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As the title suggests, this is a thread for Mika songs that are about mga (multiple gender attraction) or sga (same gender attraction). In other words, LGBT Mika songs.

 

Before starting, I'd just like to say that as a mga person myself, Mika's lyrics are very important to me. Representation in music is extremely important, and I find myself relating to a lot of what Mika sings about. It's also extremely important that Mika isn't afraid to be himself, even in his music. I respect him immensely for that. So yeah, basically what I'd like to say is: thank you Mika for my dreams. You truly are my Good Guy.

 

Alright, now let's get down to business! I'm going to make a list of all LGBT Mika songs, album by album, complete with links and descriptions. Here it goes:

 

Life In Cartoon Motion:

  • Billy Brown: This song is about a married guy who falls in love with another man. Later on in the song we discover that he is bisexual, and very confused.
  • Grace Kelly: While there aren’t any direct mentions of sexuality, this song is very much about people judging MIKA for his flamboyant exterior. He wrote the song about record companies who asked him to change. I'm assuming that part of what they wanted him to change was obviously his mannerisms and style. I think the line “should I bend over just to be put on your shelf” demonstrates this.
  • Stuck In The Middle: MIKA wrote this song about his grandmother, and while he still doesn’t openly mention being gay, there are certain lines that indicate there is something wrong with him in his grandmother’s eyes, a constant source of disagreement between them. I’m thinking of “ours is a family that’s based upon tradition, but with my careless words I tread upon your vision”. Later on in the song he mentions being different from his siblings; “Are five kids better than one who doesn’t lie to become?” I see this as MIKA admitting he is different, but that he won’t lie to please anyone.

The Boy Who Knew Too Much:

  • We Are Golden: This one isn’t explicitly about being LGBT but it is definitely about being yourself, unapologetically and freely. The line "we are not what you think we are" gives off very gay vibes.
  • Toy Boy: This song is the story of two young men who are in a relationship, and who are judged by society. It's openly about sga.
  • Blame It On The Girls: MIKA starts the song by speaking of a man who “has looks like books take pages to tell”. I don’t know if MIKA himself ever explained this song, but I have a theory that he might be speaking of himself. The chorus says; “Blame it on the boys who keep hitting on you”. I think that’s pretty clear.
  • Rain: Now I know very well that my explanation is a bit far-fetched, but hear me out - I think Rain is about a same-sex couple who face a problem: one of them is sick of pretending and hiding and wants to come out, while the other still wants to stay closeted. I base my theory on quite a few things. First, the use of the word “ordinary” in the lyrics, several times. “You’re making me more ordinary / This ordinary mind is broken / Trying to be ordinary, was it me who was the fool?” Ordinary here as in straight. You’ll notice that “ordinary” is used in a derogatory way. Also the fact that MIKA says he’s ready for “more than this”, and urges his partner to rethink his position (”you better get back”) Let’s not forget their “broken minds”, and that this is “nothing like the life we wanted”. But the spoken part to me is by far the most revealing: “I’m not angry, don’t know what to do after all the years that I spent you, can’t blame you for the things you said when you used to hide away

Origin Of Love:

  • Emily: Although it's the English version of "Elle Me Dit", it's quite different. The lyrics mention Emily being gay, and that it's okay. 
  • Lola: No direct mentions of being mga/sga, but Lola is about a female best friend giving MIKA advice, trying to tell him not to fall in love. MIKA reassures her that he won’t, but it’s not very convincing. Lola is very much the stereotype of the ‘straight friend’ that helps out her male gay best friend. (this is of course a stereotype and it could mean nothing, but it just sounds very gay to me lmao)
  • Elle Me Dit: In MIKA's own words, this song is about the "horrific things a mother can say to her son to get him the f**k out of her house". Part of what she says to him is "t'es défoncé ou t'es gay?" which translates to "are you high or are you gay?". Also she asks him to "be like the other boys, go play ball and be popular", this is pretty revealing too.
  • Underwater: A beautiful love-song, and at one point the lyrics go "flying through a bright blue sky with a space boy high".

