There were only things to love in the unplugged gig we saw in Zermatt, Switzerland. The event was a beautiful combination of the best sides of different gig formats. It was focused and music oriented almost in the way symphonic concerts are. The venue was a circus tent but the atmosphere was still as intimate as it can be at the tiniest club gigs. The tent was warm and each seat had a cozy blanket and during the performance people either sat or stood up to dance depending on the song and happily joined the singing as well. The concept was unplugged so the setting was simple and bare yet the energy during the energetic songs was sharp and Mika used his showman skills throughout the gig telling stories, guiding the audience to sing, playing both real and “air” instruments and just generally being that adorable, funny person he is.

 Even though the gig was seated it wasn’t formal at all. The vibe was polite - no one was pushing and everyone sat quietly down for calm songs - but still relaxed and lovely. The concert was a part of the Zermatt Unplugged Festival and during festival days it was possible to walk around the village and watch performances on small stages here and there (which as a concept reminded me of the Jazz Festival in Perugia) and eat or drink in the compact Taste Village that had several food stands and bars where wine was served in proper glasses and coffee in proper thick cups (again, the concept reminding me of some food and wine festivals). Obviously, the surroundings in the middle of the mountains were gorgeous and generally Switzerland is the most organised festival country I have visited. That proved to be true once again when a friend of mine had an unfortunate misunderstanding with her tickets and the situation was handled at the ticket office fast and without any extra fees. 

 From my point of view Zermatt was easy to access by public transportation. I left Helsinki early in the morning, flew to Zurich, used three different trains and arrived in Zermatt in the afternoon. As unusual as it sounds and is, the lady in the tourist information next to the station asked where I was from and spoke to me in Finnish and instructed me to the festival area that was only a few minutes from the station. I travelled alone and on the day of my arrival I simply walked around, spent moments here and there listening to indie pop artists and bands in the sun and in the evening headed to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club to listen to famous film tunes which was an easy theme to someone who doesn’t really know jazz at all. Next day was the main day for me and my mind started to look forward to Mika’s performance as soon as I woke up even though the gig in the big tent started at only 8.30 pm. 

I couldn’t know what “unplugged” meant in this case or if the concept would be followed literally or not. However, I had already loved the smallish gigs in Basel and Cannes and was sure that this time the setting and the arrangements would be even somehow simpler and barer and that I would without a doubt absolutely love the result and I did indeed. The performance we saw was a dream come true. The acoustics were perfect, it was possible to hear everything. The performance was focused, detailed and emotional and Mika truly put his soul in each song the way we are normally used to seeing at symphonic gigs. 

 The concert was extremely intimate and somehow anonymous at the same time. It’s incredibly intimate to be able to hear someone so carefully. The world is full of background noise and we rarely hear anyone that well, we rarely focus on listening to anyone for longer than a moment. Now for more than 90 minutes it was suddenly possible to hear everything. Whispering, talking, singing, momentary screaming. I felt I could hear Mika breathing and obviously moving and stepping as well. It was possible to separate Max and the choir and every instrument and the whole gig was really lovely beyond words. I was so stunned by the experience that it was almost hard to comprehend. One of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. I bought the ticket as a Christmas gift for myself and a bit extravagantly chose an expensive front area seat. That way I could obviously also see everything and I wondered - and I still wonder - how scary it must be for any artist to perform that way, to be so bare and know that the audience can hear and see everything. 

Maybe to balance that the gig was kept something I call “anonymous”. Mika told a lot of stories but didn’t say anything about himself, his family or childhood. He didn’t tell those small personal details we are used to hearing at gigs, only stories about the Lollipop Girl and “colourful plastic baking in the sun” and here and there comments about the language topic. The audience was anonymous as well and he avoided looking at anyone in the usual way. Despite all that the singing was extremely personal and he put a lot of himself in every song and I was totally focused on listening to the performance as well and thought about the anonymity only much later. The atmosphere that moment was intense and very intimate and the performance was detailed and beautifully emotional. 

The setlist was full and generous and satisfying and it was carefully planned to please the most demanding person in the audience. Just seeing a gig in such circumstances felt incredible and I had no particular wish for the setlist and the gig offered numerous surprises since the beginning and Toy Boy that we hadn’t heard for a long time. Both Toy Boy and later Over My Shoulder were supported by the format, circumstances are rarely this ideal for those two songs. Mika talked about the language issue several times and had clearly thought about it in advance. We heard both Jane Birkin and C’est la vie that were aimed at the French speaking part of the audience but obviously fantastic for everyone. For a more international audience there was Popular Song as an extra addition and when struggling with his song introduction in German Mika did a piece of German song to acknowledge German speaking people. He said a few comments in Italian and French but mostly told the stories in English adding German words here and there and all that together was a lot of effort to please every single part of the audience.

After Toy Boy the setlist included Lollipop, Origin and Big Girl and surprisingly I have afterwards thought particularly about Lollipop a lot. Lollipop is a regularly heard song and theme wise  not as serious as Toy Boy but in the simple piano version we can hear the singing without any disturbance and it’s always a pure moment to listen to Mika with only a tiny bit of piano and nothing else. The beginning part of the gig was lovely in every way but Underwater after the four first songs magical, even surreal.

