Meaning of “Relax, Take It Easy” by Mika

“Relax, Take It Easy” is a song performed by English singer-songwriter Mika. On the show “Stasera Casa Mika” which aired on the Italian television channel Rai 2, Mika gave the story behind the birth of the song. According to him, once he was riding the tube in London trying to make his way to the studio when suddenly the train stopped and all the lights went out. At this point, he felt so scared he didn’t know what to do. Moments later, the lights came on and he and the other passengers in the train were told to get out of the train. In complete panic, he got out only to realize to his greatest shock that the chaos was caused by a terrorist attack on a number of London Underground trains – the 7 July 2005 London bombings, which went on to claim 52 lives and injure over 700 people.

According to Mika, as he walked him in a great state of panic, he began singing to himself (apparently to calm himself down). Upon safely reaching his house, he wrote the song (“Relax, Take It Easy”) in a period of just 20 minutes.

All in all, we can therefore safely say that this song was inspired by the horrible event of the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

Facts about “Relax, Take It Easy”

• The song was written by Mika and Nick Van Eede of the Cutting Crew fame.
• “Relax, Take It Easy” heavily uses the melody of the song “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” by the English rock band Cutting Crew. It is for this reason that Eede received credit as a co-writer on the song. It is worth noting that initially, Eede wasn’t given credit until fans of Cutting Crew began observing the similarities between the two songs and brought it to the attention of Eede. In an interview Eede had with Songfacts, he stated that he was totally sure that Mika accidentally came across the melody of “I Just Died In Your Arms”. According to him, in the world of songwriting, such things often happen. He further added that he was at least proud to have been included as a co-writer on the hit song.
• The song was originally released in June 2006 as one of the singles from Mika’s 2007 debut album titled “Life in Cartoon Motion”.
• The song peaked at number 1 in several European countries including Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Poland. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 18.