No Place In Heaven:

  • All She Wants: This one is about a gay man who has problems with his mother, who would prefer him to be straight as to "avoid any spectacle". He even goes as far as marrying a woman to please his mother, but he quickly realizes that his "heart is in peril" and leaves his wife.
  • Good Guys: This song is about the lack of LGBT representation in media, and a heartfelt tribute to MIKA's heroes. The ultime gay anthem, if you ask me.
  • L’amour Fait Ce Qu’il Veut: This is a french song and the title says it all: it literally translates to “love does what it wants”. No comment needed. (oh and i might also mention that ALL the pronouns used in this song to speak of MIKA’s partner are male pronouns)
  • Last Party: A song about Freddie Mercury.
  • No Place In Heaven: A heartbreaking song about MIKA being sga and asking God if this makes him a bad person. “There’s no place in heaven for someone like me”, but then he says “there’s no place in hell”.
  • J’ai Pas Envie: Another french song. Again, the pronouns used are male.
  • Oh Girl You're The Devil: This one is about a girl and a boy who are both LGBT and trying to face society.
  • Good Wife: A gay man is desperately in love with his straight friend, whose wife makes him miserable. The gay man wishes he and his friend could be together.

If you guys have any songs to add, or something to point out, please do! Also if you want to discuss a song I'm more than happy to :) This subject is very important to me.

 

{ PS: this article was inspired by this post on tumblr }

 

Edited by thesadchicken
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I think you can add "Elle Me Dit" to the list..and also "Underwater" and "Hurts" all for different reasons...

he even mentioned "Lollipop" as being a song about him on a French stage this year...

It's hard to make a list because songs lyrics are a subtle mix of lots of things and "labelling" is not a thing I like to do and each person has different feelings and understanding when it comes to a song.

I love when Mika makes Saddler's Wells audience sing happily "Billy Brown" s line: "then he fell in love with another man" and then explodes into joy because everyone is totally happy about it :wub2:

I was born gayfriendly and I think we all look for the same: love and I'm so sorry society hasn't grown up to the point that equality to love is not yet the rule everywhere and that it is not as simple to date someone your own sex and that it takes lots of time and courage to follow your heart in that case... Mika was always clear about that through his lyrics but since his coming out he is more open and both his involvement and his lyrics sure are inspiring and helping a lot of people dealing with their own sexuality and hopefully as he aims at doing help making this world a better place by opening up people's minds to understanding that differences is what makes individuals and the world we live in interesting and fun...I might edit this post later if I think of other songs...

Edited by crazyaboutmika
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I think you can add "Elle Me Dit" to the list..and also "Underwater" and "Hurts" all for different reasons...

he even mentioned "Lollipop" as being a song about him on a French stage this year...

It's hard to make a list because songs lyrics are a subtle mix of lots of things and "labelling" is not a thing I like to do and each person has different feelings and understanding when it comes to a song.

I love when Mika makes Saddler's Wells audience sing happily "Billy Brown" s line: "then he fell in love with another man" and then explodes into joy because everyone is totally happy about it :wub2:

I was born gayfriendly and I think we all look for the same: love and I'm so sorry society hasn't grown up to the point that equality to love is not yet the rule everywhere and that it is not as simple to date someone your own sex and that it takes lots of time and courage to follow your heart in that case... Mika was always clear about that through his lyrics but since his coming out he is more open and both his involvement and his lyrics sure are inspiring and helping a lot of people dealing with their own sexuality and hopefully as he aims at doing help making this world a better place by opening up people's minds to understanding that differences is what makes individuals and the world we live in interesting and fun...I might edit this post later if I think of other songs...

 

You are absolutely right! I'm going to add Elle Me Dit and Underwater right away! But I'm not sure about Hurts? I know that it's about bullying, but I might have missed the part about mga/sga?

