UN JOUR UN TUBE (19/32) - All summer long, Europe 1 invites you to discover a song that marked the summer every day. Today, "Relax, Take It Easy" by Mika. 

Number 1 in sales during the summer of 2007 in France but also in many countries, Relax, Take It Easy launched the career of the young Pop artist, Mika. A real call for calm, this title was born in a painful context of terrorist attacks, in the heart of London. 

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The painful memory of the London bombings

Before that, the starting point of the song by the Lebanese-British artist Mika comes from a trip to China. Having gone to visit one of his sisters in Shanghai, Mika is challenged by a reflection very often made by a friend of the young woman. : "Relax, take it easy" this Chinese friend often repeats to her to de-stress her. It amuses Mika a lot, who thinks it would make a good song title. 

The rest of the story takes place in London, July 7, 2005. On that day, four explosions caused by British Islamists hit London public transport, leaving 56 dead and 784 injured. Mika, who was then in a subway to go to the recording studio, is evacuated to the exits with the other passengers without initially knowing the reason for this sudden interruption. Faced with the movement of panic, he then thinks back to the sentence of his sister's friend: "Relax, take it easy". And later, arrived at the studio, he completes the writing of this song on which he composes a music inspired by the title I Just Died In Your Arms , by the English group Cutting Crew, released in 1986 and for the intro, a Sheila's disco hit, Spacer

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A song broadcast in several French programs

Relax Take It Easy , featured on Mika's debut album. This disc entitled Life in Cartoon Motion,  comprising eleven titles, appears in France and throughout Europe on February 5, 2007. After a first single Grace Kelly which ranks N ° 1 in the English Charts, during five weeks, Mika leaves before Summer Relax, Take It Easy, which ranks at the top of all European rankings and undeniably becomes one of the hits of this summer 2007.

For its launch in France, Relax Take It Easy is used for 10 days, as the opening credits of the Canal + program, the Grand Journal, and also serves as the opening song for the Village-Départ program broadcast daily on France 3, before each stage of the Tour de France during the summer of 2007.