2023 - Mika @ Beach Festival Nieuwpoort, Belgium, 5 August REPORTS/VIDS/PICS

[Jacintha]

[Jacintha]

[Jacintha]

[Jacintha]

[Bren]

I just came home but my head is still in Nieuwpoort! The weather has followed me to Sweden by the way..

It was incredible!! So many highlights but the best part for me was the beginning of Grace Kelly. Pure rock and pure joy. I didn't film it, does anyone have a video? I don't care about the quality 🙏

[holdingyourdrink]

4 hours ago, Bren said:

I just came home but my head is still in Nieuwpoort! The weather has followed me to Sweden by the way..

It was incredible!! So many highlights but the best part for me was the beginning of Grace Kelly. Pure rock and pure joy. I didn't film it, does anyone have a video? I don't care about the quality 🙏

Hi Bren! It was nice to see you flash by on the way out, it was so quick that I didn’t quite register it until you were gone  I’m so sorry!

 

I have the GK intro:

 

 

 

[Bren]

57 minutes ago, holdingyourdrink said:

Hi Bren! It was nice to see you flash by on the way out, it was so quick that I didn’t quite register it until you were gone  I’m so sorry!

It was nice to see you! You've become famous yourself, I couldn't resist saying hi while I ran by, although you were clearly in a conversation... sorry 

 

[holdingyourdrink]

9 minutes ago, Bren said:

It was nice to see you! You've become famous yourself, I couldn't resist saying hi while I ran by, although you were clearly in a conversation... sorry 

 

Aww, I’m glad you said hi! But don’t worry about interrupting me, I am very chatty and I just talk All. The. Time. Would’ve loved to speak to you more, maybe next time! 

[Bren]

3 minutes ago, holdingyourdrink said:

Would’ve loved to speak to you more, maybe next time! 

Me too! I hope to be able to go on another crazy roadtrip next year... 

Thanks for the file!! 

 

[Gabry74]

I think the Nieuwpoort concert was one of the craziest concerts I’ve seen.

It rained all day, sometimes it seemed like she wanted to stop, but then she started again... I opened and closed the umbrella a hundred times and I feel sorry for the people behind me. 🙈 

Mika came down several times in the audience, getting wet and muddy as we were and it was amazing to sing and dance in the rain, all together! 

There was a lot of energy that created a perfect chemistry between us. 

I also appreciated that Mika started the concert, doing the introduction in Dutch. Wouter was connected to him through the earphones and read to him what he had to say from the direction and during the concert he had the word Underwater translated, which in Dutch is called Onderwater joking with him. I love them! 😄❤️

In the end they even simulated a tango together dancing Yo Yo. 🤣

After the concert he stayed with us for a few minutes and we wished him happy birthday and happy holidays. 

I share some photos and videos of the show:

[silver]

Not related to the gig, I know, but I love this photo, @Gabry74  So atmospheric

 

[holdingyourdrink]

For the first time this year, I would have to pack thermal undergarments and a rain poncho, because the weather forecast was going to be cold and wet for the Beach Festival. It was such a contrast from my last gigs in Italy (40 degrees in Italy to 14 degrees in Belgium!), but the sheer contrast made me chuckle. 

 

Mika started the gig behind the piano and thanked us for being there despite the rain. He told the story of Carolina…. in Dutch! To hear your favourite artist speak in your first language is quite special, his pronunciation was pretty good and I could understand everything he said. It was adorable. 

 

Before the gig started stairs were mounted to the stage. We were wondering if Mika would go into the crowd with the rain, but when we saw the stairs we knew he would and would be in for a treat. 

 

He started off with Love Today and Origin of Love in the green glittery suit. Changed for Big Girl and started off saying he had never been to a beach festival and was wondering what to do… so he told us to dance with him, to where the first notes of Big Girl chimed in and he was off into the mud! When he came back onto the stage he showed us how messy he was and said “Finally blessed by the mud this summer!” then smeared some of it on his cheeks and then continued “Belgium, why does your mud smell like beer? Never mind! I don’t want to know!!”

 

It took until Tiny Love for him to climb the grand piano. I always count down the songs until he goes on top of the piano and he didn’t disappoint.

 

For Relax he asked the audience to sing with him “Stick your feet in the mud and let your voice fly!” to which the entire audience sang the chorus with him. He didn’t have to encourage us much, everyone was very taken with him by that point and were dancing and singing along to everything.

 

My favourite live so far was Rain, but Overrated has become a very close second, because that song is live just amazing. The build up is perfect and the audience was with him every note and bass beat. 

