The Swiss audience experienced a wonderful and very special gig in Zurich. Not sure if people who saw Mika for the first time understood how unexpected and special the setlist really was but I certainly did and the people around me did and we tried our best to show how much we appreciated it. Mika can be spontaneous with his chatting or suddenly ask someone from the audience on stage but generally he’s not particularly spontaneous with his setlists. He changes the order or skips a song or two and can do small planned changes depending on the country and crowd but he also likes to keep his performances controlled and only rarely adds songs he hasn’t planned in advance at all.

In Zurich he performed Blue instead of Paloma. The venue was small and for that reason also the show was tiny style and I love Blue and had hoped he would do it and would have been happy with it alone but turned out it was only a start. After that Mika performed also Drunk and Good Guys and these both songs were total surprises and something I hadn’t heard in ages and something that made me extra happy. Not sure who in the crowd requested Drunk but it seemed an unplanned addition and wasn’t rehearsed and before starting Mika asked the lyrics from the audience.

He gave a quick look at my mobile so I googled the lyrics and handed my phone to him. My mobile talks Finnish but he saw where to look and started to sing. We all were thrilled and did the dance moves we could still remember from the previous tours. During the performance the audience went wild and Mika continued being spontaneous and at this point moved on to Grace Kelly (naturally on the setlist but also requested by the audience) and after that did also Good Guys which felt a super special and rare treat.

The band looked genuinely confused and lost at times and Mika laughed and described his band “being in a panic” and it all was a lot of fun to watch. The musicians were totally involved the party since the beginning of the gig and I enjoyed seeing the contrast between the big Revelation show (where the band is on the background) and this more intimate Tiny show (where the band is so fully involved). Max showed his signature dance moves jumping on his one foot across the stage, Tim was under the spotlight several times and even Mitch behind the keyboard was asked to do a small dance in the middle of the stage.

Obviously, it wasn’t that the band just suddenly decided to create their own party, they always do what Mika wants them to do and this time he wanted to include them in numerous details. Everything was as energetic and relaxed as live music can be and the audience enjoyed the atmosphere and Mika genuinely seemed to enjoy the gig as well, the vibe was in a lovely way old-school during the whole night, everyone just enjoying the music and having fun. It’s important that the audience can see different sides of the artist they love and I enjoyed seeing how these two gigs in Switzerland were so different yet both amazing in their own way.

We got Blue and two spontaneous surprise songs so it’s quite easy to tell my biggest favourites during the night. In Zurich I particularly enjoyed the new songs. Dear Jealousy and Tomorrow are both great dance songs and I love the mood in them. It’s intriguing to hear Mika singing about jealousy, somehow hard to see someone as talented, successful and attractive as him being jealous to anyone at all.

Tomorrow is one of the most enjoyable songs I know – we can enjoy because when it comes we can worry then – and the version we heard in Zurich was if possible even lovelier than it usually is. Back seat, light off. Window open, stereo on. The German fans had prepared glowing hearts to show during Tiny Love and the audience took nicely part and the hearts looked beautiful and I really enjoyed first Tiny Love and then later hearing my name is Michael Holbrook again during the Tiny Love reprise. The reprise continued as Stay High and the gig ended and after that we all left the venue feeling absolutely euphoric.