2007 single by Mika
"Grace Kelly" is a song by British singer-songwriter Mika. It was released as the lead single from Mika's debut studio album Life in Cartoon Motion (2007) on the 8th January 2007. It was written by Mika alongside Jodi Marr, John Merchant and Dan Warner. The song was produced and mixed by Greg Wells.
The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number three and the UK Official Download Chart at number one. One week later, it jumped to the top of the UK Singles Chart on download sales alone, the second song to do so after Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" the previous year. The track was number one on the UK Singles Chart for five weeks, and ended 2007 as the year's third biggest-selling single in that country.[1] In the US, "Grace Kelly" was made available for digital download on 16 January 2007. This song was also No. 89 on MTV Asia's list of Top 100 Hits of 2007.[2] It was designed to be a mocking satire of musicians who try to reinvent themselves to be popular.
The song is titled after Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress, and Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly. The bit of dialogue used in the song is from the film The Country Girl, which stars Kelly. Mika claims the song was inspired after a bad experience with a record company executive, in which he was told to be more like Craig David.[3] The lyric "So I tried a little Freddie" is a reference to Queen's Freddie Mercury, to whose singing voice Mika's has been compared.[4] On at least one occasion, Mika confirmed that he used the main melody from Figaro's famous aria "Largo al factotum", from the opera The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini.[5] Mika performed the song at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2007 in Munich and at the 2008 BRIT Awards at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, where it was nominated for Best British Single, but lost to "Shine" by Take That.[6] The song has sold over 630,000 copies in the UK, as stated by the Official Charts Company.
Background and composition
"The comparisons to Freddie Mercury are fine. They started long before I made the record – I've even referred to it in Grace Kelly." "Grace Kelly was written after these musicians were trying to mould me into what I should be. I was really angry and so I wrote the song and mailed them the lyrics. They didn't call me back, but two years later it's come full circle."
—Mika says in an interview on BBC.[7]
Mika wrote the song after he felt frustrated with record label executives that wanted him to change his sound to fit the common pop mold. In the song, Mika points out how he can pretend to be anyone he likes to win approval – in this case the glamorous actress Grace Kelly. He wrote the song after the record company told him that they wanted to model his look and sound on Craig David, who was popular at the time in the UK. Mika rejected this idea and wrote "Grace Kelly" as a way of expressing his individuality.[7] The song's melody is based on the aria "Largo al factotum", from the opera The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini.[7] The song is in the key of G major[8] throughout.
Critical reception
The song received positive reviews from music critics. Heather Phares from AllMusic wrote a positive review for the song, stating that "Mika's singles are his most charming moments, including the instant sunshine of "Grace Kelly," which crams tap-dancing rhythms, filmic dialogue, Elton's pianos, Freddie's vocal harmonies, and Brian May's guitars into just over three minutes."[9] Christian John Wikane from PopMatters wrote an extensive article about the comparisons between Mika and Freddie Mercury, writing that "he sounds a lot like Mercury and wears the influence like a badge of honor, even name-checking the late front man of Queen in the first verse. Mika vacillates between the affected theatricality of Mercury's full-throttled voice and his own strong falsetto, where he earnestly implores 'Why don't you like me?' no less than 12 times."[10]
Beth Johnson from Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Nothing quite matches the crystal-shattering exuberance of hit Grace Kelly."[11] John Murphy from musicOMH wrote that "It's big, joyous, dumb pop, and the only danger with it is that you'll be utterly sick of it fast."[12] Lizzie Enever from BBC Music was direct, writing that "Grace Kelly is a great pop song – it's catchy, you can't help singing along and it grates on you after a few days when you can't get it out of your head but you still go back for more – flawless credentials."[13] Graham Griffith, also from About.com, wrote that the song "is an outrageously irresistible and infectious pop gem."[14] Dom Passantino from Stylus Magazine criticized the track, writing that "it seems to suggest the boy has some level for musicals, being as it is all Broadway flittering and hackneyed attempts at conveying a story with its lyrics. But here's the problem: he's got no tales to tell, just a tab at his local make-up supplier. 'Am I too dirty, am I too flirty?' he sings at one point."[15]
Accolades
At the 2007 World Music Awards, Mika won for Best Selling British Artist, Best Selling New Artist, Best Selling Male Entertainer, and World's Best Selling Pop Rock Male Artist.[7]
Music video
The music video for the song "Grace Kelly" was directed by Sophie Muller and starred Mika and future singer-songwriter Mae Muller, who is Sophie's niece.[17][18] The video was filmed in early November 2006 and has been nominated for numerous worldwide awards. The instrumental introduction in the video is an extract of the acoustic version of the song found on certain releases of the album. The video premiered on MTV on January 15, 2007.
Chart performance
It reached number one in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. The song was only the second single ever to top the UK chart without selling a physical copy ("Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley was the first).[7] In the US market, it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100. The December 2007 Observer Music Monthly asked Mika how it felt getting to No. 1 in the UK with this song. He replied: "Very unreal. It still feels unreal. It's just a song I wrote in my room. By the time I'd written 'Grace Kelly' everything in my life had been called into question. Trying to find out what I was going to do with my life, trying to be a musician, to be independent, to give myself the remote chance of any kind of a relationship. I was just sorting every thing out in my head. That song sums it all up."[7] It went to #1 on the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Turkey singles charts.[7] The song was 82 in the French physical charts but number 2 in digital ones, and has more than 50,000 sales in the country. The song has more than 5 million sales.
.jpg)