 

And I didn't know about Lollipop! What did he say exactly? I'm very curious!

 

Of course, it's hard to make a complete list, especially since Mika himself is LGBT, so technically every song he writes is LGBT as well. And besides, like you said, song lyrics are very personal and listening to a song is a personal experience, so different people may have different interpretations of songs. But some lyrics are pretty clear (Good Guys, Good Wife, All She Wants, etc.) and the ones that aren't are open for interpretation. The reason why I'm making this list is because Mika's lyrics are extremely important to me, as an LGBT person myself, and I find comfort in the fact that he is not afraid of being himself.

Like you said, his music helps lots of people come to terms with their sexuality, accept themselves, or just have the courage to face another day in this cold, homophobic world.

 

I wish there were more people like you in this world :hug:

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Interesting thread! I think that since Mika is gay, and since this has caused him some trouble earlier in life and also shaped him as a person, LGBT topic will occur in his lyrics even if the song isn't really about that.

 

I love how one can interpret his lyrics in many different ways, but just about BIOTG: he gave an explanation on it here:

 

Your interpretation of rain is also interesting. Mika said that the lyrics basically were a brake-up-letter that he once wrote. I've always wondered if that was a same sex relationship. 

 

I think origin of love also belongs on the list :wub: He always talks bout how that song talks about being proud of whoever you fall in love with :) 

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Interesting thread! I think that since Mika is gay, and since this has caused him some trouble earlier in life and also shaped him as a person, LGBT topic will occur in his lyrics even if the song isn't really about that.

 

I love how one can interpret his lyrics in many different ways, but just about BIOTG: he gave an explanation on it here:

 

Your interpretation of rain is also interesting. Mika said that the lyrics basically were a brake-up-letter that he once wrote. I've always wondered if that was a same sex relationship. 

 

I think origin of love also belongs on the list :wub: He always talks bout how that song talks about being proud of whoever you fall in love with :)

 

Origin of Love definitly would belong to this list as well. :wub2: 

 

 

 

Interesting thread indeed! I'm a straight girl, but I grew up among gay people and I don't have a single problem with them! I wish people would just respect and accept each other, that would make the world more beautiful.

 

Hmm, I think One Foot Boy would fit in the list as well. I mean, if you listen to the sentence 'I say nothing on your microphone, 'till you swear to take me home.' :naughty: It's one of my favorite songs of him and I think it would fit here. :biggrin2:

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Congratulations for your work and yes, I believe You can add "Hurts"to your list , there's the clip,  and the lyrics may refer to homophobic statements and situation and "Elle me dit", there's a double meaning in French  with the sentence"t'es défoncé ou t'es gai " :thumb_yello: 

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To me in Elle Me Dit it was always "gay" but that's just me.

For Lollipop that he used to say was about his sister he said prior to singing it that he was the one warned about love/sex making you down but that now he is 32 and in spite of being warned so much against love he found happiness ( I think it's in Bercy that he dedicated Lollipop to his mother to let her know that never mind her warnings he found love and he

is happy)

Underwater and "flying with a spaceboy high"

And Hurts is about being bullied because he was different...Popularsong tells the same I think... the fact that Hurts became the song for Un Bacio makes it a gay anthem to me.

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How could I forget Origin Of Love which he called his "statement of freedom" when he wore his heart out on his sleeve by dedicating it "to the man I love" on Heaven stage in London on July 26th, 2012 :wub2:

It's so true, MIKA has written this song, "Origin of Love", for Andy but the lyrics of "Elle me dit " aren't available on the booklet, but I believe You're right because of the lyrics of "Emily" :wub:

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Yes, I also definitely miss OOL on the list. It has so many references to gay love - especially gay love vs. the catholic church (even the book in your pocket... like stupid adam and eve...), it's one of his clearest LGBT songs imo!

