This post was updated at 13:45 CEST on 7 October. Scroll to the end of the post for the update. Our original article remains below.
In “Grace Kelly” Mika sings that he could be brown, he could be blue, he could be violet sky. And if Italy’s Eurovision commentator Gabriele Corsi has it right, then Mika could also be the next host of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Here’s how it went down. On Wednesday, while presenting his Radio Deejay programme, Corsi — who presents the grand final of ESC for Italy’s RAI — said: “Big success for Mika who is going to… He’s going to host Eurovision!”
The comedians Furio and Giorgio from the Trio Medusa, who were also in the studio, immediately corrected Corsi, saying: “X-Factor! What does Eurovision have to do with it?”
Corsi then suggested he’d had a slip of the lips: “Oops, maybe I missed something.”
Italians have pointed out that he did so in a joking tone. And our friends at EuroFestival News — the Italian site of reference for Eurovision — started their article with a very big caveat: “We say it immediately, it could be a joke.”
Even so, that bull has bolted from its enclosure, whipping up a storm of online chatter and speculation.
Gabriele Corsi claims Mika will host Eurovision 2022
Back in August the Cinguetterai Twitter account claimed that the British-Lebanese singer Mika, a judge on X Factor Italia, was in negotiations with Rai to host Eurovision 2022.
The same tweet also revealed that the recently departed legend Raffaella Carrà was allegedly part of an initial plan to host Eurovision with Mika.
Raffaella’s very public love affair with the contest made talk of her negotiations seem plausible. But Mika?
On several occasions, the “Love Today” singer declined offers to take part in the competition. Back in 2015, during an interview with French radio broadcaster RTL, Mika revealed that he was approached four times by the BBC to represent the UK. He declined the offer every time.
The same thing happened with France, where the artist spent his childhood.
In the same interview, Mika addressed his stance, stating that “most of the songs sent to the competition are shameful, they are pure s**t!”
It seemed inevitable that Mika’s team would issue a swift response — and they did.
On August 12 they denied the rumour to Rockol.it, firmly stating that there were no negotiations underway with Rai.
“Groundless rumors,” Mika’s team declared upon being contacted by Rockol.
Of course, we all evolve and grow and have changes of heart. Do you think Mika has changed his mind? Do you think Corsi was really joking? Could Mika’s agent have negotiated a massive fee? Let us know what you’re thinking down below.
***UPDATE***
On Thursday morning Corsi re-iterated that he was just joking on his radio programme — a day after his original comments sparked all the online chatter. This is what he said:
“Yesterday someone used the words we said and made a tweet. From there it became definite news. ‘This is who will conduct Eurovision’, the most classic Clickbait. And everyone was chasing each other to be the first to relaunch the news. Even some official sites, press organs and titled newspapers had to pick it up, chasing what was happening on social networks, without checking. […] Clearly the news is palatable, but it is not new. It is a rumour that has been going around for months that everyone knows, that everyone has reported. The question is, ‘Is it true?’ I say it’s not true.”
Mika’s management responded to the Il Messaggero newspaper: “We’ve only heard it on the radio and have been reading it since this summer, we don’t know anything else.”
It’a official. The ESC 2022 will be hosted in the Palasport Olimpico (also known as Pala Isozaki or Pala Alpitour) in Torino and the main host will be … MIKA! To those who said he was not to be chosen by RAI.
Someone that doesn’t have respect for Eurovision and doesn’t recognize it as a wonderful musical competition doesn’t deserve to host it. I hope RAI won’t make the mistake to pick him.
Wonderful? I am a fan of ESC but wonderful is not the word I would use for it.
Then your probably one of those ‘fans’ that thinks the UK does bad because of Brexit
Still would be nice to have at least a date for Eurovision 2022!
It has been communicated yesterday. 10, 12 and 14 of may.
I hope he doesn’t host. He has already said some pretty disrespectful things about Eurovision. He doesn’t deserve to host.
