15 Days Of Summer Tour 2025
There’s something enchanting in Mika summer tours and their carefree and happy atmosphere. Their long, sunny days and beautifully golden early evenings. The lighthearted, smiling gigs where the natural light multiplies the joy and positive energy and makes the bright, pretty colours in his elegant summer suits even brighter and prettier. It can rain of course, and magically that makes the moment special as well. Sometimes the stage roof throws a giant wave over us exactly during Underwater. Sometimes Mika gets an idea to join the audience and he sings at the barrier close to people under pouring rain or does a small walk in the muddy field in his fancy suit and Louboutins. The nighttime festival gigs, on the other hand, are crazy intense. They are energetic and exciting in a special, hot summer night way.
The festival setlist is often basic but paradoxically each gig is still totally unique because the circumstances are different each night and the locations are all unique and gorgeous. There are less show elements on stage compared to arena tours but each summer there’s something particularly beautiful that feels like a precious summer gift: a symbolic tiger head, big colourful flowers or - like this time - new beautifully generous, light blue wings. Summer tours can continue the previous tour or they can work as a transition between two main tours. They offer great promotional possibilities and remind people of this artist and their music and at the same time reach new audiences, yet the commercial side is somehow successfully put aside. There’s less stress and pressure compared to big tours, and even with tightly packed crowds, chaos and extreme weather conditions summer tours are mainly for having fun together. 15 Days Of Summer was that as well.
The tour started with a sunny daylight gig at Pinkpop in the Netherlands introducing the spectacular, fluffy wings and the new background animations in cheerful summer colours. The animations were simple and joyful and fit well together with the songs: cute, pastel coloured birds for Lollipop and surreal flying teeth for Ice Cream. At some point the blue suit was changed to a bright pink appliquéd suit and the gig ended with the familiar, impressive heart appearing on stage and Mika smiling proudly in front of it. Who doesn't love this man and his message! The performance at Pinkpop was sharply one hour but the next show in Nimes was almost twice that long, both glamorous and generous. There was the choir on stage and the show introduced more new visuals like the animal orchestra for Billy Brown and included an absolutely beautiful version of Good Guys and a particularly moving performance for C'est la vie, the audience joining the song in a warm and emotional way.
The tour included one gig in the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland, two in the UK, four in Italy and six in France. The free gig in Timisoara, Romania, wasn't included in the original tour list, it appeared as an extra gig. The most stunning venues of the tour were the arena in Nimes, the small theatre in Gardone Riviera next to the house of D'Annunzio and obviously the incredible nature location in Tarvisio. As an event it's hard to top Latitude or any Swiss festival (this time we saw Venoge). Umbria Jazz Festival is an always lovely summer event, simply visiting Perugia is an occasion. I was particularly happy to finally see a gig in Romania. Timisoara turned out to be a friendly, small city and the gig there a magical night. As an experience I loved being in Leeds and for example seeing the Lovely Brive Festival.
Every single gig during the summer deserved to be in the tour programme. Some festivals were established and widely known, some local. Some events were primarily for families, some for partying. It's almost impossible to choose only a few favourites but if I want to name one it must be the No Borders Festival in Tarvisio for its natural beauty and simplicity. The event that was located close to the borders of three different countries gathered an international audience in a totally organic way and offered the perfect circumstances for Mika to create a beautiful mess using different languages and the show was done in Italian, English, French, a little bit in German and with some help from the crowd even in Slovenian. When Mika during the gig spontaneously complimented the atmosphere and - referring to the time of the day and the location - asked "can we simply cancel everything else and do only this", I was ready to answer YES please! At the same time, each gig of the tour was lovely and special in their own way.
The length of the show varied from punctual one hour to full-length 1,5 hours or even close to two hours meaning that sometimes the setlist consisted of mainly classics and sometimes included several additional latest or older songs. Occasionally, when the stage was big enough, the large white piano was opened for the rainbow and later the giant red heart was brought on stage. At some stages the piano was smaller and it was filled with flower confetti to offer material for flower baths. As typical, the outfits varied during each show as well and there were several different garden themed suits, tropical patterns, different greens, pinks and blues. One of my favourites was a simple, strong pink suit because as a detail a dotted, black and white little scarf peeked out from the pocket. That reminded me of the elegant black suit we saw in Cannes in January, because the royal necklace used with the suit felt a small yet powerful detail in the same, memorable way. During the last gig of the tour the dotted scarf had an important role as a blindfold to cover the eyes during the wildest ever Ice Cream dance.
The biggest surprise on the setlist was hearing the new song Spinning Out first in Leeds and then several more times during the summer. Some of my personal favourites were once again powerful Origin, cheerful Billy Brown and dreamy Good Guys - all perfect for summer gigs - and the spectacular classics like stunning Happy Ending performed in the sparkling silver suit, always impressive Underwater that became magical especially with lights in Timisoara, and the most legendary Mika songs Relax, Grace Kelly and Love Today. In Zermatt in April the audience spontaneously started to chant "da daadada" for Grace Kelly and the chant was brilliantly included in the festival performance, often "girls" and "boys" singing their own parts. For Love Today there was occasionally an introduction in the marine forecast style and love, love, love was either shouted together with the audience or screamed like a bird.
One of the most delightful parts of the setlist was hearing Jane Birkin as a French addition also at gigs in Italy which made the show wonderfully international and seemed to obviously please the audience. It was also clear that Mika intentionally added something extra like different details and gestures here and there to make each gig truly special. At La Nuit de L'Erdre a little girl was on stage during Jane Birkin, dancing happily and making everyone smile. At some gigs there was interaction with securities, cameramen or sign language translators. In Switzerland, the gig ending only one day before Mika's official birthday, the crowd brought balloons, hats and birthday signs and congratulated Mika singing Happy Birthday, and he sweetly joined the fun, thanking the audience shyly and making the moment cute and memorable.
When the tour two months later ended the whole summer suddenly felt like a distant, beautiful dream. Without visual memories I would wonder if everything happened for real or only in my imagination. The most iconic moment of the season was seen at the last gig of the tour in France. Mika started the show in his soft blue suit and wings and just when I genuinely thought nothing can possibly top this elegant suit he seemed to decide he can do even better. He took off the wings and the jacket, then threw away first his tie and then his shirt, both to the crowd, and then continued singing Origin the holiday tanned skin glowing in the sun. He leaned backwards, raised his hands up in the air to dance and his every single move looked astonishingly, perfectly natural. That shouldn't surprise us. After all, he rehearsed already as a boy. Dancing in his bedroom, listening to his Sony Walkman.
