it. Mika is here in Atlanta to see if he can persuade them.

 

Chris Brannen, operations manager at Dave, says the station is already spinning the song two to three times a day, focusing on weekends and overnight airplay, and that he's planning to start "hand-placing it throughout the day." He compares it to another left-field hit that swept England before breaking in the States: Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."

 

"I think with the buzz and the flash and the pizzazz that Mika has around him, I think that it's going to be a hit ... it's catchy. And yes, it will be one of those songs that, after you hear it for the 300th time  very similar to 'Crazy'  people [will start] saying, 'If I hear that song one more time...' But that's how hits are made."

 

Hits like Mika's album, "Life In Cartoon Motion," a kaleidoscopic record integrating piano pop and disco throb. While it won't be out in the States until March 27, it, too, is No. 1 back home in Blighty.

 

'Setting trends isn't easy'

 

On this sunny Valentine's Day afternoon, he's high above Buckhead in the penthouse conference room of Top 40 radio station Star 94. He's already given a joint performance for employees of Top 40 station Q100, and alternative rock station 99X. Now here he is, helping decorate for his next promotional gig. After this, he's got a private concert at the Realm condominium tower, sponsored by Dave FM. Then it's off to Boston, then New York, and then back overseas for a tour.

 

Mika grasps a purple balloon, fills it with helium, lifts it to his lips and inhales. He sings the hook of "Grace Kelly" in a comically squeaky pitch, riffing on his own voice, a voice that once caused a record executive to ask him, "Do you have to sing so high?"

 

Well, he doesn't have to. The guy started studying voice at age 11; his first gig was at the Royal Opera House. He can sing in a low, rounded voice  and sometimes he does  but his trademark move is a vocal leap into thin air.

 

Here in the States, Mika is still mostly unknown. Perhaps because of this, or perhaps it's just his nature, he punctuates his refined manners with a self-deprecating wit. He exhibits a rare combination of precociousness and modesty.

 

If he were back home, he points out, he could be "swanning around" at the Brits  the U.K.'s version of the Grammys. He's not nominated, but that's because he's not eligible this year. "I keep getting text messages saying 'Have a great time tonight,'" he says. "And I'm like, 'I'm playing the condo next door.'"

 

Balloons are placed at the doorway, and Valentine's candy is strewn across the conference room table. Before long, the Star 94 staff gathers around. Joel Klaiman, a Universal Records bigwig in a pinstriped jacket, introduces his artist by saying, "You probably won't ever see Mika in a conference room again." Mika, he says, already has confirmed dates on "The Tonight Show" and "Good Morning America," and "Saturday Night Live" is trying to work around Mika's schedule.

 

Mika sits at a big keyboard and plays three songs. The first is "My Interpretation," a breakup song disguised as a jaunty pop tune. The second is "Love Today," a rave-up that starts big and grows bigger. Last comes "Grace Kelly," which he says was written in a fit of anger after feeling rejected and frustrated by a music business that wouldn't give him any attention.

 

Needless to say, he's got plenty of attention now. With Mercury long dead and glam-rock band the Darkness looking like a one-hit wonder, Mika's closest stylistic contemporary is the singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, another restless soul whose work includes cabaret-pop and opera.

 

After Mika's conference room performance, Klaiman explains his sales pitch for getting such an unconventional artist on mainstream radio: "Setting trends isn't easy."

 

That's especially true when the competition is so much more familiar to American ears. In the Star 94 lobby are posters of Kelly Clarkson and James Blunt, the sorts of traditional pop acts with whom Mika is competing for air time.

 

Defining artistic success

 

After Star 94, Mika heads over to the Realm, arriving quite early for his performance.

 

At the suggestion of his manager, Mika kills time by exploring the leafy grandeur of West Paces Ferry. His song "Billy Brown," about a gay love affair, plays on the SUV's stereo.