It’s already October and we have no information about anything, tbh I wish Italy won’t be winning for years after this. Their last hosting year was a mess and this looks like a tradition to them!
Their last hosting was 30 years ago. You don’t think things might have changed a little in this time?
Are you happy now that RAI confirmed Turin? Did you write the same when Germany in 2011 confirmed the location the 12th of october?
already a flop lol nothing italian about this edition yet
As already wrote, there are the administrative elections in Italy, exactly in the cities of Milan, Turin, Bologna and Rimini. First tier was the last weekend. Second tier in two weekends. The cities of Milano and Bologna have passed 50% so the mayor is already set. Turin must wait the second election. And probably RAI has in mind Torino as an hosting city. So, just because the city must cofund the event, RAI is waiting the new mayor to get the confirmation on the funds hw agrees to allocate. That’s it.
I knew Italian elections happened over this weekend, but didn’t realize That there were more. I thought it would all be over by now.
I looked up the wiki page on the 2021 Italian municipal elections, and realized Turin is one of 11 cities That hasn’t finished their elections yet. I can see why RAI may be holding off announcing the host country until those are all over. It would be such a bad idea to politicize Hosting the Eurovision contest. Vote for me because I’ll bring Eurovision to our city.
In Italy, Administrative election for cities of more than 15k citizens have a two run election. First run and then, if no candidate reaches 50%+1 at the first run, the “ballottaggio” between the first two candidates, happening 15 days later. So by 20th of october we should have a mayor in Turin. I remind city of Turin has a debt already, so they must check cleverly how to raise 7 or 8 mln€.
With the debt problem put Turin out of the running?
tldr lol
Well duhhhh, pretty logical if we know nothing about next edition yet genius.
Don’t mind. Bird lover is spitting on Måneskin, Italy, Turin from months. Maybe he is just a troll of some country who won too much but it’ never satisfied or from a country that never won. He should at least confirm his nationality so to let us understand why he is so bitter. Or maybe he loves birds because the size of his brain is identical to the one of a pigeon.
Nah, I think it will be Alessandro Catalan and Chiara Ferragni.
I know Mika from his song, “Love today”, which became the soundtrack of a popular isotonic drink brand in my country. But matters arise when we know he’s British – it’s kinda impossible for him to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Italy, even though he speaks Italian fluently.
He works almost exclusively in Italy nowadays. I personally don’t think he will host Eurovision, but I do believe that the director of Rai 1 initially thought of having him as one of the 4 hosts. All the comments I’ve seen on this topic from other Italians were positive, everyone liked the idea of him hosting.
He has only had disgusting words for the contest in the past
Ok. So let’s mark him with a fire mark forever. Most of the ESC fans seems to me to have zero democracy and zero tolerance. I also think in the past most of the songs were awful. Even though Verka Serducka is perceived as a true hero, for me his/her song was terrible. Not to speak about many other songs. If we go back in time some singers won because of the geographical coalitions. Come on.
He is not Italian though, Italy has a big pool of potential hosts (they don’t have to hire 4 hosts..)
Mika is a judge on FR The Voice, how does he find the time to be in both Italy and France? And yes he is irrelevant as a singer now…
The last time the contest was in Britain, the presenters were Irish and Swedish.
Wogan was the only ESC expert from BBC so it was expected for him to be the co-host, Irish or not. Mika is not a Eurovision expert and his selection makes no sense.
You dont have to be expert to host it…
It does help though, ask Maria Menounos
Both well known BBC television presenters. Why does it matter what country one has heritage from when they live in another country and work for a national broadcaster?
If someone told us we couldn’t do a job because of our ethnic background we would be outraged.
It doesn’t matter. That was my point.
Excuse me, but what is this obsession with Mika all about???…
I don’t know why they’d want someone who used curse words to describe his hatred for the contest in the past
Yes. That’s the reason. It us just to piss you. RAI thinks to piss you all the time.
