camille*

I'll post the translation asap

Thank you, it's so strange (but so pleasant) to see him on the news again! At the end they say 'Mika, a true big star in the US...' Can they foresee the future?

'Mika' was trending in France an hour ago or so No idea if it was for 'our' Mika or someone else though...

I've had the countdown open for half an hour and hadn't even realised that until you said it

How long have you been waiting? I had to wait 30 minutes before receiving mine.

Ok I watched it. First of all, the music That's the perfect version I was hoping for. Same energy as the live version but with more electronic sounds, hum not sounds but voices actually, without losing soul. I'm delighted I like the video. I had just watched it and was starting thinking how to describe my feelings and I read that I totally agree, although I wouldn't really say it's shocking, for me it's just a metaphor of love as a drug, but in a very strong way. It's a very nice work of art, it's amazing if you watch the film with Mika's song accompanying it but maybe not the other way around (hoping the film to suit the song perfectly)

Thank you! So he'll be in France for sure Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday

Thanks for your answers. I haven't made my decision yet. I want to listen to the whole songs, on the whole album. But as we already know this one, I might just listen

I have a small question for people who are waiting for the album before listening to samples etc... (if ever you're lurking around here like me ) : did you watch the video? I'm hesitating. We know the song but not the final album version so I think I should follow my instinct not to listen to this either... Existential questions we have as Mika fans...

Me too, stronger than ever 1 week before the whole songs, that really can't be so hard, I just feel bad that so many people have heard what the songs sound like already, but I'll stick to my choice

Oh yes I'm ready for this! Although I've just had a tea biscuit on the track by track thread

Thanks Good to know he'll be on Taratata again but Wednesday is not the most convenient day

I'm very self contradictory, I didn't listen to the album samples or the videos of the new songs from The Netherlands, but I did watch the track by track for Stardust :rolls_eyes: I've always dreamt of having something like the music vlogs from 2009 when I was not a fan yet so for this I couldn't resist Well about Stardust, I suppose I will like the whole song, maybe in the same way as EMD, I love it, love dancing and having fun to it. As usual Mika's voice is amazing in there, but it's the 'background' melody that bothers me a bit if I take the song more seriously. Seems great to have some fun and chase some joy but I think I much much prefer songs in the same category as TOOL.

Thank you, you can't imagine how much fun I had! It was such a truly amazing gig. I'm still daydreaming about it... First time I see them, but completely unforgettable. I was 2nd row, maybe that helps Magnificent stage, huge audience, 160 000 bracelets glowing, balloons, confetti, fireworks (it was too much I shed a tear) and of course Coldplay with their songs; each time a new song was starting I was excited and happy that they were singing this one And also it was special as it was filmed and Rihanna was there (Strange to write a Coldplay gig 'report' on MFC )

:shocked: I have to resist.

Leaving for Paris tomorrow to see them for the first time on Sunday! :boing: Can't wait

Nice find, thank you very much! I'll let Kaito translate it but you'll see, it's a really nice one

You're welcome. 'Un best of' is correct, at first I wanted to keep it this way in English but I realised it didn't make much sense. From my recent translations I've often been amazed at how many spot-on phrases he has used. He has definitely improved a lot recently

I agree with you. On 2 points actually : I like knowing more about his views on someone else's music too, and I think she has been an inspiration for the French songs, or at least for Karen. A while ago I tried to describe Karen like he has described Barbara's music, of course I couldn't explain it that well, just mentioning the melody following the words or something like that. I wonder why they asked him about La Solitude in Nice in particular, was it the first time he sang it I can't remember? Because he did it in several other places.

