We have known Mike Posner to be a flashy hip hop singer. But with this latest single, “I Took A Pill In Ibiza”, we get to experience Mike Posner in a whole new light. He gets so personal and confessional on this new track. Don’t let the title of the song fool you, this is not a song about how everything got awesome when he took a pill in Ibiza. It’s the exact opposite.
Listen to “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” by Mike Posner
Download “I Took A Pill In Abiza” by Mike Posner on iTunes / Amazon
The song isn’t something that needs to be analysed word-to-word, but there is an overall meaning behind it embedded in the lyrics. We will try ti get into the meaning Mike Posner intended through this song.
Song Meaning of “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” by Mike Posner
Mike Posner gets into the theme straight away;
I took a pill in Ibiza
To show Avicii I was cool
And when I finally got sober, felt 10 years older
But f*ck it, it was something to do
I’m living out in LA
I drive a sports car just to prove
I’m a real big baller cause I made a million dollars
And I spend it on girls and shoes
Everybody does drugs (‘pills’) to look cool, to fit in to get approval. There’s no other justification for doing drugs. Mike says he did it to show Avicii that he was cool in a concert in Ibiza-Ibiza is known for it’s crazy music festivals. The pill he took on that day got him hooked on it and it literally aged him. He says he is sober now. He was living in LA, and it was the thing ‘to’ do. doing drugs was like the main thing to do there. He lives a lavish life just to show off-just because he made a million dollars from his music. And he spends it on hookers and shoes.
But you don’t wanna be high like me
Never really knowing why like me
You don’t ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone
You don’t wanna ride the bus like this
Never knowing who to trust like this
You don’t wanna be stuck up on that stage singing
Stuck up on that stage singing
All I know are sad songs, sad songs
Darling, all I know are sad songs, sad songs
The chorus of the song is what really gives the punchline. He says that nobody should be like him. Nobody should be ‘high’ like him-where high has two meanings here-high from drugs or high on your mind thinking about the money you have. Roller coaster here refers to the fast paced ride you can enjoy when you have money and success. But when the money runs out (‘stepping off the roller coaster’), you will not have anything left. You need to earn people, not money.
The last few lines tell us what the song is really about. The title of this song should have been “Sad Songs”, but instead Mike Posner conveyed us to listen to “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” song. But in reality, it is really a Sad Song.
Watch Mike Posner Perform “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” Live
I’m just a singer who already blew his shot
I get along with old timers
Cause my name’s a reminder of a pop song people forgot
And I can’t keep a girl, no
Cause as soon as the sun comes up
I cut ’em all loose and work’s my excuse
But the truth is I can’t open up
Mike Posner says it is too late for him. It’s too late to undo what has been done, but it is not late to adjust your future. I don’t know which Pop song his name reminds of. Do you? Leave a comment. Mike Posner reveals about the short relationships he had throughout. He never got in to a long term relationship. He always finds an excuse to get rid of the girl after the one night stand. He says he has work to do. But the truth is he doesn’t feel comfortable opening up to any of them. Opening up to be loved, is not Mike Posners’s thing.
I took a plane to my home town
I brought my pride and my guitar
All my friends are all gone but there’s manicured lawns
And the people still think I’m a star
I walked around down town
I met some fans in life I earned
They said tell us how to make it cause we’re getting real impatient
So I looked em in the eye and said
Perfect ending to the song. Mike Posner leaves LA and visits his home town-Detroit, Michigan. All he could bring home was his guitar and his pride of making it in the music business. But his friends are gone, but the lawns are well kept. Things have changed in Detroit. When he walks around the town, people recognize him. His fans come up to him and ask him how to make it in the world-how to be successful like him. All he could say to them is the chorus of this song-“But you don’t wanna be high like me, Never really knowing why like me, You don’t ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone,”
This song is a brand new twist by the otherwise flashy singer Mike Posner. We have heard tracks like “Cooler Than Me” from him and “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” is a whole other area of him we have not seen before.
Are you impressed? Let us know in the comments below.
UPDATE: 18/06/2016
The song continues to be a popular sensation on charts, radio and digital sales even after months of release. Wonder what this massive success will do to Mike Posner.
“to fit in to get approval. There’s no other justification for doing drugs”.
If thats why you’re doing drugs then, dont. You do it for altered states of mind.
I actually thought it meant his name sounded like the name of an artist who released an old pop song that isn’t so popular anymore. I could be wrong but just think about it. Mike POSNER. Sounds like it to me :/ And he gets along with old timers because they probably remember it from the last music era before this one. Like when “Baby” by Justin Bieber was released, THAT music era.
I Took A Pill in Ibiza was NOT on the same album as Cooler Than Me.
Cooler Than Me is on “31 Minutes To Take Off” and I Took a Pill in Ibiza is one “At Night, Alone”.
The songs were released like 6 years apart. How the heck can they be on the same album?
Morons.
The song is Please Don’t Go
Great song.
But he says people only do drugs to be cool and impress other people..wtf??
People do pills because they are fkn awesome.
