The gig at Bercy (AccorHotels Arena) in Paris just before Christmas was as spectacular as every big Mika show in Paris always is. There was no way I would have skipped this one, I wanted to be there. I didn’t expect the show to be my personal favorite of the tour, it probably wouldn’t be as amazing as Switzerland or Montichiari in Italy or Lille earlier in France but I thought it would be something truly special we all could share in a collective way and it certainly was that.

Bercy is a big venue and this was the last day of my trip so I had decided to go to the seated area together with the German girls and watch the show from further away. We bought our seats in the golden area (the blocks around the catwalk) as soon as the tickets came on sale. My husband said later he would like to join me and I managed to buy another seat near my original one.

We arrived to the venue a bit before the opening acts and found our seats and I admit I had mixed feelings about my seating decision. It was lovely and relaxing not to queue but on the other hand, even though our seats were quite good they were still far, far away from the stage. I was seated in Milan as well but somehow the stage at Bercy seemed to be much further away.

It’s always somehow similar to see big concerts in Milan and in Paris. There’s a similar kind of pressure around the both events, a lot of cameras are filming and we can see many important people in the audience. Yet it’s totally different. In Paris the love is particularly unconditional and the audience at Bercy was fantastic indeed. I might have been far away from the stage but at least I could watch an enthusiastic audience in front of me.

The show started. The setlist was the regular one. I had hoped for an extra song – any extra song – but the setlist was exactly the same as it was at the previous gigs. I assumed that because of filming and extra light elements the show must have been planned well in advance and there was no possibility to add anything. The venue is huge and I could see some massive additional show elements.

The whole stage was surrounded by a big lighted frame that kept changing for every song and for some songs there was a choir on the both sides of the stage. I knew to expect a choir and it was big and the singers were dressed either yellow or red depending on the songs (so the choir was made very visible as well) yet first I almost couldn’t notice it which describes how big the venue really is. During Happy Ending the light frame created a banner and suddenly the audience around the catwalk was covered by “snow”. For Grace Kelly an additional (well at least certainly big enough) amount of balloons was released over the audience and that was definitely the right decision. I loved it how many balloons they had! What a beautiful colourful scene.

In addition to all that some fans had organized two fan actions showing colored papers during Origin and throwing paper planes during Paloma. The security hadn’t let the fans bring all the paper in to the venue but what was managed to get in looked really pretty and the amount of paper planes was huge and the effect quite touching.

I enjoyed having a possibility to share this concert experience with my husband. I appreciate it that even though this music means him something different than it means to me he still regularly comes to see gigs with me, gives them thought, pays attention and later shares his opinions. This was the first time he saw a stage this big after PDP so he was most impressed by the energy and the way Mika moved around the stage and he described later the show was even more energetic than ever before. Tiny Love was his favorite song and he was a little bit disappointed Mika didn’t perform Sanremo.

My own favourite part was the ending for sure. I loved the balloons during Grace Kelly and I loved Mika’s spotted outfit in the end. I loved the final Stay High and watching how Mika danced in front of the heart in his black and white suit and I loved the 70’s vibe related to his moves and style. Not sure what else to say. Everything went well, the show was spectacular. I was happy to be there, I was happy to share the experience with everyone and I was happy to witness the amount of love Mika received from the audience.