MIKA Turns Paris Into a Pop Wonderland: 15,000 Fans, Two Hours, One Encore

MIKA played a two-hour 'Mika Love Paris' concert at Paris's Bercy arena in 2016 before 15,000 people, staging one of his most theatrical French shows on record — complete with a 40-piece marching band and a glowing Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop.

The Lebanese-British singer opened the set with a cover of Jacques Brel's "Le cheval" before moving through a setlist that mixed his biggest pop anthems with French-language favourites. The audience sang "Relax, Take It Easy" back at him in full voice.

The staging carried the story. MIKA played piano among the crowd during "Grace Kelly." He wore Napoleon's hat for "Staring at the Sun (Tant que j'ai le soleil)." For "Elle me dit," he wrapped himself in a French flag. "Underwater" arrived with strings and thousands of illuminated phones held aloft.

What made this concert unusual?

Two things stand out from the available accounts. First, the scale of the French repertoire: of 20 songs performed, several — "Staring at the Sun (Tant que j'ai le soleil)," "Les baisers perdus," "Elle me dit" and the Joséphine Baker cover "J'ai deux amours" in the encore — were sung at least partly in French, an unusually high share for an artist who broke through in English.

Second, the physical commitment to Paris as a theme. The Napoleon hat, the flag, the Brel and Baker covers and the glowing Arc de Triomphe set piece all pointed one way. As the original report put it, MIKA was "proving that his affection for Paris was every bit as spectacular as his stagecraft."

The full setlist ran as follows:

• Intro: "Le cheval" (Jacques Brel cover)
• "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)"
• "Talk About You"
• "Grace Kelly"
• "Rain"
• "Boum Boum Boum"
• "Good Guys"
• "We Are Golden"
• "Staring at the Sun (Tant que j'ai le soleil)"
• "Good Wife"
• "Les baisers perdus"
• "Relax, Take It Easy"
• "Lollipop"
• "Origin of Love"
• "Stardust"
• "Underwater"
• "Happy Ending"
• "Elle me dit"
• Encore: "J'ai deux amours" (Joséphine Baker cover), "Last Party," "Love Today"

What does this change for MIKA?

The Bercy show functions as a document of where MIKA stood in 2016: a performer able to sell out a major Paris arena on the strength of both his English-language hits and his French catalogue. The setlist splits roughly evenly between the two, and the crowd's massed singing on "Relax, Take It Easy" — a track from his 2007 debut — shows the early material still carried the room nine years on.

A caveat is due. The source material is promotional in register — words like "exhilarating" and "spectacular" do that work — and offers no ticket figures, tour itinerary or critical verdicts beyond its own enthusiasm. Whether the concert marked a commercial peak or simply one strong night on a longer run is not stated. What the record does establish is concrete: the venue, the year, the setlist, the staging choices and the 15,000-strong audience.

For anyone tracking MIKA's relationship with France — later cemented by his French-language work and television appearances — the 'Mika Love Paris' concert reads as an early, fully staged statement of intent.