Great news for Mika fans on the Iberian peninsula, Mika will be heading to Portugal this October!

He’ll be performing at the Festa das Lata in Coimbra on October 25 – an event held to welcome new students to the city’s university.

Tickets for the show go on sale this coming Friday (September 7) via www.ticketline.pt or by calling +351 217

This is an interesting article about Mika’s set designer Es Devlin.

From Take That to Kanye West, when pop’s biggest stars want shows with the wow factor, they come to pioneering British theatre designer Es Devlin.

There aren’t many British theatre designers who can say that their sets have been seen by millions of people worldwide, screamed at, captured on film and endlessly commented on in forums on YouTube. But Es Devlin certainly can, as her luminous, powerful and ambitious designs tour the world with the biggest names in music – the likes of Mika, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Take That and the Pet Shop Boys.

More than a million people in Britain – mostly whooping women – saw Take That’s Circus tour in 2009, the brainchild of the 39-year-old Kent-born Devlin, who had a life-size animatronic elephant centre stage as the pop boys dressed up as clowns, played on bicycles, tricycles and unicycles in a burst of colour and spectacle.

The Tax Free World Association (TFWA) has announced that international artist Mika will perform at a private concert for delegates at next month’s Cannes exhibition. Mika will headline the Le Premium Evening on Thursday October 21, in the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals which marks the finale of the week-long duty-free and travel-retail show.

The evening will begin with a dinner cocktail at the Riviera Beach marquee adjacent to the Palais and will end in TFWA’s private club, The Scene, with cocktails and dancing into the small hours. The Scene Restaurant will be open from Monday to Thursday for lunch between 12.00 and 14.30, although exhibition participants may also eat in the Bay Restaurant next to Bay Village.

TFWA delegates can enjoy a range of business networking opportunities starting on Sunday October 17 with a golf tournament at Mandelieu Golf Club, sponsored by Gebr Heinemann and Hugo Boss. This will be followed by the opening cocktail at the Carlton Hotel. Other activities include a tennis competition at the Club Sportif de Montfleury sponsored by Ajmal and a cooking class at Les Apprentis Gourmets.

Further information about all these activities and pre-registration information can be found at www.tfwa.com. Sports and leisure activities should be pre-booked; invitations to the Opening Cocktail and Le Premium Evening are part of the Full Delegate package and are only available upon pre-registration.

Mika’s music is not meant for people who don’t understand it.

The ‘Rain’ singer doesn’t worry about impressing people who aren’t already fans because he knows the songs he produces don’t fit in to typical genres.

The 26-year-old pop star explained: “If you don’t understand my music it’s obviously not meant for you. My music is not calculated. It is a product of circumstance.

“It might appeal to you because of the life you’ve had or because you relate to the stories. But my music is not fashion. It’s not sound. It’s not scene. I was never accepted into a scene. I tried! And I would have liked it! But I can’t and I just don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to make any other type of music than the music I make.”

The singer – whose real name is Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr. – also admits he wasn’t surprised when he revealed he was bisexual that no one seemed to care.

He explained: “Look, I’ve always said I can fall in love with a man. I can fall in love with a woman. And I’ve always said that I have no shame in that. And I don’t think there was any negative reaction to what I said coming out as bisexual.

“In fact I don’t think there was any reaction – I don’t think anyone was surprised whatsoever. I don’t think anyone gives a s**t. I think people just want me to have a label.”

Italy I love you.

I was thirteen, my trousers were too short, there was sweat on my brow and my suspenders were rubbing against the back of my neck. That summer evening in Bordighera, I decided I hated Italy. Here, everything was difficult. I couldn’t get served in cafes, I felt uncomfortable and unfit and my sisters got all the attention. Foreign women have no idea what Italy really is; ask an awkward teenage boy instead. He knows the truth.

Growing up, our summer vacations would almost always be spent in the south of France. We would drive from London in our white Toyota Previa, crammed with luggage, pillows, my parents, a few family pets including a rabbit hidden under my seat, and my four siblings. Siting on the floor of the car wasn’t an option it was a necessity. As long as the trunk was able to close and the police didn’t see us, we would be off from London on our 20 hour journey to the sun. To this day, driving by car is still my favourite way of getting around, even on tour.

LIKE Marmite, John Gibson’s column and swingers clubs, Mika is an acquired taste.

