| Mika – Relax, Take It Easy Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Mika describes the story behind the song: I always wanted to write a dance song that wasn’t a really full dance track, that felt organic. So when I came into producing Relax I made sure that most of the sounds we used were actually made by real instruments. We used some great session musicians who had worked with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. And we picked up the strangest pedal combinations to get all these weird sounds. It’s really effective . . . you can’t tell if it’s a full dance track or really laid-back. It feels a bit weird electronically. The organic-ness gives a more classic field to it. So it was one of the harder tracks for me to produce, but also the most rewarding. |
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| Mika – Billy Brown Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Mika explained his setiments towards the song here: I just thought it was a brilliant story to put into a pop song — the idea of a man leaving his wife for another man. I really don’t know why it hasn’t been done before. When you’re writing songs, you always want to play with intrigue and you always want to pull certain strings. The point of writing pop music is that, in a way, you can write about anything. And it’s amazing how many younger listeners really love it and really identify with this little character Billy Brown, this cartoon character. A few of my cousins are all around 12 to 15 years old. This is their favourite song. They find it funny and sweet. |
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| Mika – Love Today Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Mika explained in an interview with him: I was really happy when I wrote this and when I’m in that kind of mood I always hope everyone else feels the same way. Everybody is looking for the same thing — to love someone and be loved back. Or just to get laid. It all depends on how you look for it. Love Today captures that, the euphoric feeling you get when those things go right. |
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| Mika – Any Other World Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Mika quotes in an interview: There is a little spoken introduction that many people may miss. It’s a family friend of mine who lost her eye during the war in Lebanon and I realised in everyone’s life their comes one point — or several points — where something happens and you have to completely change the way you have lived your life because of one event. And it really makes you readjust and rethink and rejudge parts of your life all over again. That happens to some people in a dramatic way like Rafa who lost both her eye and her husband within six months. Or it can be in a much quieter way like when you are 22-years-old and you finally leave university after being in education all your life or when you lose your job. I wanted to put that in the song, because when you’re 68 or 14, it’s still the same feeling and it’s still just as hard. I wanted to try to capture that quite difficult period that people have to go through at least once in their life. :-) |
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| Mika – Grace Kelly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I DO understand what you are saying. You are AGREEING with me. But I'm curious if YOU understand what you are saying. For example, in your last post, you wrote: "Again, I didnt say it had double meanings." "..raised an eyebrow but I know it doesnt have the double meaning" And then... "It was kind of also proving a point that songs can have more than one meaning and they arent always what they seem." There, Blue Chicken. I quoted you, word for word, so you can stop telling me that I am misunderstanding what you write. As soon as you figure out what you are trying to say, let me know, and I'll take a crack at it myself. :) PS- Rowkem388, I totally agree. I actually joined the "secret society" forum on his website to see what it was all about, and (as mentioned in my last post), Mika has made these short animated clips on the theme of Grace Kelly and Love Today. Grace Kelly's clip shows pop artists of different colours (purple, brown, blue, etc) going through an assembly machine and then it shows the ones that don't fit in (like him), getting taken away in an armoured vehicle. Kind of abstract, but definitely gets the point across. |
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| Mika – Grace Kelly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Blue Chicken, I know exactly what your post read, and my argument was that I would find it hard to believe that a person as private as he is about his sexuality would release his first single as a song about declaring such. Your lyric-by-lyric deciphering of the song seemed far more absurd than analytical, as you read meaning where there existed none. Mika's own animation of the song found on his website explains the theme briefly. For someone that agrees that one should not be concerned with his sexual orientation, you sure spend a lot of time on the topic by picking apart the song for gay double meanings. And if you were just doing it for fun as you claimed, then you're on the wrong site, baby. Google "too-much-time-on-my-hands.org" and go hooome. | |
| Mika – Grace Kelly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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OK, this is my third consecutive post, but I just read this quote on Wikipedia.org: The lyric "So I try a little Freddie" is a reference to Queen's Freddie Mercury. Mika's voice has often been compared to that of Mercury, and the lyric, "I've gone identity mad!" is a reference to Mercury's 1991 song "I'm Going Slightly Mad".[1] I know, Wikipedia is not some objective, peer-reviewed source, but I thought it was interesting, especially the bit about the song "I'm Going Slightly Mad". |
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| Mika – Grace Kelly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Oh, and I totally forgot to mention, one must also who Grace Kelly was to really appreciate the references in the song and title. Yes, she was an actress for a little while (and a good one, being nominated for a number of oscars and winning one), but Grace's acting career stopped prematurely when she married the Prince of Monaco. She wasn't happy about the decision to give up her acting career for marriage and was open about her wishes to do both, but never got the chance. She remained married to the Prince until her death, but many reported it as an unhappy marriage for her. The Prince married her cause she was Catholic and fertile, after ditching his last partner of 6 years for failing a fertility test. Grace Kelly was the bombshell of her time, dating many high-profile men and soaring to #1 so early in her young career (kinda like... Mika? lol) but she sadly gave it up. I think Mika's song is a tribute to such sadness and a proclamation of his own to not settle for what someone else wants, but for what he wants out of his own life. Perhaps the studios didn't like his vocal style, as it has been mentioned in previous posts... and perhaps they tried to change his sound, despite him wanting to stick to his "freddie". All I'm saying is that despite her beauty and accomplishments, Grace Kelly was a tragic character, sacrificing her dreams and wishes for someone else. I think there is a lot of meaning in Mika's choice of this woman as a central reference and title of the song. |
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| Mika – Grace Kelly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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As a response to bluchickenlvr04's comments, I find it hard to accept that it is subtley declaring his sexual orientation. You are drawing meaning where there exists none. Sure, you can analyze the lyrics to death, but I could also create an analytical argument as to how Mika's lyrics relate to clowns, or peacocks. The way he discusses the topic of sexuality and his refusal to disclose that personal information to journalists doesn't fit with this idea of him writing a song full of subtle hints about his being gay. I think the song is far more about diversity in general, especially in the music industry. Being "mean", "green" (money-hungry) and everything more (competition) illustrates the darker side of the industry. Mika is not only a singer, but a songwriter, too. His "Grace Kelly" music video is largely comprised of personal and family friends... so he is showing that he has control over his career and he is not the puppet of his record label. He's doing it HIS way, which is not common these days for a young pop artist. Lastly, this ongoing debate about the nature of the name "Freddie", I would think along the lines of what ClassicalGrace wrote, in that it could very well mean both. Songwriters are ARTISTS. Not every word in a song has a direct meaning to anything in reality. Words are fluid, abstract, and oftentimes songwriters write to intentionally confuse and stir their listeners. I have yet to see an interview in which Mika publically admits to referring to Freddie Mercury in the song, so I can only go by what I know myself. So, in conclusion, I don't believe a young man so private about his sexuality would write a song about being gay... although I believe that the openness to diversity of people expressed in his lyrics (and his party guests... huge age range) would include, but not be limited to, the openness to diversity of sexual orientation. |
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