Then came a huge surprise with Blame it on the Girls! I think it was already performed in Bristol this summer and it was such a treat to hear it live myself!

 

Underwater was very captivating as usual. Especially for me, since he made the audience sing the Dutch version “Onderwater” (yes the languages are very similar, even Mika said that Dutch supposedly is the easiest language to learn for English speakers.. but he disagreed!)

 

The intro of Yo-Yo was very special, as he spoke about how this was his last gig in his 30’s. He promised to only become weirder, madder and colourfuller as he would age and that by the time he is 80 years old, he will walk around in a purple coat and cane, reminiscing about the sobriety of his youth. It’s a wonderful and frightening promise at the same time, haha. Will he just be a complete nutjob or a brilliant nutjob in 40 years? I think both: a complete brilliant nutjob! Which matches perfectly with us crazy fans. 

 

During Elle Me Dit it started raining again. Of course Mika didn’t shy away from an opportunity to sing in the rain… and we didn’t shy away from an opportunity to dance in the rain with a huge smile on our faces. 

 

Lollipop is so special with the gospel choir. It gives it a different power to it. In Cheltenham he opened the show that way which must be one of my favourite intros this festival season, but mid concert is also a nice flow break for some reason. To be honest, it always fits.

He went into the audience again for Happy Ending and like I had mentioned before in my report for Tilloloy, there is something very emotional about this song this tour. There is this complete sadness that washes over me when he comes to the acoustic part with Clement on the guitar and I can sense the audience holding their breath as well. It’s very captivating. 

 

Sadly, once Grace Kelly starts playing you know this little bubble we were allowed to enter and immerse ourselves in, is about to end. Mika himself said he truly enjoyed the gig, because although we were a lot of people, it felt very intimate and he didn’t want it to stop. But unfortunately he had to stop on time, because the festival was in a residential area. 

 

Mika was very chatty and it was also great to be able to understand 100% what he was saying. Isa asked for the setlist and we saw that songs like Icecream, Billy Brown, Popular, Last Party and Tomorrow were actually planned as well! Imagine how chatty and how comfortable Mika felt, that these didn’t even make it to the setlist that evening. And this atmosphere was, despite the rain and cold, very warm and embracing.

 

After the show I had the opportunity to tell Mika that his Dutch was perfect. He looked at me sceptical and answered incredulous in Dutch „Nee.“ and told me he was terrible. (Oh Mika, even if you were, who cares!) But he wasn’t, he truly did very very well. 

 

Leaving the festival and Belgium with very wet clothes, but a heart full of warm memories that no amount of rain can wash away. 

[Kumazzz]

19 minutes ago, holdingyourdrink said:

The intro of Yo-Yo was very special, as he spoke about how this was his last gig in his 30’s. He promised to only become weirder, madder and colourfuller as he would age and that by the time he is 80 years old, he will walk around in a purple coat and cane, reminiscing about the sobriety of his youth. It’s a wonderful and frightening promise at the same time, haha. Will he just be a complete nutjob or a brilliant nutjob in 40 years? I think both: a complete brilliant nutjob! Which matches perfectly with us crazy fans. 

 

Thanks a lot for your awesome report again !

I enjoyed reading it, especially Mika's words !!

[vanessa-love-mika]

The wait before the show had been really long. It had been raining almost the whole day and it was really muddy. It's probably the most difficult wait I have ever done 😅 Luckily, Mika's show was really amazing and made me forget how drenchted I was! There was a lot of energy and it was so great to hear Blame It On The Girls again! And it was really nice of him to come see us after the show  

 

I didn't take any videos this time but I have a few pictures:

 

[holdingyourdrink]

As a Dutch speaker, this has been of course one of the highlights of the gig for me! I am sure you all know the story, but I’ve decided to make a translation/transcription of it anyway when Mika talks about Carolina as an intro of Love Today: 

 

 

Good evening Nieuwpoort, I know that it rains a lot and I want to thank you for being here. 

(English) Because the rain is difficult but Dutch is even more difficult.

I will give you everything I’ve got! 

 

Before we begin, I would like to tell you the story of a love song. 

It’s 2 o clock in the morning, at a tank station on the highway in Miami. Carolina is standing there, waiting, waiting for customers. For two months, I see her every evening on my way back from the studio. One night, she is gone, I never see her again. 

One year later in London, behind my piano in my apartment, I want to write a song about love. I think of Carolina and write a song about this woman of the night. 

(English) This is her song and all I can say is: even in the rain, tonight is our last festival of the summer. And so all you need to know is, just like Carolina; everybody, today, tonight, is going to love today.