To some, he’s a pauper’s Prince; goofily camp, theatrically flamboyant, and irritating as hell. For others, he is a musical genius; a natural born pop star, with an innate gift for writing melodies that lodge themselves in the brain.

You either love or loathe him – and that’s just the way the Anglo-Lebanese singer wants it.

“If you don’t understand my music it’s obviously not meant for you,” says the 26-year-old, speaking ahead of his Edge Festival gig at the HMV Picture House on Monday. “My music is not calculated. It is a product of circumstance.

“It might appeal to you because of the life you’ve had,’ he continues, ‘or because you relate to the stories. But my music is not fashion. It’s not sound. It’s not scene. I was never accepted into a scene. I tried! And I would have liked it! But I can’t and I just don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to make any other type of music than the music I make.”

POP singer Mika is grooming his dog for the superstar lifestyle – by teaching her to fly.

The flamboyant star is training his dog for the tiring star routine of constant touring by putting her on planes, trains and automobiles.

Mika admitted to The Razz that he gets lonely on tour and needs his trusty golden retriever by his side.

He said: “I’m working on my third record and also trying to train my dog.
“The idea is the dog is going to come on tour with me so basically a friend of mine is putting her on planes and driving her around to get her used to the travelling.

“Isn’t that the most ridiculous thing ever? It’s such a funny picture but that way she won’t freak out when she goes on tour.

“The idea is to have her on tour everywhere. I think I need a dog and it will make things better on the road.”

MIKA has blasted Lady GaGa for causing a global personality crisis in musical lasses.

The flamboyant fella thinks the pop world has been turned upside down by his Bad Romance pal.

After a brilliant performance on the main stage at Sziget festival, he told my reporter: “Pop music is really odd at the moment.

“GaGa has launched every single woman in pop music into this crazy per*sonality crisis. I don’t think men have felt it, it’s a female thing.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what other records are out there.”

Mika, who plays the Virgin Media V Festival in Chelmsford and Staffordshire this weekend, has his own share of monster fans.

He revealed: “On one tour there was a crystal meth addict who was so high he was actually really nice. He came to my hotel room while I was in the shower.

“It happened again a while ago with a really drunk man and I ended up in reception in a towel.”

Aside from shooing off fans, Mika, 26, has been making his third album. He explained: “It’s very simplistic pop music, not as layered as the last one.”

Thanks to Marianne for the translation

The pop star believes that (The) Circus will be crowded and he’s going to pick up his dancers from the queue.
“This is my first gig in Finland, and it’s about time. Even if it’s just a little gig”, says Mika aka Michael Penniman, 26, on the phone at Nancy Airport in France. He is on his way to perform at a Romanian beach festival.
“This is so weird – we come from a gig that holds 50 000 to a gig that holds 1000. But I’m getting used to it”, he gets excited – and is quite optimistic about the size of the audience of the Helsinki gig.
Mika is remembered by the hit song Grace Kelly, that has often been playing on the radio in Finland, too.
His debut album Life in Cartoon Motion visited the official chart of Finland on the 11th place, and it has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. His pop rock is exceptionally catchy, but for one reason or another Mika hasn’t become a star of any kind here.

Mika describes his gig as the last party of Mad Hatter from the book Alice in Wonderland.
“The show is like a weird, dark carnival, where all gloomy stories behind my cheerful feeling songs get revealed”, he advertises.
He tells that Love Today, for example, is about a middle-aged prostitute who isn’t getting any more gigs.
“Or We Are Golden, which is about me when I was 16 years old and realised that I would have to come up with a direction for my life or I will be driven to the brink of suicide.”
There is a big band that is included in the gig and also dancers. The latter are supposed to be picked from the gig queue.
Oh no. What if there will be nobody left in the audience? The queue may be shorter than you would think in the hot weather of mid-summer.
“They have already sold a lot of tickets to this gig. I wouldn’t come if they hadn’t”, Mika assures.

AS if Eurovision could not get any camper . . . MIKA is being lined up to write the UK’s next song. The Grace Kelly warbler is in talks with show producers desperate to improve on our disastrous performance in Oslo this year.

British pop became a laughing stock in May as Josh Dubovie finished a miserable last with a tune by Pete Waterman.

A BBC source said: “It’s always a difficult call trying to get a decent song together for Eurovision, as this year proved.

“We had Pete Waterman overseeing it this year but we still came last.
“Mika has all the right ingredients to make a successful song.
“We hope he says yes.”

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