mariposa

THANK YOU for posting these interviews! Enjoyed watching them!

Wow! Now this is NEWS! Interesting!

Thankx for posting!

Wow! Reading this review really makes me feel happy! It's what we all experience at every single Mika gig. And that's what the Mika gig "addiction" is all about.

OMG, I only just found this thread now

I - SO - CAN'T - WAIT !!!!! The suspense is killing me. I'm falling in love more and more with "Pick up off the floor"

Kath, I LOVE your Mika tattoo!

I have been thinking about getting a tattoo (not necessarily a Mika related one) for years...but can't decide

This one will remind you every single day of the itunes gig and of the big M - awesome! I also like your other tattoo - very colourful. (a ladybird is among my fave motives so far as well )

The LA PIX are terrific: THANX!

Couldn't agree more. Thanx for posting, Dani!

THANK YOU everyone for your reports, pix and vids!

I really appreciate the MFC for this (always have and always will ).

I wish I would have lived this gig with you. Can't stop listening to "Dr. John". It makes me wanna listen to the album even more.

And thank you, Anzuzu for ringing me during the gig!

And for your texts, too!

It's just great being a Mika fan. Am proud of being one and sharing it with you all! (Ok, am getting all emotional...sorry)

it actually stroke me the idea the japanese version would be even more complete.. it was so with LICM..

yeah, that's true... but as it was the case for Licm, I don't mind having several copies of it.

I can't restrain myself from ordering anyway whenever a new link comes up

Das wär geil!

Also in Bonn bin ich ab 3.8. bis 7.8. ... aber hab leider keine ahnung, wie viel freizeit ich da haben werd... und leider werde ich das erst da erfahren, also könntest du mir jetzt bitte sagen, ob du an einem von diesen Tagen Zeit hast? Dann können wir uns weiter verabreden :-)

Hey!

Oh nein, da werden wir uns wohl wieder verpassen.

Bin bis zum 12. August noch unterwegs und nicht in Köln...

ich wünsche dir trotzdem viel Spaß bei deiner Deutschlandtour!

Dankeschön!

Jupp.. bin in Berlin/München/Bonn Nach Köln gibts nur nen ausflug...

Hey! Wann bist du denn in Bonn? das liegt doch direkt neben Köln?

Vielleicht könnten wir uns da ja treffen? (Haben uns ja bisher leider immer verpasst...)

Good luck for everyone who's entering! *finger crossed*

I can't make it there myself, BUT I am really happy that there are gonna be a whole bunch of MFCers cheering for the big M and setting the atmosphere!

So the Bayern3 interview hasn't been aired yet?

Mille grazie for all these links!

Just trying to catch up with everything

Glad some of u MFCers met him!

Looking forwards to having him back for tv shows/concerts in Europe in December *yay*

On Channel 4, Tuesday 4th August, it's the first play of the We Are Golden Video, at 23.55 (11.55pm).

This is in the UK only as far as I'm aware.

Thanks for the info, Rose.

I'll be on hollidays from August 4th - August 11th though....*argh* Will have to wait one more week I guess....

Can't wait for the vid though. What we already know about it sounds promising!

I'm back in 2007.

Exactly how I feel!

I second that! The good old (Mika) times are back.

So, it's B3 at 11 pm/now? The livestream isn't working for me, don't know why. hopefully someone will record it if possible.

And tomorrow's gonna be the Italian day - can't wait!

edit: This link is working for me http://streams.br-online.de/bayern3_2.m3u. Hope it wasn't aired yet and we all missed it....After all, there's only one hour left of the day...hmmm...

The WDR video was taken the 21st? And which city is WDR then? Hamburg?

WDR is Cologne/Köln, just live the EinsLive.

waited at br3 together with awine (sarah) from german forum for 3 hours, then someone texted me that mika had been there already, interview won't be live but aired tonight.

on our way back to the station, we passed by the hotel that is directly next to the station and i looked and said to sarah - that guy sitting there on the hotel terrace in the cafe, is that mika?! and she said yes it is... at that moment i wanted to run away and not disturb him, she wanted to go to him, so we just stood there and argued, when he saw me and waved. i waved back but he was on the phone, so we didn't go there but just sat on a stone in a distance and waited til he was finished - then he waved us to come over. we talked for a few mins, i posted the most important stuff on twitter (twitter.com/mellody76). can't post the details now, no time, will do so tonight.

Awesome! Can't wait to read your whole story tonight!

Woman: What is that figure around your neck?

Mika: It’s from a Begian designer. His name is Walther van Berendonk (?). And this is a self-portrait of him. He gave this to me as a self-portrait. And these are prayer perls. I f you wish for something or if you’re praying you hag one of these things on the necklace. Unfortunatelly I have only one here. But at home I have a whole box of them.

Woman: He does have a lot. He also has a second album out soon. The first one was sold 6 million times. Mika, for doing this second album you had taken an apartment in LA, terminated the tenacy for your flat in London, but then your mum interferred. You shouldn’t make it that easy for yourself. What did she wanna say with that?