 

Also i think talk about you belongs on the list. I only realized it recently, first thought it's "just" a love song that could be about every couple. But while it might not mention gay, it's clearly about a "forbidden" love that is taken out into the public. "Like normal people do" - it's not normal for society, but it's starting to feel normal for him. "Convincing haters,,one day they'll feel the same". It's like 'i want to shout it out to the world that i love a man!'. "Living like this is risking all that i know", another example.

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I definitely agree with what Mellody says about TAY.

 

At first I questioned "Rain" being on this list but then I remembered when Mika sang "thought I found the man I wanted, til I turned him into something new" during the Magic Numbers gig in January 2011. To me, the (accidental?) change was kinda telling, like maybe those were the original lyrics which he'd changed to make the song gender-neutral or something.

 

Also, do covers Mika's done count? Because The Gossip's "Standing In The Way Of Control" is a response to a law in the USA that would've outlawed same-sex marriage.

Edited by kreacher
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:) Thank you so much Selma, for this great thread!!  :hug:  The lyric of the songs is the essence of MIKAs music, and it's really interesting to see what we get out of it, by "analyzing" it :fisch: Most of the lyrics are in fact fantastic, with lots of "double meanings" - and  it demands quite some thinking from the listeners, to understand what he really says in the songs.

 

Imo, "Any other world" also belongs to this list.

I think the whole of this lyric talks about MIKAs frustration about being gay, and all the challenges it gave him. "I tried to live alone, but lonely is so lonely, alone.  So human as I am I had to give up my defenses. So I smiled and tried to mean it, to let myself let go" ;) Poor MIKA,  It surely was a struggle to "say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in"  - to be honest to himself, and to get accepted.  I'm so happy he made it successfully... :wub: 

 

Love, love

me 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am on a Mika high because I watched Sinfonia Pop last night. I had saved it to watch on my birthday.

I loved it. The performance of Good Guys was sensational! The singers all joining in with the Oscar Wilde inspired chorus. I'm not gay, but I felt so proud. Then when he sang OOL, he sang "I'm still so glad you found me", and you could see and feel his emotions. His Love for Andy, still so strong. It was beautiful.

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I am on a Mika high because I watched Sinfonia Pop last night. I had saved it to watch on my birthday.

I loved it. The performance of Good Guys was sensational! The singers all joining in with the Oscar Wilde inspired chorus. I'm not gay, but I felt so proud. Then when he sang OOL, he sang "I'm still so glad you found me", and you could see and feel his emotions. His Love for Andy, still so strong. It was beautiful.

 

:) Nice to hear from you again Marilyn!  :wink2: What a great birthday gift - listening to MIKAs Sinfonia Pop! :thumb_yello:  :wub:  Congratulations with your yesterday! :hug: I'm in love with this DVD as well, and I'll watch it again, together  with our daughter the coming weekend, when she's visiting us - in fact she asked for it herself, which was lovely :wub:   ( she's one year behind MIKA in age, and saw him live in 2010 )   

 

Love, love

me 

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You are absolutely right! I'm going to add Elle Me Dit and Underwater right away! But I'm not sure about Hurts? I know that it's about bullying, but I might have missed the part about mga/sga?

 

And I didn't know about Lollipop! What did he say exactly? I'm very curious!

 

Of course, it's hard to make a complete list, especially since Mika himself is LGBT, so technically every song he writes is LGBT as well. And besides, like you said, song lyrics are very personal and listening to a song is a personal experience, so different people may have different interpretations of songs. But some lyrics are pretty clear (Good Guys, Good Wife, All She Wants, etc.) and the ones that aren't are open for interpretation. The reason why I'm making this list is because Mika's lyrics are extremely important to me, as an LGBT person myself, and I find comfort in the fact that he is not afraid of being himself.

Like you said, his music helps lots of people come to terms with their sexuality, accept themselves, or just have the courage to face another day in this cold, homophobic world.

