"Make a date with Mika"

[greta]

{go to metro news manchester for a fabby pic of Mika perform at ema}http://www.metronews.co.uk/entertainment/magazine/s/1024646_make_a_date_with_mika

 

 

MUSIC: Mika, Apollo, Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 – THE best pop music should always intoxicate as many people as it infuriates, and Mika – 2007’s most ‘love him or hate him’ pop sensation - has definitely followed those laws fastidiously to the letter.

Back at the start of the year, long before he’d had any chart success, Mika described himself to the press as being like, “Pop Marmite … because people will react to me in one of two extremes.”

It was a perfectly judged self-assessment.

By the time uber-pop anthem Grace Kelly sailed to the top of the singles chart and became the most played track on British radio in 2007, it was obvious Mika had fulfilled his early promises.

Though his debut album Life In Cartoon Motion has sold over two million copies worldwide (600,000 of those in the UK alone), Mika has firmly divided this country into those that adore this most flamboyant of new pop stars OR those that find him an irritant on par with the sound of fingernails being scraped down a blackboard. But by labelling himself as Pop Marmite, it’s obvious that 23-year-old Mika Penniman is a very savvy, self-aware pop star indeed.

His background is odd by any pop star’s standards: he was born and brought up in war-torn Beirut, before moving to England to study classical music – by the time he was aged just 13, he was a fully trained boy soprano performing at the Royal Opera House. However, none of that weighty personal history has gone into Mika’s absurdly extravagant music.

A bit like a one-man Scissor Sisters, Mika has made it is his job to inject excessive camp and kitsch pop music back into that charts.

In all his interviews, Mika has made it his desire to align himself with Freddie Mercury and Queen – indeed, in an age when Arctic Monkeys are the UK’s biggest guitar act, surely what is wrong with an OTT dose of gauche, flamboyant pop back in the charts?

Mika is overwhelming and nauseating but at least he does it entertainingly.

Last single ‘Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)’ might be the most patronising song ever written about the female form, but at least it’s done in the same exuberant, OTT camp style as his heroes Queen – and like everything Mika writes, it’s a damn catchy song.

See him perform live, and that excess is in greater abundance - garish stage props, his backing band dressed in drag, and at the centre of it all, Mika himself, bouncing around like a self-adoring brat who’s consumed ten litres of Red Bull.

Pop Marmite then – it’s frighteningly addictive stuff.

[armande]

lol the part about the red bull, is funny, thats what it does to me

 

thanks for sharing!

[Gatagordinha]

{go to metro news manchester for a fabby pic of Mika perform at ema}http://www.metronews.co.uk/entertainment/magazine/s/1024646_make_a_date_with_mika

 

 

MUSIC: Mika, Apollo, Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 – THE best pop music should always intoxicate as many people as it infuriates, and Mika – 2007’s most ‘love him or hate him’ pop sensation - has definitely followed those laws fastidiously to the letter.

Back at the start of the year, long before he’d had any chart success, Mika described himself to the press as being like, “Pop Marmite … because people will react to me in one of two extremes.”

It was a perfectly judged self-assessment.

By the time uber-pop anthem Grace Kelly sailed to the top of the singles chart and became the most played track on British radio in 2007, it was obvious Mika had fulfilled his early promises.

Though his debut album Life In Cartoon Motion has sold over two million copies worldwide (600,000 of those in the UK alone), Mika has firmly divided this country into those that adore this most flamboyant of new pop stars OR those that find him an irritant on par with the sound of fingernails being scraped down a blackboard. But by labelling himself as Pop Marmite, it’s obvious that 23-year-old Mika Penniman is a very savvy, self-aware pop star indeed.

His background is odd by any pop star’s standards: he was born and brought up in war-torn Beirut, before moving to England to study classical music– by the time he was aged just 13, he was a fully trained boy soprano performing at the Royal Opera House. However, none of that weighty personal history has gone into Mika’s absurdly extravagant music.

A bit like a one-man Scissor Sisters, Mika has made it is his job to inject excessive camp and kitsch pop music back into that charts.

In all his interviews, Mika has made it his desire to align himself with Freddie Mercury and Queen – indeed, in an age when Arctic Monkeys are the UK’s biggest guitar act, surely what is wrong with an OTT dose of gauche, flamboyant pop back in the charts?

Mika is overwhelming and nauseating but at least he does it entertainingly.

Last single ‘Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)’ might be the most patronising song ever written about the female form, but at least it’s done in the same exuberant, OTT camp style as his heroes Queen – and like everything Mika writes, it’s a damn catchy song.