I think this interview fits in this thread, Mika was interviewed by France Inter when he was in Montreal about his passion for Barbara Thanks Ysa for posting Translation It was 3 years ago actually. I heard a compilation in a car in London. I was waiting for someone and I heard this and I stayed in the car for an hour and a half, almost 2 hours, listening to music, just listening to her songs, and I couldn't believe that there was somebody who could mix sadness, joy, classical music, tradition of French songs, poetry, all this in such a beautiful and pure way that such a discovery when you're 20 something, I was 25, it's like a gift. Like a huge gift, and for months after that, I only listened to Barbara, I completely threw myself in her world, in her universe in order to understand why there is such a woman, where she comes from, how she can do what she does and how come people around the world don't know her. And it unsettled me, and it still unsettles me a bit because we should know Barbara all over the world. There is Piaf, there is Brel, there is Barbara. Why don't people know Barbara? I completely understand it when people say that Barbara's music is like a drug because it's a kind of refined melancholy, and we know for certain that melancholy and sadness can be consumed like a drug, just like chocolate, like cocaine, it's a kind of extremity of sadness and that's why it can become addictive and often when you talk to people who love Barbara, they have a moment in their lives when they are completely into Barbara's universe, then they reject it completely and do not listen to Barbara for a year because they've had it; they have an overdose. It's sadness, we can draw a parallel with.. I don't know, it's not absurd, and it's not surrealist, it's very realistic, but it's poetic, it's a bit like Almodovar, it's a bit sexy, it's a bit dark, it's a bit dirty and we never feel very clean with Barbara's music, we feel very real. Her characters are not very beautiful, they always have a lot of flaws and she finds beauty in it. It's not seen through pink glasses, it's not life in pink, it's more life in purple. Barbara's music is not necessarily very complex, we can get close to it easily, but with Barbara, the means of communication is melody. And actually in all she does, there's always melody. In what she sings there's melody, in what she plays there's often melody, a counter melody and in her bass there's also melody or arpeggio or sequences, it's very classical, it's almost neo classical in style, it's not baroque at all but it's neo classical. It's a kind of very refined melody and what is beautiful with her is that she finds melody in the lyrics. So she writes poetry but we can think that poetry and the melody she's singing are completely mixed together. For example she says a word and she finds melody in this word, and the rhythm is never in contrast with the melody she's singing. And it's very difficult to do, only a few people can do this, we all try to do it but she's the big priestess. I think it's the universe that I like more than anything. More than any precise song, it's the universe. Now I have Spotify, Universal's antichrist, ITunes' antichrist, they are all scared of it, but for me it's great because I can type in 'Barbara' and I hear a hundred songs and I can lose myself very easily in her universe. She has a way of seducing us, and it's only after she has seduced with her melody and her very pure, very childlike voice, like a 16 year old girl; if you take any of her songs like 'Quand reviendras-tu' or 'La Solitude', you can hear all of her life and all the different versions she made for radio, because I collect her radio recordings and it's funny to hear how her voice changed but the intention is clear. She wanted to present herself with a very pure voice, so she seduces us in all these ways, with melody, with her pure voice, with this neo classical side but after you're seduced you realise that the knife hits you, the knife gets in slowly and then she turns the knife at the last minute and it's vicious and it inspires me a lot. I think we always have to do this in a way. We always have to seduce people and then when we have them really close, we tell them exactly what we think. I consider myself a student and she's the teacher. We are very easily victims of Barbara and of her songs, and even of her look when we are 25. After going out in clubs, after taking a bit too much drug, having such experiences, we want to throw ourselves in a melancholic world which is a bit adolescent, which is comfortable. I think that indeed we are very easily victims of Barbara. I use the word 'victim' because I have this idea that she's.. she's like a witch in a studio Ghibli movie, a Miyazaki movie, a Franco-Japanese witch who lives in a tower in the middle of the ocean with a lot of cats and with a lover. It's really Miyazaki, with antiques everywhere in a fantasy world, a bit childlike but very philosophical and very beautiful at the same time, and very adult. She's also vile and mean and horrible just as much as she's inspiring, nice and tolerant. That's why she's a bit like Miyazaki. About singing 'La Solitude' in Nice in 2010 It was crazy, I don't know why I did it. There were 55000 people in front of me (wasn't it more like 10000 Mika? ) who had drunk a lot, there were young people, there were old people, a bit of everything, a lot of people taking drugs and I thought, after a whole show with everybody dancing like crazy, with a man with a pig mask and leather clothes who went on stage and who was stinking so much, who danced with us for 15 minutes; after all this, after such a climax, I decided to sing a Barbara song. And when I started singing 'La Solitude', there were even people shouting 'no, no, not this!' or people booing, but in the end, the audience's reaction was huge. It probably took 45 seconds but after 45 seconds there was silence and at the end of the song there was a very strong reaction and I thought why not? Why not sing something we love, why not finish a show with something very small. There was pyrotechnic in the show and I thought why not go back to a very intimate moment. For me it was a bit funny because I always say we can be on stage in front of 60000 people and 30 seconds later we are backstage and then in our hotel room and we are alone. It's my life. It's always like this, I'm surrounded by people, of course I work with my family, but after some time I'm on my own in a room and I look at myself and I think 'is it stupid or what? What is this life I live? This kind of ridiculous, absurd life' So I thought it would be funny to sing a song about solitude in front of 60000 people. For me it's a little joke, I think nobody got it but I liked it. A while ago I also found an article about Mika's current playlist; I suppose it fits in here too http://blogs.lexpress.fr/all-access/2012/08/13/mika-le-clip-de-celebrate-et-sa-playlist/