To get our tongues wagging over possible hosts for your vision 2022. I doubt Mika will be one of them in the end
LOL Ok… but there could be other options for doing that with a more positive or funny twist… Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazotti or Ciciolina come to mind. 🙂
L’oiseau seems to be the gentle version of the troll Bird Lover, who also writes here. Writing Cicciolina (learn how to write the name) is only a provocation. RAI has the right to choose whoever they want, even Mika. If you are not satisfied about the choice, play canasta on your own the day of the shows.
Ewww no
Look, it’s that guy who had 2.5 popular songs in 2007. How exciting.
Having Alessandro Cattelan and Michelle Hunziker as candidates, I doubt Mika gets this hosting job. And I’d rather not have him as a host as he hates the contest.
Michelle? Yes, why not? I think Cattelan is on lock at this point. The question is how many hosts they are going to have…
He would be talented enough to do a great job as host. He refused to represent UK several times ok but does it mean he is a bad person? And here we are talking about to present an international show not to sing and to compete. He has enough links with Italy to be one of the hosts of their esc, he would be the international touch as I repeat it’s an international show, it’s always good for the viewer to have a familiar face and not only people coming from the host country that nobody except the locals know.… Read more »
Holy words. Finally someone writing something intelligent. The Eurofans can be bitter, evil, too much self centered. Mika said the ESC is crap? Well, sometimes I agree with him. In 1991 Sweden won and not France. That was so bad. In 2017 the silly song from Moldova and other were better classified than Gabbani who had a catchy song with deep and philosophical lyrics? That was also very bad. Italian singers Mia Martini and Battiato not winning? Terrible. The coalitions of ex russian countries (or neighbours) or Nordics exchanging votes between thenselves from years? Mika is right. Sometimes the quality… Read more »
I don’t think you’re not human if you simply don’t want Mika as a host, it’s just a matter of opinion. And I understand that for some it rubs them the wrong way, given how disrespectful and rude he’s been about the contest. He may have changed his mind, but in that case I’d like him to actually aknowledge those old comments, and so far he hasn’t said anything that could point to him changing his views. And no offense, but calling perfectly solid top 5 placings “terrible” just sounds entitled and bitter, which is strange given you complain yourself… Read more »
I didn’t say the top 5 were all bad. I was happy Salvador Sobral won. But in a serious contest Gabbani would have been 2nd or 3rd, not 6th, with the song of Moldova placed better in the ranking.
I didn’t mean that you thought the songs that placed in the top 5 were bad, I meant that your comment made it sound like Italy placing 6th or 4th is a terrible insult to Italy. Coming in 3rd is not a massive difference to coming 6th, it’s a difference of three placings, and complaining so much about it and even insulting the (few) entries that got more points seems both disrespectful and entitled. I understand if you feel disappointed and wanted Occidentali’s Karma to place even higher, but 6th out 26 finalists is a very strong result, even moreso… Read more »
I apologise if I myself come across as bitter with these comments, that’s not my intention. I just got tired of reading this thread and seeing comments like “Well, Mika is right! The contest is crap!”. I get that some people didn’t like the mid-00s entries, but there’s a difference in saying that, and downright insulting the music and the artists of those years, which is what I thought Mika did with his needlessly rude comments. Comments like that, and those suggesting that ESC is at its core a bad show but “we like it anyway” just rub me the… Read more »
As much I like some Mika’s song but him who was not fond of ESC suddenly wanted to be involve it is just money, career promotions (knowing he failed to chart internationally even he colab with famous artists like Ariana Grande before) and also maybe realized his music are no different. Mika’s most song are for LGBT and that’s why I cant understand his hypocrisy to hate the contest.
He had his 15 minutes of fame years ago, with Relax, Take it Easy. Nothing else happened after that debut album.
