Stadio delle Palme, Palermo, Italy 26/6/2016
The gig day was extremely hot but nice and relaxed. The crowd was pushy, I had to hold my bags with two arms and had difficulties to breath but did my everything to focus on listening to the music. I had very much looked forward to seeing this gig in Palermo and it was everything I had hoped for and much more. The performance was very high quality and obviously well planned, that was easy to see since the first seconds. Mika came on stage. He had a special jacket, carefully styled hair and his determined showman look on his face. This was not meant to be a regular gig. Looked fantastic of course. I saw a cameraman filming and assumed parts of the gig are possibly used as material for the new television show in November.
We could see the mountains behind the stage before the colorful house background was lifted up. The venue looked amazing and Mika stylish and beautiful and his performance was outstanding with several rare songs and extra effort put in most of the regular songs as well. I appreciated it and paid attention to every possible song and detail and understood it was a true privilege to be in the audience and see this particular show.
I didn’t expect him to change the set list this much for real but loved it that he proved me wrong and I very much enjoyed the set with Italian favorites Beautiful Disaster, Stardust and Hurts (all predictable but didn’t expect him to do them all), Step With Me as a rare song (totally didn’t expect), Promiseland (hoped for it but again, didn’t expect) and every new/extra change made in the other songs like Relax and Underwater. A very full set and the audience couldn’t have hoped for more. He skipped something but the set was already long enough and obviously we can’t have everything at every single gig. The whole show was excellent, really. I was very impressed.
I laughed so much when I saw my confetti pics. The amount is getting bigger and bigger. It’s already filling people’s mouths! I loved little changes in Relax. Another big highlight for me was Beautiful Disaster which is an incredibly pretty song. The dance parts are hard and I would love to hear a more gentle version but already love the song much, much more than ever expected after hearing the version with Fedez. Such a lovely surprise. Underwater was a beautiful version! Very grateful I could see the first two Italian gigs. Great start in stunning locations.