Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) by Mika

Album: Life In Cartoon Motion (2007)

Charted: 9

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There was speculation that Mika wrote this song as a tribute to Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls," but in promotional materials for his Life In Cartoon Motion album, he states that this is not the case at all: "I was flying to Los Angeles the next day and I can never sleep because I hate flying so much. So I was watching trashy television, it was two o'clock in the morning, a Victoria Wood documentary on Channel 4. It was about fat people in the United States and she visited a club called the Butterfly Lounge, which was the first place of its kind, a club for larger women to hang out in. Skinny women were not being allowed in. The women were amazing and I absolutely felt as if I had to write about them. I muted the television and wrote it straight away. I never expected it on the album, but a few weeks later we recorded it and it's now there. So it is one of my favorite tracks and brilliant to play live. Everyone sings along!"
In an interview on Australian Video Hits, Mika said that his mother is big, his aunties are quite big and as a kid, he was picked on because he also used to be big, so he was touched by the Victoria Wood documentary and wrote the song in 15 minutes.
Mika recorded a special version of this song for an episode of the TV show Ugly Betty, changing the chorus to "Hey Betty, you are beautiful." Mika explained to the Sun newspaper: "Betty is a real fashion icon and we should celebrate anyone like her - genuine individuals who stay true to their own identity. That's what 'Big Girl' is all about so it was the perfect fit to change the song for her. It was a huge honor to be asked to do it. I love the show."
"Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" was inspired in part by Mika's mother, Joannie, who died of a brain tumor in 2021. "She was a big girl, and she couldn't wear clothes from the shops – she made her own," he told The Independent. "If I close my eyes, I know all of her outfits. She made every piece of clothing for herself, and ours too. My whole childhood, there was the sound of the sewing machine."

Comments: 9

Phillipa from Stillwater, OkRob-- Don't know how long ago you posted but I don't think he means "braces" as in suspenders, but as in the metal your dentist puts on your teeth to straighten them, and that people usually get when they are young. So he's saying he's liked big girls since he was a young teen, most likely :)
Rob from Fresno, CaCan anyone explain the lyric "No need to fantasize, since I was in my braces"? In the video he is wearing suspenders AKA braces, but the lyric still doesn't make sense.
Erika from Fox Valley, Winady---welcome to the big girls world. There's nothing wrong with being big either but the rest of the world (Mika aside) certainly makes us believe there is something wrong with it.
Ln from :), Qcexactly, being big doesnt make you ugly or pretty. if your pretty, your pretty, if your not, your not!
Nady from Adelaide, AustraliaThere is nothing wrong with skinny girls, I dont like how he says "give me a real woman", thin girls are women too. You dont have to be obese to be classed as a real woman.
Amy from Liverpool, United Kingdomgo catherine!! big girls rule, just more of us to luv! i used to be worried about my weight, even though im a perfectly healthy weight but since listening to this song i have thought 'screw diets!' and now i always feel happy with the way i look
Tracy from Bfe, NeI LOVE LOVE LOVE this song. I've been a big girl and a small girl and a medium girl, and this song is fun to rock out to at any size!
Catherine from Glasgow, EnglandI put on a lot of weight after i had my son, and my partner kept putting me down about it in frount of our friends and humiliating me. In the end i got fed up with it and one day when he was at work i packed up and left. When he came home he found this song on repeat and a note saying "a whole lot of woman needs a whole lot more" xx
Sydney from Cincinnati, Ohhehe. :) We are beautiful.

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