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Que ta tête fleurisse toujours (2023)


  • Bougez
  • Jane Birkin
  • Sweetie banana
  • Apocalypse Calypso
  • 30 secondes
  • C'est la Vie
  • Moi, Andy et Paris
  • Je sais que je t'aime
  • Doucement
  • Touche Touche
  • Amour pirate
  • Passager

Que ta tête fleurisse toujours is the most serious Mika album we have heard so far. Released almost three years after the passing of his mother it represents a difficult time period in his life and talks about the most serious side of life as well as some other extremely personal topics. At the same time it’s full of new kind of lightness, creativity and the idea of continuous blooming. Fully in French the album is more sensual and direct than Mika’s music ever before. 

It’s hard to even analyse what I love most in this particular album. It has to be the moving, respectful way Mika is protecting the creative spirit and heritage of his mother. It has to be the brave new way to face many personal issues much more directly and without hesitation than ever before. The new scale of atmospheres for sure, the sensuality and softness coming from the language that seems to give permission to do things in a new and different way. The sense of freedom which I absolutely love and almost like breath in while listening to the songs.

Que ta tête fleurisse toujours is an album by an adult artis and  C'est la vie is what the album is all about. It's a happy sad song. The contrast in it comes from the melody that reminds me of some popular radio songs from my own childhood and the topic that is as serious as life can ever be. My favourite part of the song and my favourite part of the album is where the music goes on the background and we hear Mika’s very clear voice singing the conclusive thought: Alors la vie regarde-moi / car je n’aurai plus peur de toi / avec des fleurs même en silence / elle me le dit, elle me dit danse. A touching moment of clarification and life suddenly making sense the same way as it did inTiny Love and as always, my mind loves making a connection like this.

My love for Mika’s music is based on everything being connected that strengthens the illusion of his special own world, a beautiful mess of songs and their emotions, stories and messages, visual elements like illustrations, show elements and outfits and even more than all that a state of mind where we can be free of our own and other people’s limitations, expectations, fears and shame and focus on examining every single colour of life. The most important part, the singing, is not only about the stories but also and mainly about the voice telling them and maybe because the new album is fully in French I pay attention to the voice even more than I usually do and I absolutely love what I hear and look forward to different live performances to hear the voice as expressive as it possibly can be.

Paradoxically an album in French makes people feel included. I might not understand French but I understand Mika's voice when he sings. Obviously, I listen to this album very differently than his French speaking audience does. I can’t analyse the lyrics word by word, I’m not even interested in doing so, I can’t separate which part comes from his co-writers and which part from him. I’m more interested in themes and thoughts behind the topics and enjoy focusing on the atmospheres and beautiful tones in the voice.

The second song released from the album after C'est la vie was Apocalypse Calypso which I immediately loved for the extremely intimate, extremely sensual atmosphere. The thought of making intimately love during a disastrous moment is intense and romantic. The lyrics seem explicit and one of the points of writing a full album in French was a possibility to say things more directly than is possible or feels elegant in English. After Apocalypse Calypso Jane Birkin was the third song released from the album and this song is becoming my personal, everyday anthem. Listening to it makes me feel light and liberated and that’s how I want to feel every day.

I heard the rest of the album for the first time during a pre-listening session in Paris in November. This was the second time I was lucky to hear a new album in such a situation, the first time was for the third album The Origin Of Love (2012) in Milan. Mika came in front of the audience and shortly introduced the songs either partly or fully, not in the same order as on the album. It’s an overwhelming moment to hear new songs for the first time whatever the circumstances are. Usually it’s impossible to catch the lyrics even in English and this time the album was fully in French. As a moment a pre-listening is always very special and memorable and something I later connect to the album. I tried to breath the atmosphere of each song as much as I could to remember my body's very first reaction to them and immediately recognised several new classics and also instantly knew which song will be the biggest party highlight at the future gigs.

Moi, Andy et Paris was the loveliest song on the album since the first moment I heard it. As a charming detail the first seconds of the song create a very literal atmosphere of an old film. The relationship topic is serious and for the contrast the song has extra softness. The tone is loving and beautiful and even though Moi, Andy et Paris can be one person’s interpretation the story and the serious tone in Mika’s voice make everything real and honest and all that goes directly to my heart. When I listen to the song I feel physical pain caused by empathy and I ask myself like I often do when I listen Mika’s music that can be dark and based on his personal experiences: am I allowed to enjoy the song when he obviously felt pain and someone else felt pain and I respect and wish only the best for these people. Judged by the first reaction Moi, Andy et Paris is my personal favourite song on the album. There’s something incredibly honest and beautiful in it and the love in the voice melts my heart.

