The meaning of Mika’s “Grace Kelly”
Posted by admin on 13 Jun 2007 at 5:21 pm | Tagged as: meanings
I had been hoping this one would eventually die out, but no. At least twice a week, someone still asks, “What’s the meaning of Mika’s ‘Grace Kelly’?” On the face of it, it’s simply another song about being whatever the other person wants you to be (an idea I find creepy in itself, but this is pop music not psychoanalysis). But when I read the lyrics again carefully, I wasn’t so sure
Why the doubt about something that seems so obvious? Well take the opening lines:
“I wanna talk to you.
The last time we talked Mr. Smith
you reduced me to tears.
I promise you it won’t happen again!”
Mr Smith? Who’s that? Why the reference to tears? Is this going to be a revenge song, à la “I Will Survive” or what? But no, Mika continues:
“Why don’t you like me?
Why don’t you like me without making me try?
I try to be like Grace Kelly
Mmm Mmm
But all her looks were too sad
Ahh Ahh
So I tried a little Freddie
Mmm Mmm
I’ve gone identity mad!”
So this is someone, you don’t have to excuse me the expression as he uses it himself later, that is bending over backwards to please the other person.
Later,
“Why don’t you like me?
Why don’t you like me?
Why don’t you walk out the door!”
You know what? I’m beginning to wonder why too. As for,
“Humphrey we’re leaving!”
I can only guess what he’s referring to.
Am I being too hard on a pop song? Most likely yes. But I have to admit that the lyrics are confusing. With a little more work, they could have been better. For a while, for example, I didn’t make the connection between the song everyone was talking about and the song that I was hearing non-stop on the radio as the reference to Grace Kelly is buried.
Apart from that, I think it’s a fun, campy song and look forward to more from Mika.
“Grace Kelly” was written by Dan Warner, Jodi Marr, John Merchant and Michael Penniman.
At the beginning
“The last time we talked Mr. smith…”
That is the singer’s name: Paul Smith
isn’t this a gay song?
I had assumed it was a bit homosexual as well. Maybe he was trying to be like Grace Kelly, the actress, which might be where the beginning line comes from (Grace Kelly movie perhaps? If you’ve never heard of her, she was popular in 50’s and 60’s, she was in Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder”).
Then instead of Grace he tried a little Freddy (Freddy Mercury from Queen? Lets face it, Mika does sound an awful lot like him).
I have no clue, those were just my initial connections when I first heard the song.
I’ve actually heard Mika give the real meaning of Grace Kelly. It’s actually an angry song, and was written to be so. It was written by Mika after being rejected by a record company and he went home and just wrote what was going through his head at the time.
The line about bending over etc. was to refer to him conforming to what they wanted from an ‘artist’ in order to be marketable. Hence the line “Should I bend over. Should I look older just to be put on your shelf”.
Go back and read the lyrics again, and you’ll see what it means.
Thanks for that. One of the big dangers of lyrics is that we read things into them without always having the full background.