Festival Jardins de Pedralbes was my first Mika show in Spain. I have had tickets to shows in Spain several times but never been able to make it before this. Mika started the show with Toy Boy and everyone was listening quietly. Photographers were sitting on the ground in front of the audience not to block our view. I had originally planned to take only a couple of photos for my report but ended up keeping my camera in my bag and just enjoyed the show.

After Toy Boy was the turn for Grace Kelly and Blue Eyes. Seated gigs start always more slowly than usual standing gigs as it takes time for the audience to have courage to dance and be a part of the show. Mika worked for the mood and Talk About You was indeed much better already and the gig got a proper start. I find it interesting that a song I don’t much care on the album is one of my favorites at gigs. I really like the live version of Talk About You and it was among my top three songs in Barcelona as well.

I can’t remember the exact setlist but we heard at least Big Girl, Relax, Billy Brown, Happy Ending, Love Today, Underwater, Origin, Elle Me Dit and Drunk from his older albums, Live Your Life as a special song for the Spanish audience and Boum Boum Boum and Good Guys from the new album, not in this order of course. The gig got better song by song and even I couldn’t totally feel the usual gig adrenaline I really enjoyed the evening and loved especially some particular songs like Live Your Life after not hearing it for a very long time. Boum Boum Boum was once again one of my biggest favourites, I really like the way it’s performed live with the piano and it was definitely one of the highlights in Barcelona. 

I was a little bit disappointed he didn’t do more new songs but Last Party was saved for the encore together with Lollipop and I absolutely LOVED it. One of my favorite ever versions and would have alone made my trip to Barcelona worth while. Definitely my favourite part of the gig. The audience wasn’t really enthusiastic but there were a lot of funny moments between Mika and his fans. In the end of the show Mika jumped in the middle of the audience and sang a bit standing on the seats and it surely increased the party feeling together with the usual confetti which is always my personal favourite no matter how many times I’ve experienced it.

I had thought Mika must be a bit jet lagged or exhausted after super busy promotion schedules but he told later while chatting with his fans that the gig felt a bit harder than usually because of several reasons and last minutes changes like a new musician in the band. We all assured Mika he had done incredibly well despite of the challenges. The new bassist did well and was brave smiling through the gig even though the situation was totally new for him. Tim was super sweet smiling to the front row looking so kind and I made also a special note to myself how much I liked Joy’s part in several songs. My friend who was with me mentioned also Joy and Happy Ending which was her favourite song in Barcelona together with Love Today, Relax, Good Guys and Last Party. 

We got the sweetest ending for the night and I loved it that Mika tweeted after leaving the venue thanking his fans. I’m sure it made everyone reading it smile.