My another favourite Je sais que je t’aime is the grandest song on the album. It’s grand as a story and it’s grand the way it’s done. I didn’t expect anything this big to be on the French album and wonder if the song existed in English before this. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. In the translated lyrics the story looks complicated. I try to fit people from his life in it but when one sentence makes sense the other one doesn’t. Maybe because of the language, maybe because I don’t know Mika’s life well enough to connect the points. Instead of trying to analyse the French lyrics I rather listen and feel the intense emotions. The song is one of the most powerful I’ve ever heard. When I listen to it I never listen to it only once. I listen to it twice or three times and it makes me cry and the emotions created are simply too big to fit in my heart and afterwards my every muscle is tired and I feel overall faint. A huge, full-body experience.

There’s a big theatrical vibe in Je sais que je t’aime, I can almost see the story happening as opera scenes. If Mika ever wants to write an opera or anything else exceptionally theatrical, I can imagine that happening, this song being a step on the path to it. Je sais que je t’aime is a grand, stunningly beautiful song that tells about grand, beautiful and somehow complicated love. The emotions created are huge: Et je t'aime / Je t'aime plus que moi-même /  Et je ne veux pas que la vie te blesse / Oh je t'aime, et je t'aime / Je t'aime jusqu'à la haine /  Et si un jour les dieux nous délaissent / C'est pour toi que je reste

My another favourite song on the album Bougez talks about moving until the point of exhaustion. The song has a specific French context. If I understand correctly, in France people are reminded to move by a regulation. As a non-French person I see the song in a different context, it simply makes me think of how today’s world makes people move and exercise insane amounts. Moving is said to be for our health but we all know it’s actually for our looks. The pressure to have the perfect body is even stronger for those who are constantly watched on stage, on television or on social media. The original context of the song can be witty or funny but seen this way it feels more serious. This song will be an obvious party highlight and I can’t wait to see how the huge live potential of it will be used, there are so many options. Pour votre santé, Bougez  !

Not every song provokes my thoughts of course. Sweetie banana is perfect for my Fridays and will sweetly transfer me to far away places for the weekend enjoyment. I have sweet memories from a tropical island and even from the moment when I heard the first notes of the song at a French gig and sometimes a sweet atmosphere is perfectly enough. I admit that I'm not into every atmosphere on the album. Touche Touche is not the vibe I'm looking for myself. In my ears it lacks intimacy and is not something I can easily connect with. Also, there's a song like Amour pirate that I still need to learn to know better. I've listened to the song, I've read the translated lyrics and I've heard the introduction to the song and still feel I need to learn to know it better to properly understand it.

Passager is a song that felt totally different after reading the translated lyrics compared to the pure listening experience. I had not understood how deeply Mika feels about this topic. His life style, being in a different country on a daily basis, not being able to live everyday life with his partner for example, must be hard for sure. However, I never realised that all that is such a cause of pain for him, he seems to almost embrace coming from many different places and cultures, he seems to be at home wherever his music is, wherever his family gathers together. I had not understood how hard it is for him and thinking of it now makes me immensely sad. The topic in Passager is extremely personal but the song itself has not grown in my ears the way I expected and for that reason I really want to hear the song live and believe I will feel differently then and look forward to the atmosphere he creates for it, whether it's really sad or just pondering.

During the pre-listening event I immediately paid attention to songs like 30 secondes and Doucement and immediately loved them and their gorgeous, somehow timeless vibes. These kind of songs are stunning on stage and stay relevant and only get better with time. The translation of Doucement gives the feeling of being an outsider in life but I think the topic is said to be as serious as a suicide. I can’t be totally sure, and even when Mika talks about different songs he gives them different meanings on different days. Whatever the exact meaning, the song is extremely serious and beautifully delicate at the same time and (for me) delivers a strong message of mindfulness.

30 secondes felt lovely since the first moment and reading the full story made it even lovelier. What a magical encounter! So brave of him to imagine this kind of magical meeting, there's a long way from The Boy Who Knew Too Much and I See You to this. Yet so typical for Mika to cautiously add as a side note that who knows what will happen tomorrow. He sees life and happiness in a cautious way and after hearing Passager and some other songs on this album I can totally understand why. In my world, if something this magical happens to people only more magic can follow. I believe true love always finds the way. It can go through the apocalypse and it's still there.

Mika speaks equally carefully about his own life and career as well, being pleased with what he has done but always carefully adding that we will see what happens next, like not allowing to assume a happy ending for himself. The way I see it, just making music like this creates a happy ending. His first French album is beautiful and sensitive and has numerous different atmospheres and deep, meaningful thoughts behind the topics. It’s serious, it’s light, it’s intimate, it’s romantic, it’s dark, it's soft, it's warm, it’s direct in a way we are not even used to. Even without knowing the tour is sold out I could tell the songs on it will beautifully culminate live one way or another. There's no need to question what will happen next. Magic will happen.

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