Nothing happened for those who doesn’t know. Some of his later songs were also wonderful. Buf, unfortunately, people (especially youngsters) prefer to listen to rapper or trappers with autotune. He made wonderful songs but now the musical market is an hard discount. Not a top class supermarket.
His music is not the problem. The problem is his hatred for the contest
Again, so he must be marked for life and he cannot change his mind? Maybe he liked the fact Måneskin won the contest and not the standard disco pop song, copy and paste of zillions of other songs in the Eurovision before. What the hell. I also say that more than half of the songs in ESC are pure plastic, but I still like the ESC. I would prefer a million times a song by Mika than the one of Netta who won in 2019.
I get your point, but it hasn’t even been a month since the last time he showed his disdain to the contest
Only if you stopped following him you would say nothing has happened. However for those of us who are fans a lot has happened. Not that you would care but he has some pop masterpieces on his albums, some songs that actually would fit ESC
Yes. You are right Denis. Unfortunately people “Parla, non sa di che beep parla”. To Fabio, just watch his concert at Teatro Sociale in Como (available on bluray or DVD) and you can see if he is not a wonderful singer. And the hits he has done. Unfortunately music cycle is too fast now. Music lasts as the life of a toilet paper. I feel bad each time I listen to a song from Sangiovanni in Italy (who was topping the charts) and other with more quality who didn’t even enter the charts. Mika is gold compared to Sangiovanni. But… Read more »
I just love the fact that people like Mika who hate eurovison, all of a sudden want to be apart of it when their country wins, just so they can expose themselves to an audience of 200 million. I HATE this type of hypocrisy so so sooo much!!!
His country is the uk/France…
Italy is not his country at all… He was born in Lebanon from a Lebanese mother and USA father.
So Freddie Mercury, born in Zanzibar, was not English do he wouldn’t have had the right to host a show in UK, or even another country, provided he was able to speak in that country’s language? Be careful: someone in the US thinks Lamont Marcell Jacobs, the 100 meters Italian winner, is American and not Italian because he was born in El Paso, Texas even though he speaks a basic english and lived in Italy from the age of 2. In the past we had hosts doing TV shows in Italy like the Kessler Sisters, born in Germany, Don Lurio… Read more »
Not Mika!!! Please Italy!! There’s so many more better, and actually Italian choices that would be great.
Mika detests Eurovision.
This guy hasn’t scored a hit in 15 years. His only gig is his part-time retirement job judging talent shows in random countries. I don’t know why this blog keeps on bringing him up…
Actually, just realized that these features make him a prime candidate to represent the UK at Eurovision.
No, you must have had a hit in the 60s or 70s like Englebert H or B Tyler. Mika and Steps are too current.
Mika is not too current, he has no success in UK these days (no gigs, shows etc). He works mostly as a judge on TV shows in FR and IT. Which means he is a good candidate for Eurovision but i doubt he will even consider it lol
Oh my she has changed a lot since representing Ukraine in 2011??
Along with Steps
He hates Eurovision but he is going to host the show… Money money money
Eurovision hosts don’t necessarily get that much money. In 2019, for example, the hosts got paid less than the industry standard because KAN were trying to save on anything they can.
Israel has different standards, RAI pays more and MIKA is more of a big name than the Israeli hosts.
I like when people is so convinced of what he says. RAI pays more?
It’s not unknown for people to attack the contest, and then take the spoils as a presenter. Case in point: Mandy Holden.
She made a fool out of herself in her Eurovision appearance by coming across as a bit thick.
Come across, or really that thick?
And that’s what happens. I think you need to ‘get’ Eurovision to be the best presenter, otherwise you’ll get caught out in the course of the evening (s). They need to find the Italian Assi Azar. Mika is far from that.
Hasnt he already stated he is not interested? Unless he got some sudden change of heart or gets offered some heavy euros I dont think he will..