Mika: Well, actually when I wrote the album in London, it’s been about 6 months, I was at a studio composing. And just like it was for the first album I took a flight to LA to finish it over there. I had the same team for the production. But I didn’t wanna live in the same apartment. I was on tour for two years and a half, it all worked well and then I was telling myself that I could now yet me something really nice in LA since I was about to live there for 6 months, so I wanted to live there comfortably. I found a very good-looking house, very nice, it had a small garden, a lovely neighbourhood, it had 3 or 4 bedrooms so all my friends could come and visit me. I was very happy with the situation. Two days before I left to LA my mother found out about this without me knowing. And she normally doesn’t do things like that. But she cancelled absolutelly everything without me knowing. And so I was back in the same apartment as for the first album. She knows I’m so superstitious. And she put a little speell on me. She said the more money you spend on the second album adn for yourself while doing this album the worse it is gonna be. And when this was stuck on my head for once I mean, yeah, I started doing the other extreme.

Woman: What influence does your mum have on you?

Mika: Well, you know I think she had had a lot of influence on me as a kid. When I was younger. I’m a musician since the age of 12. I was thrown out of school and I had a lot of academic difficulties at school. So when I left school I didn’t really know what I could do and what I wanted to do. My education was a desaster. My formation, too. So my mother told the government, the local council, that I wasn’t going to school for nice months and then she taught me things a t home. And I worked a lot with my Russian singing teacher. So that’s when I started learnig about music. Every day I was 3 or 4 hours with my mum and I additionally studies music. It was very difficult but I made it. Then, I waent again to school and i had my first job at the Royal Opera house singing a Strauss opera. So it was good that my mother was there. She saw that I needed something. Otherwise I would have enede up as a complete mess. She thought if she didn’t do anything now I would be a complete chaotic person, she thought I could either do something special or end up in jail, nothing in between.

Woman: Up til now you still got your family around you, even now you’re a popstar. All of your siblings are working with you. What are they doing?

Mika: My siblings, we all work together. Well, not all. One of my sisters does all of the art work, and the graphics or illustrations and draws me things for the album. My other one is a stylist. She also does some PR work for me. The other two are actually at school. The one is studying fashion in China, and the other one is gonna ba an architect. So it’s actually a mix. But I like being around my siblings. Everybody thinks that if yours working with your siblings it’s peaceful and happy, like a family. But in fact it’s quite cruel. We’re arguing a lot and I guess we’re even arguing every single day. But it’s very honest. And this honesty is very healthy in a job situation such as mine.

Woman: You seem to be a very grounded person, apart from your shoes. Do you think that is important to be successful as a popstar?

Mika: Yeah, my shoes. They are the only ones in the world.

Woman: Is ist important to be grounded as a popstar, to be successful?

Mika: Actually I’m so cheap I would never ever buy these shoes. These are custom-made shoes by Christian Louboutin. And shoes by him are like 10.000 euros. And I’d never in a million years spend so much money on shoes. That’s crazy. But since he’s friends with me they’re free. So it’s fine.

Woman: But being grounded and a bit cheap, of what importance are these characteristics to be successful in the long run as a musician?

Mika: Oh, I don’t know. That’s difficult to say. I don’t know what other musicians do. But I know that I came from a kind of place where there was no place for me in pop music. No place for me on radio. So i decided that if I was gonna make it with my own music, i would do it in my own way. That I would have to do it 100% the way I could do it. I was in my own bubble. But I had the faith and the strenghth to keep to my ideals. I wasn’t alone. I knew that there would be people who would understand me. And it seems to have worked til now. I mean I’m down to the ground but then again I’m not. I kind of bubble myself. I guess the most important thing is to always respect the crafts of songwriting. And I think in the morning when you wake up, and no matter how big the show is, to sit down the next day, have breakfast and write a song. There’s nothing that would make this process more human. I’m very difficult to work with. If you asked people who worked with me they’d probably say that I’m the worst (musician) they have ever met or else they’ll stay with me/work with me for years. There’s nothing in between. And most of them stay with me for a very long time. And I prefer that. That’s my favourite method.

Woman: Mika has been very nice here in our studio. Not very hard to talk to. And because he was the first celb to have taken a pic of me I’ll give hime a present in exchange. A personal gift, a conditioner for curly hair. From us.

Mika: Thank you very very much.

Woman: And in return I would like you to sign this WDR2 collection cup with this nice pen,,,

Mika: I haven’t washed my hair in about three weeks.

Woman: but your hair is still looking good. It’s a bit shiny, now I know why.

Mika: Yes, they are shiny. It washes itself.

Woman: If you sign this WDR2 cup we will make a draw tomorrow in WDR2’s morning show. The listeners will be happy.

Mika: Alright. Sure.

Woman: Draw something nice. You seem to be a creavtive person. We wish you all the best with your album and your music. Stay the way you are. It’s fun with you. Thank you, Mika.

As promised, here's my transcript of the WDR2 Video available here http://www.wdr.de/radio/wdr2/westzeit/524707.phtml

I hope it helps.

