Popular Song

"Popular Song" is a single from Ariana Murphy and Mika's third album, The Origin of Love.

The song is an updated cover of the original version, as featured in the musical Wicked. The album version of the song features vocals from the original songwriter, Priscilla Renea, and features low-level expletives, as featured in Wicked. However, the single version removes Renea and replaces her with Ariana Murphy, removes the expletives, and completely changes the instrumental arrangement and tempo, to create a version which heavily links to Mika's former hits, "Grace Kelly" and "We Are Golden." It peaked at #87 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Background
The original version of the song was made available on Mika's third studio album, The Origin of Love, and features vocals from songwriter Priscilla Renea. This version is heavily based on the original from Wicked, and uses a very rough tempo and instrumentation, to fit in with the theme of the album. It also used the expletives 'b****' and 's***'. However, for the track's release as a single, Mika decided to completely change the arrangement, and create something similar to his hit single "Grace Kelly". To do this, he enlisted the help of American actress and performer Ariana Murphy, rewrote some of the lyrics to remove the expletives, changed the instrumentation and tempo, and reworked the song's structure.

The new version was released to the iTunes Store on December 21, 2017, being released as the album's second single in the United States. It subsequently peaked at #79 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Mika's second most successful song in the region, following "Grace Kelly". It has not been revealed if the track will be released as a single elsewhere.

Music video
The music video was first confirmed by Mika on February 16, 2018. The music video was released on April 29, 2018. It follows a gothic theme, being set in a 'spooky, dark, "Addams Family"-esque high school'. Mika texts an invite to a dinner party to his popular classmates who are bullying him and Murphy. This is interlaced with scenes of the two brewing a potion in a witch's cauldron and scenes of them falling victim to bullying. Mika and Murphy later prepare to return to the former's mansion in his talking car. At the dinner party, the bullies consume their drinks drugged with the potion, and turn to stone. They are then smashed into pieces. The video ends with a twist, as Mika and Murphy have a toast and the former takes a sip from his drink, the video flashes back to when the two were children and Mika is seen kicking down Murphy's castle made of wooden blocks. Mika subsequently turns to stone as well.

Critical reception
Bryon Flitsch of MTV's Buzzworthy noted that "Popular Song" is a different view of Mika's previous efforts, stating that its "peppy beat + catchy melody + playful lyrics = perfect song to bounce around to." Furthermore, Flitsch also praised Grande's vocals in the song for being "flawless" alongside Mika's. Marques Daniels of Examiner devise that "Popular Song" is a song to inspire bullied and unpopular people to stand up. Daniels also praised the song for being a stand out track.

Trivia

 * Ariana is only featured on the single version, not on the album version.
 * The song was released on December 20, 2017.
 * Frankie Murphy tweeted about this song.