First, one can change his idea. Second I don’t think RAI will pay lots of money to the hosts. Third, there will probably be 3 or 4 hosts. The fact he may be one of them, even though he is not Italian, doesn’t change anything. Fourth, the fact one of them could be Mika would only benefit to the show as he was wonderful on his italian show Casa Mika. Maybe there are no young hosts in Italy able to speak both a fluent english and a fluent french, so why not Mika, as he fits perfectly in the role?… Read more »
RAI should absolutely pay hosts lots of money. Its not a free job nor is it that easy.
And I love Mika. Have loved him since Grace Kelly and have all of his albums in my playlists. I just dont see him in ESC at all.
The ESC hosts are usually NOT paid a lot of money. In Rotterdam they were paid something like. 50k euros. I read this somewhere, don’t remember. 50k euros for a 3 night event, plus the rehersal, plus the jury shows, family shows, is nothing. You have your own taste. The show Casa Mika he did on Rai2 in 2016 and 2017 has been the best variety show RAI jas produced since ages (excluding Sanremo) and has granted RAI it’s first Rose d’Or Award of its entire history. So I can perfectly understand why RAI would like Mika as one of… Read more »
I am not bashing Mika. Like I said I have followed him since Grace Kelly and he has a quirkiness that would fit ESC so well. But I just dont see him in it since he doesnt need ESC…
Also not sure if young people would know who he is, seeing how many adults have forgotten him. So I really do not know what RAI would acheive with him hosting it
According to an old ESC Today article by Michael Kuipers (which curiously doesn’t name any sources), Mika supposedly claimed to be interested in representing Lebanon in the 2008 contest. Of course while also dismissing the general quality of the entries … which, after all we’ve heard from him recently, makes it sound at least a little bit authentic, though. Anyway … after his lastest comments on this matter, I don’t think he would host. And even more I don’t think he should. Also … what’s his connection to Italy or the contest, after all? As a fan, I really don’t… Read more »
I don’t know if he has any connections to esc apart being asked a few times to take part from the BBC, but here in Italy Mika is a well known TV personality with a big following, he has been a judge on X Factor Italia for many years and he’d hosted his own show on Rai 2 called Stasera casa Mika (Tonight at Mika’s)
Enough with the Mika rumors. There’s no way he’ll get involved in the contest.
Do you have any source for what you say?
Mika himself said he doesn’t like Eurovision.
https://wiwibloggs.com/2015/06/12/mika-eurovision-bbc/98012/
Yes, but supposedly he also said he wanted to take part.
http://esctoday.com/7969/mika_interested_in_eurovision_entry/
But, yeah, I agree. I don’t see it happening either.
no sources…
So don’t you think someone cannot change his advice?
Or you just write that because you don’t like him?
I would take sock in the statement. It sounds more like a joke. They’re probably pick somebody who’s actually from Italy and might actually have a good grasp of English
Mika is a well known TV personality here in Italy, it wouldn’t be weird for Rai to approach him to be one of the hosts
Mika has presented a TV Show in Italy which won the Rose d’Or price in 2017. He speaks italian. He own an home close to Florence. He is judge in X-Factor Italy. So why he wouldn’t take into consideration to present ESC in Italy? The fact he spoke so bad about ESC was to attend as a singer. Maybe doing the host is another job? And he will be one out of 3 or 4 hosts. So why not?
since when having a house in Italy qualifies as an advantage for the hosting gig?
The perils of writing a comment through iPhone dictation—my opening sentence should say “i wouldn’t take stock.”
I would be very surprised if this rumor is legit, mostly because Mika has made it very clear he isn’t interested in the competition. Additionally, I personally do not associate him with Italian entertainment. Yes, he is a judge on an Italian TV show, but there are so many more famous and Italian presenters that are probably going to be selected. It was probably just a joke
mika ist much loved in italy
https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=Mika&src=trend_click&vertical=trends
Patricia Kaas is loved in Ukraine, how come they did not choose her as the host for Eurovision?