See him perform live, and that excess is in greater abundance - garish stage props, his backing band dressed in drag, and at the centre of it all, Mika himself, bouncing around like a self-adoring brat who’s consumed ten litres of Red Bull.

Pop Marmite then – it’s frighteningly addictive stuff.

 

 

Somebody really hasn't done their research here

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong (drag?)

 

Oh well. Marmite shmarmite.

 

Thanks for posting greta.

[vanessa]

Thanks for posting this article !

But I don't like many parts of it !

[Romis]

Thanx Greta!

 

I've never tasted Marmite (it's popular most of all in England and Australia)

but I know for sure....Mika is YUMMY !!!!

 

And the ten litres or red bull...they're in his roughly 5 litres of blood, going everywhere with him. He's what we could call an energic man, I guess:naughty:

 

see you people! Romi

 

PD: His band dressing in drag? I thought it was only Cherisse and Sara...hahaha

[backflip_76]

 

Somebody really hasn't done their research here

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong (drag?)

 

Oh well. Marmite shmarmite.

 

Thanks for posting greta.

Silly, silly people. Get your story straight.

 

Still a nice article, despite the mistakes. Thanks Greta

[Queenie]

Thanks greta!!

[Jolene]

Thanx Greta!

 

I've never tasted Marmite (it's popular most of all in England and Australia)

but I know for sure....Mika is YUMMY !!!!

 

And the ten litres or red bull...they're in his roughly 5 litres of blood, going everywhere with him. He's what we could call an energic man, I guess:naughty:

 

see you people! Romi

 

PD: His band dressing in drag? I thought it was only Cherisse and Sara...hahaha

 

:roftl:

 

I will be waiting for reports tonight then of Mikey, Martin & Luke all frocked up then.....

 

Thanks for posting the article!

[greta]

:roftl:

 

I will be waiting for reports tonight then of Mikey, Martin & Luke all frocked up then.....

 

Thanks for posting the article!

..don't forget Simon dressed like big girl..

[Sarah_Lollipop]

Thanks for posting greta!!

[chickadee]

It was self-adoring brat that really got me:thumbdown: apart from the obvious mistakes.

[rockinbabzz]

hmm, looking forward to the first pictures of martin, luke and mikey in pink lollipop dresses

 

if you want to be a journalist, at least get your facts straight.

[lilmot]

The band dressing in drag? Uh, was that a reference to Martin wearing a red bra? :roftl: I guess this reviewer/researcher wasn't a very good google whore, huh?

 

Thanks for sharing, Greta.

[Marilyn Mastin]

I have the paper. I'm glad someone posted the article. I can't scan things. There are two lovely pictures of Mika, one is destined for my bedroom wall. I hated the references to Freddie and Sissor Sisters (get over it already. This man is MIKA) and they got his age wrong, and said his latest single is Big Girl, when we know it's Happy Endings. But the article could have been worse. I get the feeling that the writer would really like to hate Mika, but he can't quite manage it. Mika is winning him over.

 

By the way... I absolutely LOVE Marmite. I could eat it all up, anytime!!!

 

Love today, from Marilyn

[chickadee]

I have the paper. I'm glad someone posted the article. I can't scan things. There are two lovely pictures of Mika, one is destined for my bedroom wall. I hated the references to Freddie and Sissor Sisters (get over it already. This man is MIKA) and they got his age wrong, and said his latest single is Big Girl, when we know it's Happy Endings. But the article could have been worse. I get the feeling that the writer would really like to hate Mika, but he can't quite manage it. Mika is winning him over.

 

By the way... I absolutely LOVE Marmite. I could eat it all up, anytime!!!

 

Love today, from Marilyn

 

What do you mean a picture is destined for your bedroom wall? WAAAAAHHH! How come I'm married and can't have one?

[Marilyn Mastin]

What do you mean a picture is destined for your bedroom wall? WAAAAAHHH! How come I'm married and can't have one?

My husband knows his place. Anyway, I'm going to frame the picture, so it won't look like a poster. I love the caption on it, 'Mika Mania'. I've been onto the Metro website, to post a comment and tell them what they got wrong. His latest single is Happy Endings, not Big Girl, his band do NOT dress in drag and he is 24. I also told them to please shut up about Freddie and Sissor Sisters. That comparison was okay, when Mika first started, but he's proved he isn't like anyone else, and people should start realising that. If anyone else wants to comment, just go to

 

http://www.metronews.co.uk

 

Then click onto the link for the Mika article, and register, to post your comment.

 

Love today, from Marilyn