Listening to Underwater felt like moving to another dimension. I was transferred to another world, which could be in space or in the underwater world. The atmosphere inside the venue was so strong it could be felt. The air around us was not just air, it was filled with a totally unique energy. The song was more powerful than ever, it was exceptionally moving. As a child I wanted to believe it’s possible to learn to breathe under water, I even practiced which never turned out well. In Zermatt I realised it doesn’t matter that I never learnt that skill, this moment listening to the song was equally amazing. It was a delightful life realisation, understanding that eventually things always find their places, the final outcome can just be slightly different than we originally planned. In the end of the song he became a conductor and guided different parts of the crowd to sing and it happened even more smoothly than it usually does. It doesn’t always work equally well but when it does, the crowd becomes his own huge Underwater choir. He always gives the audience smiling feedback showing little hand gestures he has learnt in Italy or slapping his bottom to point out which part of the body needs to be strong to sing properly. 

Hearing Good Guys on the setlist wasn’t a surprise, it’s occasionally there. However, hearing such a particularly beautiful version was more impressive than I had expected in advance. I love the version of Good Guys from Versailles Royal Opera and often listen to it at home. I love the piano and Mika’s voice that is complimented by Ida and Max and the version in Zermatt was close to that. The guitar started the song in such a pretty way. Ida wasn’t there but I could hear Max really well and his voice truly flatters Mika’s when possible to hear it properly and now it was. The Intimate Evening Tour from 2013 is still a beautiful memory and even though the setting was now bigger, this gig in Zermatt still momentarily reminded me of that. Another song where we could hear Max really well was naturally Over My Shoulder later during the evening and having it on the setlist was a small surprise. I didn’t dare to expect Over My Shoulder. It was a special, rare moment and I kept my eyes closed listening to the song and the moment was overwhelmingly beautiful.

After the Good Guys and lovely Jane Birkin Mika started a long talk about plastic melting and I knew since the first sounds he would do Ice Cream and was absolutely impatient to hear the song itself. I had waited for an acoustic version of Ice Cream for a long time and knew it would be a huge, huge highlight. The song started and it was amazing. It was perfect. It was the best version I’ve ever heard. People often think Ice Cream is a summer tune or a festival song but I know it can be much more. I heard some fantastic versions already during the 2022 North America Tour and obviously the Versailles version was totally unexpected and enormously special. This time the song was everything and it was possible to hear it well. The performance was extremely rich with details and it started almost whispering, changed to talking and then singing and finally screaming a bit, the frustration was sophisticated and the choir was powerfully demanding and just to put it shortly, it was gorgeous in every possible way. A huge highlight for sure. One of the songs I can’t stop thinking about afterwards. 

The most touching part of the gig was naturally and expectedly Relax. Acoustic Relax is an occasion every single time, it touches my heart in a very special way. On some level every person is alone and that’s scary. Somehow the message in Relax says there could be a collective, universal love that can change all that, that in the end we are not alone after all and that’s the most comforting thought any song has ever told to us. The Zermatt version felt utterly genuine. It was done in a simple way mostly with piano, the choir joining a bit and the other instruments joining only in the very end. The performance was serious, beautiful and moving and it was focusing on what is said. I was extremely moved and grateful as well. Grateful to hear such a special performance. The song was hardly over when I realised I will need to pay something for being that lucky. Not with money, I had already bought a ticket, but in other, more meaningful ways. Being a good person would be too much to promise and impossible to keep. Instead I promised myself not to complain about small things in life. As an extra payment for being lucky to hear such a special and beautiful version of Relax, I could try that for a while.

Then it was already time for another big song C’est la vie and again the whole process of each song being an enormous experience reminded me of symphonic gigs where emotions are unusually big and you need to intentionally make an effort to calm down quickly after every song to be ready for the next emotion. C’est la vie is a big, classic song. The more often I hear it, the more I think that way. It’s a big song and as typical for Mika, full of contradictory emotions. Happy Ending is another easy example of that. It’s the most inappropriate wedding song, the lyrics literally saying “no hope no love no glory, no happy ending” and “live the rest of our lives but not together”, yet people insist on hearing it at their wedding simply because the atmosphere is so breathtakingly beautiful. Mika’s commercially most successful song Grace Kelly is actually a rant against the music business. C’est la vie talks about death ending up celebrating life. 

The more I listen to C’est la vie the more amazing I see it. I particularly love the part that almost talks because it highlights the thoughtful, deep tone. After that, even though my mind is fully aware how serious the topic is, I somehow join the celebration. The incredible performance in Zermatt was otherwise small-scale but the colourful lights were kept and the ending “c’est la vie” part was let out exceptionally emotionally. Contradictions always stop the listener for a moment, if not during the song then afterwards. There’s an internal turmoil caused by conflicting emotions that is an interesting phenomenon and that I keep thinking about now when the gig is in the past. 

I enjoyed having easygoing Popular before Over My Shoulder and Happy Ending which both I loved a lot and purely focused on listening to. It was a pure listening experience. During Elle Me Dit we saw the showman Mika who flirted with the audience, chatted in English with his adorable, exaggerated French accent and did a mad little drumming session which is always a small extra highlight, I’m always impressed.

During Grace Kelly the audience started chanting and he immediately used the opportunity, played some air piano and guided the crowd like it was his own big choir before continuing to the song itself. He had the audience completely eating out of his hand. However, after the song he had no other option than to say thank you and tell he has already exceeded his strict time limit. The organisers had very strictly told no more than 90 minutes and that was done a while ago. The audience wouldn’t hear it. No one wanted to leave and people kept demanding him back until he eventually came and to everyone’s joy did the ending Love Today adding a long introduction in the “marine weather forecast style” like he occasionally does. The crowd went totally mad. What an event and what a performance. Amazingly done by everyone on stage.