 

I wish there were more people like you in this world :hug:

:hug:

Well it is not in the lyrics but he said in a concert (I think it was in Bercy this year and I translated his speech into English) that lollipop was about him and how his mum shunned him and warned him off riding this train and told him "love would bring him down" but he then he said that after he grew up he found love and it never brought him down ... amazing how he can say things on stage :wub2:

Edited by crazyaboutmika
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I have never understood why Mika hasn't been adopted by the gay community as an icon. Good Guys, for example, is such an openly gay song, it should be thought of as the greatest gay anthem of all time!

Then there is Good Wife. A gay man singing that he would be a good wife to his straight best friend. Once again, it is really out there.

The gay people of the world just do not seem to know what they are missing!

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  • 2 months later...

  • Stuck In The Middle: MIKA wrote this song about his grandmother, and while he still doesn’t openly mention being gay, there are certain lines that indicate there is something wrong with him in his grandmother’s eyes, a constant source of disagreement between them. I’m thinking of “ours is a family that’s based upon tradition, but with my careless words I tread upon your vision”. Later on in the song he mentions being different from his siblings; “Are five kids better than one who doesn’t lie to become?” I see this as MIKA admitting he is different, but that he won’t lie to please anyone.

Stuck in the Middle has been and continues to be one of my favorite songs, period; and in 8 years, I have never even thought of it from that perspective.  I knew it was "about" his grandmother; but I figured she was the protagonist. 

Your interpretation makes WAY more sense.

 

Iirc (and others have mentioned it in the thread) Rain is a break up letter from when he was a teenager; so I think it's "safe" to assume the song is about guy, i.e. making it a same sex relationship....the letter thing was even used as a focal point in the album art/single art for the track.

 

The "Origin of Love"[the song] is about he and his boyfriend, isn't it? and I do believe that many of the songs on the album are about their relationship; but not every song is "overtly" gay, for example "Kids" is pretty universal I think; and Popular isn't specifically about being gay.

 

 

I dont speak French, so I hadn't realized  L'amour Fair Ce Qu'il Veut and J'ai Pas Envie used male pronouns, thank you for that.

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I would add "I See you", too. The way i see it it's about loving someone from afar and watching them but never daring to go talk to them for fear of being rejected and mocked ("You could be cruel to me") because they're most probably straight (or pretending they are, but anyway that's not the point), thus not interested, and could be mean about it.

"And I'm waiting, I'm hating everyone" could mean that he's so jealous of all the people who do not have to worry about things like this, who can just get up and go talk to the person they like without the fear of being rejected and being made a fool of, that he hates them.

Mika talks about the song here

 

and here

 

And yes OOL is definitely missing on the list :)

 

Let's not forget what Mika himself said about the song:
"I wrote this song after a long time not writing anything. It talks about my life, it talks about the church, it talks about falling in love and it talks about being happy and proud about falling in love with whoever you fall in love with, even if it's a man. So in a way, this is my statement and my thank you. To the man I love."

 

Not only is it about his partner and/or was written for him, there's all those lines in it that very clearly deal with theses topics he mentioned (the church, being lgbt+, and how these two notions coexist), "You are the sun and the light, you are the freedom I fight, God will do nothing to stop it", amongst others, and of course this whole verse:

 

Like stupid Adam and Eve they found their love in a tree
God didn't think they deserved it
He taught them hate, taught them pride
Gave them a leaf, made them hide
Let's push their stories aside
You know the origin is you
 

Also, I don't know if that's actually relevant but The Origin of Love is also a song from the musical/movie "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", which is about a fictional rock and roll band fronted by a genderqueer East German singer, Hedwig Robinson. The song is based on Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium. Quotes from wikipedia:

[The story] explains that three sexes of human beings once existed: "children of the sun" (man and man attached), "children of the earth" (woman and woman attached), and "children of the moon" (man and woman attached). Each were once round, two-headed, four-armed, and four-legged beings. Angry gods split these early humans in two, leaving the separated people with a lifelong yearning for their other half. 