OMG. God bless you guys, i Love this song but it wasn’t easy for me to know exactly what Mike sings about
Welcome.
I’m betting the song is Playground in my Mind by Clint Holmes from 1972. One part goes “My name is Michael, I have a nickel, I have a nickel shiny and new.”
What do you mean “this song is…”?
Bow chika wow wow
I’m just a singer who already blew his shot
I get along with old timers
Cause my name’s a reminder of a pop song people forgot
And I can’t keep a girl, no
Cause as soon as the sun comes up
I cut ’em all loose and work’s my excuse
But the truth is I can’t open up
^ This part, in my opinion means he messed up his life because of drugs, old timers meaning his successful past and he’s old news. When it’s daytime and he’s out of the drugs, he doesn’t dare to open up to anyone because he’s sober and scared and no longer high to not feel these emotions. HAHA IDK this is what i feel. anyway this song got popular for the beat but i’ve never heard of such good lyrics before. even read a comment saying they’re horrible lyrics…what in the world…. but i really really appreciate this song, i can really feel the pain in this song.
I though please dont go would have been hit pop hit. That song came out and millions including myself fell in love with it. I could be wrong but many are saying it was please dont go. It was pretty catchy and I think still is.
I believe the song is “Girl from Ipanema”…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_from_Ipanema
I love this song… It actually has a message. I like both, the original and the remix but why is the last line cut out of the remix?
If you knew music you would know that it’s not from the same album….
Old timers are people in the addiction recovery who have been around along time-often solid adults who overcame their underlying issues (but not always).
the pop song, “Cooler than me”
Haven’t seen this described yet, but I’ll explain. Seems like he goes in and out of the reality that he only felt ten years older, and the possibility of getting caught up in drugs and letting ten years pass by. So when he is saying old timers and pop song people forgot, it’s as if he went on a 10 year drug spree, wasted his career and life and 10 years from now old timers remember him for an old pop song. Don’t think we need to focus on which song, the point he was making was about losing time and career doing drugs. What do you think?
It takes a real man to be able to convey such a REAL PAIN STRIKING TRUTH ABOUT WHO HE (WE……in REALITY) really are and what we feel deep inside every day to and in a world as cruel and judgmental as the one we live in! Grateful Mike Posner took the challenge TO THE TOP!! Today was a bad day for me personally in sobriety, but after merely listening to this song while i watched the video as well, I remembered……….I am only human and today is only ONE DAY of how many we do not know but the end result of being an addict is an AMAZING BEGINNING to GIVING IT TO A HIGHER POWER and what can and will be for me an AMAZING LIFE with 3 Beautiful Daughters and a handsome grandson and beautiful soon to be granddaughter! I won’t GIVE UP NOT THIS TIME NOT FOR ANYONE!! Hats off to you Mike Posner you saved my day and I am thankful!!!
Peace, Love, & Sobriety Tamara Kaye Mulligan
Great song indeed. I hope more kids listen to this song and don’t take pills. I go to Coachella every year (10 years now), and I see more and more people taking substances all around me. Even guys doing cocaine in our campground site right next to us. It’s okay to simply enjoy music without being on something.
taaaaaaaaaaha
Why would he be talking about “cooler than me”? He says “I get along with old timers” – so that makes people who were listening to pop music in 2010 old timers? This is either a poorly written lyric, or we’re not understanding it correctly.
He’s also talking about how in LA money, shoes, cars and girls are all that matter and how much of these you have affects how you are viewed by the other people in LA it’s not what you know it’s who you know, he got sick of that so moved home.Furthermore the nature of fake friends and gold diggers, never knowing who to really trust. He is referring to his other hit “cooler than me” when he says that his name is a reminder of a pop song people forgot. He is gradually becoming engulfed by the plastic nature of hollywood/LA, saying he can’t open up (show his true feelings). This represents the music industry and how fake it is, how nobody trust anyone.and there is always a ‘friend’ willing to stab you in the back or a younger version waiting to take your place. (Avicii)
Finally he moves back home to escape it all leaving with just the proverbial shirt on his back, as a defeated man. He then meets others that wish to follow in his footsteps before dissuading them.
“I took a pill in Ibiza To show Avicii I was cool” this line makes me think that he’s token a pill to show the other new artists that’s he’s still cool and relevant. Stepping off the rollercoaster and been all alone could be about how when he’s in a hotel room by him self or when he’s home alone he’s lonely, he can’t and doesn’t fully trust anyone because he doesn’t know their motives for wanting to know him e.g. money, fame. The forgotten pop song is Cooler Than Me it’s about how it lost popularity and then people forgot about him however when someone mentions Mike Posner that is what they think of. LA is the place that most celebrities move to when they get noticed and have a successful song so the song is him looking back on his most successful times as a singer. I don’t know if he is regretting them or just appreciating that they happened, maybe wishing they could happen again.
When he says, “Cause my name’s a reminder of a pop song people forgot,” it’s a reference to his faded fame. Not necessarily a one-hit wonder (especially with this new song), Posner arguably garnered most of his popularity from his song “Cooler Than Me”. When people hear his name they’re reminded of that one song they heard a while ago.
