No pigeonholes for flamboyant showman MIKA: Jan 28

[Blue Sky]

"If...you're dressed as a chicken, you look like a real s---head, you know?"

 

No pigeonholes for flamboyant showman Mika

 

Mercury-Influenced falsetto says he created his own world and market because 'it's all I've ever known how to do'

 

 

BEN KAPLAN, Canwest News Service

 

Published: Monday, January 28

On a plane back to London after last year's world tour, Mika was sitting next to Miss Cayman Islands, and the two got to practising the interview part of her pageant.

"I started making up questions for her and, just to take the piss, I asked if she could be any kitchen appliance, what would she be," the 24-year-old recalls. The beauty queen became flummoxed, before a light bulb went off.

"It was as if she had discovered the theory of relativity! She shouted, 'I would be a blender because I'm accepting of different cultures!' She looked so proud of herself that I just started to laugh. I don't want to take this all too seriously.

"Sometimes, God, I feel like that pageant queen."

Mika Penniman is a flamboyant British singer-songwriter and showman, and his debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion, sold 4 million records and earned him four Brit award nominations and a Grammy nod for best dance album.

He's heard all his competitors, but the Freddie Mercury-influenced falsetto born in Beirut says his optimistic, operatic dance music shares nothing in common with the Justin Timberlake and Amy Winehouse pop R&B sound.

"I've only managed to do well because I don't fit into any preconceived category or pigeonhole," he says. "I created my own world and my own marketplace and, really, do my own thing because it's all I've ever known how to do."

Growing up, Mika's family left Lebanon for Paris, and his dad was on business in Kuwait during the first Gulf War and became trapped in the U.S. embassy for almost a year. The family then moved to London, where the dyslexic middle child was relentlessly bullied at school.

"I think going through all that had to inform what I do," he says, adding that it was music that helped him break out of his shell. He got his first job at the Royal Opera House at 11, and has been performing ever since. "I put all of that into my album, which is a schoolyard album, really - it's about finding your feet and growing up."

The album, which Mika wrote, produced, played keyboards on and commissioned his sister to draw the bubblegum artwork for, becomes a celebration when performed onstage. As he begins his North American tour, playing the Bell Centre tonight and Toronto tomorrow, the singer says he can't wait to reconnect with his Canadian audience.

"A lot of the elements of the show began in Canada," he says, referring specifically to the evening's climax in which musicians take the stage in animal costumes à la the Flaming Lips. "I was in a shop in Toronto in these overpriced designer clothes and, looking around at the costumes, decided I really preferred the furry suits."

But even if the singer's disco inferno borders on kitsch, he's also quick to point out that his entire operation, like a Cayman Islands beauty queen, amounts to little more than a kitchen blender held together by quality songs.

"I stretch things as far as I can, but if the music isn't good, everything seems stupid," he says. "If you're not playing great and you're dressed as a chicken, you look like a real s---head, you know?"

 

 

National Post

[Marilyn Mastin]

No pigeonholes for flamboyant showman Mika

 

Mercury-Influenced falsetto says he created his own world and market because 'it's all I've ever known how to do'

 

 

BEN KAPLAN, Canwest News Service

 

Published: Monday, January 28

On a plane back to London after last year's world tour, Mika was sitting next to Miss Cayman Islands, and the two got to practising the interview part of her pageant.

"I started making up questions for her and, just to take the piss, I asked if she could be any kitchen appliance, what would she be," the 24-year-old recalls. The beauty queen became flummoxed, before a light bulb went off.

"It was as if she had discovered the theory of relativity! She shouted, 'I would be a blender because I'm accepting of different cultures!' She looked so proud of herself that I just started to laugh. I don't want to take this all too seriously.

"Sometimes, God, I feel like that pageant queen."

Mika Penniman is a flamboyant British singer-songwriter and showman, and his debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion, sold 4 million records and earned him four Brit award nominations and a Grammy nod for best dance album.

He's heard all his competitors, but the Freddie Mercury-influenced falsetto born in Beirut says his optimistic, operatic dance music shares nothing in common with the Justin Timberlake and Amy Winehouse pop R&B sound.

"I've only managed to do well because I don't fit into any preconceived category or pigeonhole," he says. "I created my own world and my own marketplace and, really, do my own thing because it's all I've ever known how to do."

Growing up, Mika's family left Lebanon for Paris, and his dad was on business in Kuwait during the first Gulf War and became trapped in the U.S. embassy for almost a year. The family then moved to London, where the dyslexic middle child was relentlessly bullied at school.

"I think going through all that had to inform what I do," he says, adding that it was music that helped him break out of his shell. He got his first job at the Royal Opera House at 11, and has been performing ever since. "I put all of that into my album, which is a schoolyard album, really - it's about finding your feet and growing up."

The album, which Mika wrote, produced, played keyboards on and commissioned his sister to draw the bubblegum artwork for, becomes a celebration when performed onstage. As he begins his North American tour, playing the Bell Centre tonight and Toronto tomorrow, the singer says he can't wait to reconnect with his Canadian audience.

"A lot of the elements of the show began in Canada," he says, referring specifically to the evening's climax in which musicians take the stage in animal costumes à la the Flaming Lips. "I was in a shop in Toronto in these overpriced designer clothes and, looking around at the costumes, decided I really preferred the furry suits."

But even if the singer's disco inferno borders on kitsch, he's also quick to point out that his entire operation, like a Cayman Islands beauty queen, amounts to little more than a kitchen blender held together by quality songs.

"I stretch things as far as I can, but if the music isn't good, everything seems stupid," he says. "If you're not playing great and you're dressed as a chicken, you look like a real s---head, you know?"

 

 

National Post

Another great Canadian article!! Bring it on!

Canadians can vote in The Brits!!!!

 

http://www.brits.co.uk

 

Love today, from Marilyn

[FREDDIESDOUBLE]

"I stretch things as far as I can, but if the music isn't good, everything seems stupid," he says. "If you're not playing great and you're dressed as a chicken, you look like a real s---head, you know?"

 

Chicken :punk:

 

Thanks for posting:thumb_yello:

[Gatagordinha]

"I stretch things as far as I can, but if the music isn't good, everything seems stupid," he says. "If you're not playing great and you're dressed as a chicken, you look like a real s---head, you know?"

Chicken :punk:

 

Thanks for posting:thumb_yello:

 

Deffo quote of the month, that's going in my siggy

 

Thanks for posting, er was it greta?? *goes to look*

 

edit: SORRY - Blue Sky thnx

[vanessa]

Thanks for posting !!!!Great article !!!

[AKateisaKate]

YAY! Thanks for posting. That is too funny, them on a plane together.

[chickadee]

Someone had posted this article already Blue Sky, possibly from a different source... Still it's a good article.

[sparkly1]

:naughty:like it

[ohwowitsnicka]

that article was in the gazette yesterday

i cut out the picture

[Queenie]

Thanks for sharing