Now, throughout our lives, we are always trying to find our "other half", and sexual intercourse is the only means we have to put the two halves back together; this desire to be one person again is what we call "love. However, it is impossible to fully rejoin two people because it is our souls and not our bodies that most desire to be reunited.

(yup, in this story the two separated people trying to find their other half to get back together are either two men, two women, or a man and a woman)

 

The movie was written by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask and here's how that specific song was supposedly written:

As the two writers began work, Mitchell bought Trask a copy of Plato’s Symposium, showed him the central story which explained the origins of gay, lesbian, and heterosexual love, and asked him to write a song based on that story. Trask came back with the moving, fiercely multi-cultural, fairy tale-like song-story "The Origin of Love."

 

Mika never mentionned "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" anywhere (as far as I know?) so I don't think that Origin of Love has been inspired by its eponym from the musical/movie, but it's still interesting to make connections right? :P

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I would add "I See you", too. The way i see it it's about loving someone from afar and watching them but never daring to go talk to them for fear of being rejected and mocked ("You could be cruel to me") because they're most probably straight (or pretending they are, but anyway that's not the point), thus not interested, and could be mean about it.

 

"And I'm waiting, I'm hating everyone" could mean that he's so jealous of all the people who do not have to worry about things like this, who can just get up and go talk to the person they like without the fear of being rejected and being made a fool of, that he hates them.

 

Mika talks about the song here

 

and here

 

And yes OOL is definitely missing on the list :)

 

Let's not forget what Mika himself said about the song:

"I wrote this song after a long time not writing anything. It talks about my life, it talks about the church, it talks about falling in love and it talks about being happy and proud about falling in love with whoever you fall in love with, even if it's a man. So in a way, this is my statement and my thank you. To the man I love."

 

Not only is it about his partner and/or was written for him, there's all those lines in it that very clearly deal with theses topics he mentioned (the church, being lgbt+, and how these two notions coexist), "You are the sun and the light, you are the freedom I fight, God will do nothing to stop it", amongst others, and of course this whole verse:

 

Like stupid Adam and Eve they found their love in a tree
God didn't think they deserved it
He taught them hate, taught them pride
Gave them a leaf, made them hide
Let's push their stories aside
You know the origin is you
 

Also, I don't know if that's actually relevant but The Origin of Love is also a song from the musical/movie "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", which is about a fictional rock and roll band fronted by a genderqueer East German singer, Hedwig Robinson. The song is based on Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium. Quotes from wikipedia:

(yup, in this story the two separated people trying to find their other half to get back together are either two men, two women, or a man and a woman)

 

The movie was written by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask and here's how that specific song was supposedly written:

 

Mika never mentionned "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" anywhere (as far as I know?) so I don't think that Origin of Love has been inspired by its eponym from the musical/movie, but it's still interesting to make connections right? :P

I remember googling  Origin of Love and finding "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" song online too :wink2: but although I liked it, I would have rather heard Mika's :lmfao: At that time, all we knew was the title of the album or song :wink2: 

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I remember googling  Origin of Love and finding "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" song online too :wink2: but although I liked it, I would have rather heard Mika's :lmfao: At that time, all we knew was the title of the album or song :wink2:

I actually came across the Hedwig and the Angry Inch song on youtube for whatever reason, but after the album came out, and it's only then that I made the connection  :aah: Now I'm left I wondering if Mika knows about this musical and if he ever made the connection himself  :naughty:

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I actually came across the Hedwig and the Angry Inch song on youtube for whatever reason, but after the album came out, and it's only then that I made the connection  :aah: Now I'm left I wondering if Mika knows about this musical and if he ever made the connection himself  :naughty:

Not a clue...someone will have to ask him next time there's a chance :wink2:

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