The London Palladium in London, UK 5/6/2016
The gig in London was like a party. My whole trip to London was very special. I traveled together with my family (my husband and two of my three sons) and we stayed from early Friday morning until late Tuesday night so we had several days to visit museums and science centres and enjoyed it all very much. The MFC meet up before the show was lovely. Approximately 100 fans from all over the world gathered together to have drinks and say hello to each other before heading to the venue and it was wonderful to meet everyone. A huge thank you to Deb for organising the meeting!
The theatre was absolutely beautiful. Theatres are my favourite type of venues and they match with Mika’s music and style incredibly well. I had so looked forward to this show and to be honest I couldn’t wait to see Mika on stage again. People might think it’s strange because I had just seen him but not in circumstances like this and not together with my family. I had waited for this particular gig for months and I generally miss seeing him on stage as soon as the previous gig is over. I can’t explain it.
My family had great seats in the middle of the second row of the royal circle and told later their view over the stage was perfect. My youngest boy loved the show and put the show on the top of his list so far (he already saw two shows in Paris and London in October) but my older son wasn’t feeling well and found the sound too loud to enjoy. Major bad mother moment after realising I had dragged him there without ear plugs! It was a theatre so I didn’t expect the sound to be too loud and he is a teenager already so I’m sure he will get over it.
I enormously enjoyed the whole night, can’t even describe it. From my point of view - after seeing several shows during the past two weeks - the show was formal and not as relaxed or spontaneous as some other shows I’ve seen lately. It almost gave the vibe Mika is a stranger in his own town but his performance was still excellent and very professional and I totally understand he wanted everything to be controlled as the show was streamed in China which is a huge thing both for Mika as an artist and for his fans in China.
The set list was brilliant. He skipped Boum Boum Boum to please his UK fans but otherwise we got everything we could possibly hope for and heard several special songs outside the regular list. Opening with Porcelaine was more impressive and interesting than Big Girl at previous gigs. Promiseland is a big fan favorite and definitely pleased everyone. Over My Shoulder with his friend Alex was absolutely stunning and brought back memories from the acoustic tour 2009 and Ordinary Man in the end rare and lovely special treat. This time my personal favourite was Relax with an interesting intro and explanation about writing the song. I so enjoyed his chatting and stories throughout the whole show, such a pleasure for once to be able to understand everything!
His voice was beautiful, the stage looked amazing and the lights were great and perfect for photos as well. I didn’t expect the arc to fit on the Palladium stage but the stage was bigger than I had thought and the arc was there. The choir was a special detail but I didn’t totally catch the purpose of it. Confetti was fabulous! There was so much of it, more confetti than you can ever imagine! I want to remember that confetti moment forever. Even my husband was thrilled – the confetti reached even the audience up at the royal circle – and to quote his exact words “this time there was more of everything” and “the set list was better than ever” and “Mika was very brave singing in the middle of the crowd” (obviously along with the confetti rain one of the highlights for him).