 

"I think that I wasn't born out of any sound scene," Mika says. "I was rejected by pretty much all of them. So I kind of had to find my own way of doing things."

 

He says he gets his songwriting inspiration from his life and his friends' lives, or perhaps from "trashy magazines or fancy books."

 

Then the song "Big Girl" comes on  this is a kind of 21st century update of Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls," a song that Mika says was inspired by the Butterfly Lounge, a plus-sized ladies' club in Southern California.

 

Mika soon reveals that, for him, success means being "massive" enough to continue indulging his artistic muse.

 

"If I make a certain amount of money on my live shows," he says, "then I can turn my live show actually into a big-top circus tent and take that all around the United States. And not have opening acts that are sub-par bands that no one's interested in ... instead, let's have trapeze artists."

 

He's already on his way. When word leaked about Mika's recent private gig at the Roxy in Los Angeles, fans lined up around the block  so he hired jugglers to keep them entertained.

 

Time for the fans

 

The Dave FM show is held in the 8th floor lounge of the Realm, an upscale condo tower. About 125 fans have crowded into the space, having won a little Dave FM contest.

 

Essentially, the station started announcing the show at 9 a.m. one day not long ago, asking listeners who wanted to come to respond via e-mail. Within six hours, the guest list was full.

 

Dave FM's Brannen introduces Mika by comparing him to Queen, Elton John and George Michael.

 

After a brief delay due to an errant fire alarm, Mika bounds into the room, says, "Wow, that's the best entrance I've had in a long time," and plays the same three songs he played at Star 94.

 

The performances are no less charismatic than before.

 

Afterward, he greets a long line of fans, including 29-year-old Nikki Rahnert.

 

She tells Mika that his songs make her smile, and he signs a picture of himself with the words "To Nikki  I am glad the tunes make you smile. [Heart] Mika."

[EnFa]

have you ever tried to do the same with helium?? ahah i've tried it last year, that's so weird when you hear your voice...

I'd like to hear Mika's voice after having inhaled helium!

when i'll go to his concert in Paris, i'll take some balloons with me...hinhinhin

 

 

I've done it, and I swear! I sounded like a smurf!

[Sity]

Here is the article :

 

 

...And not have opening acts that are sub-par bands that no one's interested in ... instead, let's have trapeze artists.

 

...in Los Angeles, fans lined up around the block  so he hired jugglers to keep them entertained.

 

She tells Mika that his songs make her smile, and he signs a picture of himself with the words "To Nikki  I am glad the tunes make you smile. [Heart] QUOTE]

 

Oh, how I love him!!

Yes, and thank you for posting this article, what would i do without sweet people like you!

[my_rainbow_radio]

Yes thank you thank you thank you for posting the article!

[daisylou]

Actually seen that before but still worth another read!!

Why doesn`t he have his blinking big top now over here for every gig not just in the USA!! Ok he did Berkeley Square but thats it. We want all of the razmatazz and fun and why not when he lives in the UK. he could have chosen bigger venues if the ones he chose weren't big enough!!

Maybey we will have to wait for the next tour or just live in London as that must be the only place to have any fun in the music world!!

xx

[crazybusiness]

That's a pleasant article, something a little different from the other boring ones.

[Steph]

Actually seen that before but still worth another read!!

Why doesn`t he have his blinking big top now over here for every gig not just in the USA!! Ok he did Berkeley Square but thats it. We want all of the razmatazz and fun and why not when he lives in the UK. he could have chosen bigger venues if the ones he chose weren't big enough!!

Maybey we will have to wait for the next tour or just live in London as that must be the only place to have any fun in the music world!!

xx

 

the Berkley street (t mobile) gig was amazing and small enough to make it real special, I'm sure if he had it his way he would only choose small venues, to be in touch with people, I'm sure he'll do something near you!!!!!!

 

We just need to wait cause at the mo he needs to spread the miks magic, or as he says: do the seeding...

[Jonahwood]

Wow, that's a great article. Many thanks for that xx