Woman: WDR2 – the "Westzeit", Thursday noon, and we’re having a visitor, a good-looking one. A talented, nice man came to see us. And up til now we know of him more when singing than when speaking so today it is gonna be different – Welcome in Northe rhine-Westphalia (German land).

Mika: hello, how are you doing?

Woman: So, we’re gonna start with a fact sheet. Full name

Mika: My full name? Ohh, that’s not nice (?)...my name is Mika.

Woman: Age?

Mika: H stands for...ahm...I’ve never said what H stands for...actually it’s Holbrook

(translator: no the age (in German), woman: in any case not 30 yet, Mika carries on about his name LOL )

Mika: And, but, you know what, my real name, my legal name is Michael. But ever since i was a little boy, since my father’s also called Michael, my mother decided that i would be called Mika. I used to live in Paris and people called my Michaél. So that’s how the abreviations came about. When I was six months my mum started calling my Mika because my mum didn’t like the name Michael.

Woman: What languages do you speak?

Mika: I speak English, French, and some Spanish, and my German is terrible, I studied German at school for 2 years.

(so waht about Arab Mika???)

woman: What do you remeber in German?

Mika: I actually only remember Goethe poetry, the lyrics I had to learn for these German lieder. I was at uni studying music, and already studied music as a child, sand that’s why i remeber this. It’s all pretty useless what i remeber, it’s classical things, I’m completely lost if I have to order coffee for example.

Woman: What are your hobbies apart from music?

Mika: Ahm, I like to draw, I actually, I love illustration, I like theatre, but I guess I’m a musiscian because i like theatre. That’s how it all started. Even as a kid I already liked theatre. There are many strange things that i like to do. Well, I collect scents.

Woman: Ok.

Mika: Yeah, but they’re not all good smells. I have about 140 little bottles at home – all filled with different scents. They don’t all contain good smells like oils or flowers, but also things like tarmac or plastic. I think it’s very intersting and I don’t know why. I have the same attitudes towards music. It’s jsut all abou memories. I think music as just as interesting as scents.

Woman: Then I’ll invite you to come to our open-plan office at 30 degrees (celcius). There you’ll get to know many scnets/smells. Your favourite place to live?

Mika: My favourite place to live is London. However, that would be my kind of base. I’m looking somewhere to have my own house.

Woman: the most important single for you?

Mika: Ahm, it would probably be...

Woman. That takes a long time...

Mika: It’s hard. It’s gonna be something pop. As a single you mean?

Woman: One of yours.

Mika: One of mine? No, I’m not gonna talk about my music. You know what? Unashamedly pop. Either ahm “Like a prayer” or something like “When dogs cry” by Prince.

Woman. So alegedly your vocal ranges is 5 octaves. What’s the deepest note you can sing?

Mika: I suppose my octaves are not 5 octaves. Then I’d by just like the alien from the Fifth element. It’s more than normal men’s. But my lowest tone...Well, I was actaully singing baritone when I was a t uni.

Woman: Give us a demonstration of your lowest tone.

Mika: Noooo. It’s probably like that bit. (in a deep voice)

Woman: And the highest note?

Mika: I don’t know (in a high-pitched voice). Well actually, I sing just like I speak Ahhhhhhh...

Woman: One of our listeners once wrote:”When Mika is singing my tooth inlays are falling out!” What do you think about that?

Mika: I don’t know if that’s an insult or if it’s a very starnge compliment. Or this person schould go and get a better dentist.

Woman: Of course he’s not here without a piano. We have goten the special Mika piano so that he can play. The current new single “We are golden”. Mika unplugged now here at WDR2.

(Mika and Martin playing WAG)

woman: WAG unplugged performed live by Mika here at our studio. If you listeners at home wanna know how this man looks like: dark curls, dark eyes, a shirt, white pants, dark trainers

Mika: awww, look at my shoes.

Woman: Wow! Now what kind of shoes are that? They do look dangerous. There are spikes.

Mika: They’re the only ones in the world. And the shoemaker from France made me these shoes for dancing. Danging shoes so that I could stand on the points. But he now does have different models. He usually only makes shoes fro women. But now he’s thinking about selling men’s shoes, too. I think it’s pretty cool what he’s doing. That he’s now selling shoes that were originally designed for me.

I'm at it (the transcript)....takes quite sme time...but you'll have it. Be patient :wink2:

Great vid!!! But I don't understand anything... well almost... Can someone help?

I can try to make a transcript...give me some minutes

Did she asked him anything about his teeth?

hehe. noooo.

But: at the end of the video you can see the woman giving him some "conditioner for curly hair" - she says as a present since he was the first celb to have taken a pic of her

Mika then says that he hasn't washed his hair in 3 weeks and the woman says that she understands now why his hair looks so shiny

I know, Greta! I was actually planning to go to the Melt festival. They've got an awesome lineup every year! Next year

PS: I think it's kinda funny how PW goes on with his "lovely" remarks on Mika

*sorry for double post...MFC isn't working properly for me today*

Wow! Now that's a tight schedule!

looking forwards to listening to Italian radio stations tomorrow though!

Mille grazie, Giulietta!