Beyond the bizarrely hostile and racist comment, this neither new nor a sample. The video is new (and I love it), but the song was released last October (the week I attended his tour!). There was a video on this site of him performing it with Chenoweth in his recent Intimate evening tour. There is no sampling. It's Mika's adaptation of Popular, but there is no sampling from a previous recording.
Love Mika. Love the song.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
If you want to hear direct sampling of Popular from the Broadway cast recording, there are several hip-hop/rap recordings (Paris Jones, S-Preme, Sway, etc.) that existed long before Mika's adaptation of the song.
But sampling is not the same thing as adapting or covering a song or even a portion of a song.
I like this new single remix, but not as much as the album version.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
...and Flo Rida and Pitbull are not. Technically Gwen Stafanian is Armenian which is basically African (geographically speaking.)
Let's not mistake wit for racism. It's 2013, racism effects only a few over 50, just like prostate cancer. Something bad is happening in Oz and somebody has to do something! I pick Shoshana Bean she is a child of both worlds.
God. Who knew some of the people on a Broadway forum could be so anal?
Armenia is not even on some maps I've seen. For instance the map on the Spice World album cover or the one that came with my rental car. What I meant to say was there was a large Armenian population in Ethiopia at a time, some of which migrated to Orange County.
What a weird song. It's not a sample, it's like a songwriter said "I can't some up with my own hook" so they lifted chunks of Popular. He also changes up a lot of lyrics. Very strange song.
And Armenia is east of Turkey, right below Georgia and North of Iran.
Maybe because you were looking at a map of Africa. Try a map that includes Asia. And getting your geography information from a Spice Girls album cover is really not a good idea.
Someone says the word black or puerto rican and people start screaming the word "racism"!
Can those people please explain how "sampling" could possibly be racist? Thanks.
Every single person or group of people in the world is exposed to wit and jokes. Why on earth should we stop treating these people as people and assume they can't take jokes? I prefer to treat everyone equally, and that includes making innocent jokes. Jokes that have NOTHING to do with horrible history, only about fun musical assumptions in this case.
What a weird song. It's not a sample, it's like a songwriter said "I can't some up with my own hook" so they lifted chunks of Popular. He also changes up a lot of lyrics. Very strange song.
Mika is a fan of the show and asked permission from Stephen Schwartz to adapt Popular as a pop song. Not unlike Stefani's Rich Girl.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
"Let's not mistake wit for racism. It's 2013, racism effects only a few over 50, just like prostate cancer."
Says the brain dead twink...
It's racist because it generalizes an ethnic stereotype.
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2