This is a really basic, hamfisted analysis. When he says he felt ten years older, he meant the comedown/hangover. He is saying that LA is shallow and superficial where cars, girlfriends and shoes are all symbols by which to judge your character. Furthermore the nature of fake friends and gold diggers, never knowing who to really trust. He is referring to his other hit “cooler than me” when he says that his name is a reminder of a pop song people forgot. He is gradually becoming engulfed by the plastic nature of hollywood/LA, saying he can’t open up (show his true feelings). Finally he moves back home to escape it all leaving with just the proverbial shirt on his back, as a defeated man. He then meets others that wish to follow in his footsteps before dissuading them
Brent, that was really mean. But, I don’t think he did pills for 10 years like the article said. I think he means he took a SINGLE pill in IBIZA and after that experience that night he felt ten years older as far as what his body felt like and mind. Have you ever tripped on LSD and get insight or trip and feel like you just experienced so much in such a short amount of time. Also, when the pill wore off, I think he may have felt like shit. Burnt out, sore, hungover. I really don’t think it means he was addicted to something for ten years. Anyway, this is just an opinion but…That’s what I took away from the lyrics.
He’s talked before about the fact that he’s been an addict for awhile. Definitely not ten years but awhile. People are always like “to where have you been” and that’s where he’s been.
I think that this part “But you don’t wanna be high like me, Never really knowing why like me, You don’t ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone,” really talks about the pill he took. He means the process of being high out of conscience and alone in that roller coaster, because his style of living. I really like Cooler than me, Deja vu, Please don´t go. But is good to see how he express the true story of being a star.
I believe a lot of artists at some part of their famed lives have gone through a drug-abuse phase. Can’t really blame them. Sometimes getting outta this world is really the only way to shield their-selves from the pitfalls of stardom.
Well, I respect what you say, I don’t judge him. But if we are talking about living a life full of pitfalls, I wish to have my mind clear, I think the most is about the pressure of that kind of life, the kind of people with whom you surround with , and the cravings for showing more debauchery.
Not a life full of pitfalls, but the pitfalls that come with ‘fame’ and ‘glory’. It’s not that easy to handle. Even the greatest like Eminem, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson went through drug abuse.
the pop song is Cooler Than Me
That doesn’t make sense. Hy would old times listen to cooler than me? It’s gotta be a pop song from a long time ago.
It is in fact “COOLER THAN ME.” He says, “Cause my name’s a reminder of a pop song people forgot.” Meaning he was known for that pop song and people have forgotten it (its popularity has dwindled), but they still think of it when they hear his name. That is what he is referring to.
I believe you’re right Lindsey and Miss Tee. I wasn’t sure what that line in his song meant as I was going by his name and was confused lol I now realize he’s talking about a song by him. Thanks for the clarification. I just wish the song was a little slower so people would really hear the lyrics. it’s got a really good message.
http://youtu.be/41GZVVcxQps here’s the original version. It’s way slower
I love the original version.
This is completely unrelated, but.. at 1:08 in the video, the guy in the background’s just like, “Nope! Not getting in that shot!” Lol.
But “old timer” implies old people, not people in their 20’s and 30’s.
He means old timers in A.A. or N.A. (alcoholics anonymous or Narcotics anonymous) anyone in the program who has been clean for a long time is considered and “old timer” regardless of age
To me, the line “I get along with old timers because my names a reminder of a pop song people forgot.” The way I picture this is he gets along with them because they DONT remember his song… Whereas people our age just want to bring up that song he was once famous for… But that’s just how I see it. Haha
I may be way off, but when I first saw his name “Posner”, I thought of the movie “Legend of Billy Jack”. The name is never mentioned in the pop song “One Tin Soldier”, but it tells story of The movie – which has two men named Posner being the movie villains. This was way back in the 70’s.
Cooler Than me can’t possibly be the song he’s reffering to because I Took a Pill in Ibiza is actually from the same album. The one that’s on the charts now is a remix but that lyrics was the same in the original song he wrote, before Cooler Than me became popular. Sorry, there’s no way around it. If anyone else has a thought though please share ’cause it’s really bothering me. Lol.
I think the line about getting along with “old timers” because his “name’s a reminder of a pop song people forgot” is a reference to mixtapes he made during his days at Duke…
Either that, or he just thought it sounded cool.
Mike Posner popped an adderall and it made him act loopy at the concert and sudical after the high was gone
the lyrics justify his experience.
Oh wow. I did not know that. It would explain a lot about his recent changes. Thanks for sharing this with us.
This is clearly sarcastic you idiot.
LMFAOOO!! Can’t believe that guy believed you. Maybe more along the line of he took MDMA at an avicii concert and got hooked to rolling balls. Which I don’t blame him =]
Good song!
Lol sarcasm is hard to detect online sometimes, no need to call anyone an idiot -.-
A similar thing could very well have happened, be it you meant it sarcastically. Maybe none of it actually happened. Maybe he just has a good imagination. Who is correct? Nobody!