Essonne en Scene close to Paris in Chamarande was the last gig of the summer in France and something I had enormously looked forward to in advance. I was thrilled to see the stage and it looked ideal in many ways offering a beautiful view. The line-up was long with several unknown, quite alternative artists. Just before Mika we saw two bigger artists: Santa who turned out to be a true show person and Etienne Daho, who we already knew after Namur in Belgium.

Eventually at 10.30 pm it was Mika’s turn. Not totally sure what happened but I missed several songs in the beginning of the show and after that felt the gig had started and I wasn’t properly there at all. The beginning of the gig was simply exceptionally chaotic. The photo area was totally overbooked and had people in several rows, the tallest men even raised their cameras as high as they could and it was impossible to see Mika behind them. He did Ice Cream, Lollipop and Origin and then jumped to the audience to do Big Girl and after four songs I still hadn’t properly seen him, only glimpses of his colourful suits, and I realised the gig was moving forward very steadily but my mind was not there and it was hard to find a suitable concert mood.

It wasn’t the first time I find it hard to focus at gigs. In those situations I remind myself of my “checklist” and paying attention to the most important things. There are some things I want to do at every gig. First of all, I need to remember how lucky I am to be there. I don’t want amazing things to happen in life without appreciating them enough. Secondly, there are several essential moments I should pay attention to each time because they create the structure for the gig. Thirdly, I want to remember some special moments that I think are unique for each gig. Reminding myself of these points helped a lot and after collecting myself a bit it was much easier to pay attention to different details and the audience. The performance was excellent of course. Even those moment when I’m not totally sharp of fully focused Mika certainly is. He’s too professional to let anything that happens around him affect his own performing.

My favourite Mika song Relax talks about connection between people in a beautiful way. At home I listen to acoustic or symphonic versions where I can carefully hear the tones in the voice that describe the meaning of the song. At gigs the connection comes from the collective energy and the audience joining the song and indeed, the Relax we heard at Essonne en Scene was lovely that way and I enjoyed seeing the energy moving back and forth, the crowd joining the singing and the strong interaction that clearly was there. 

In addition to Relax there are other base elements I try to remember from each gig, songs like Underwater and Happy Ending that I purely listen and for example the adrenaline in Love Today. Because this was the last summer gig in France I also eagerly waited for the audience to sing along Jane Birkin, my favourite part of C’est la vie and the energy and lights in Bougez and we got them all. Bougez was even quite fierce, Mika reached high with his hand screaming and then jumped close to the audience so powerfully I can hear the shoes hitting the stage in my little video clips. C’est la vie had the whole season been one of the highlights at every French speaking gig and it was surely that at Essonne en Scene as well and I absolutely loved the performance and the audience participating.

There was a lot of uncontrollable energy in the crowd and sometimes that means screaming instead of singing and I always think it’s a challenge for Mika to channel the energy in the audience to a more beautiful form. He does it a lot during Underwater and sometimes it’s possible during other songs as well. It can happen gradually during the tour teaching the audience suitable parts or it can happen in that moment simply gesturing what he wants. Most of the times the audience is happy to make him happy. At festivals the energy can be a bit wild but when I go through my Essonne material I can hear the crowd singing especially in the old classics and in the new French ones (and yes, Jane Birkin and C’est la vie are definitely classics already). 

As usual for festivals the time limit was strict once again and Mika had to ask the time from the audience several times. He managed to fit We Are Golden on the setlist which made me extremely happy and I particularly loved the beautiful piano intro part. During Love Today he asked the time again and after hearing it’s exactly midnight he looked very pleased and hurried to add “pinch and a punch, first day of the month” which is a traditional saying at least in the UK  to be said in the very beginning of every new month. We know Mika loves small traditions like that and it was a cute detail that I can’t remember seeing at gigs before. 

The ending part of Love Today is one of my very favourite moments of every gig and he really made the crowd on fire jumping and at that point he spontaneously took my mobile and filmed a short clip from the stage point of view and I really loved him for that. It’s just a tiny clip but I always want to remember the audience that moment and it’s not easy or even possible as a short person to see the crowd well and I treasure the tiny clip he filmed - there’s even his smile in the end - and have watched it numerous times and will probably watch it during the winter again and again. When the gig was over we all realised it was the last gig of the summer in France, it was the end.