20 Sept 2024
Coldplay recently announced they will be performing in Abu Dhabi on January 11, 2025, marking their only concert in the Gulf region as part of their world tour. The show will be held at the iconic Zayed Sports City Stadium, and the ticket frenzy is about to begin. According to the press release, the artist pre-sale kicks off on September 25, 2024, at 12 pm via www.coldplay.com, followed by the Live Nation pre-sale on September 26 at 12 pm at www.livenation.me. General sales start on September 27, 2024, at 12 pm.
The excitement has us revisiting all our favourite Coldplay music videos and singing along to their biggest hits — so we are sharing our top picks with you.
Coldplay — Hymn For The Weekend
"Now I'm feeling drunk and high, so high" — we all know this song by heart. Chris Martin is covered in Holi colours, with children all around, and a sudden appearance by Beyoncé — everything about this is perfect. The video was filmed in October 2015 in various Indian cities, including Worli Village, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Over the past eight years (the video was released in 2016), it has become the most viewed, amassing over 2 billion views.
Coldplay — Paradise
This elephant started making content with a cardboard sign long before that "Dude with Sign" from Instagram. If you ever doubted it was Chris Martin in the elephant suit, it is definitely him. And yes, he is the one riding the unicycle too.
Mat Whitecross, the director of the video, said: “I’d asked him about finding a local unicyclist, and he said that he’d done it as a kid, so he’d do it. He hadn’t done it for 20 years, but he seemed to think it’d be like getting back on a bike. Even if he was dressed as an elephant. So we drove out into the middle of the savanna, and he got on the unicycle and I was ready for him to fall on his arse and that be the end of the video! But he was amazing. The rest of the crew were still setting up somewhere else, so me and Chris just started filming.”
The video was super spontaneous, with almost no planning involved. The band actually called Mat Whitecross just a day before the shoot, and they only wrapped up the concept a few hours before he flew out from London to South Africa.
Coldplay — The Scientist
This song was basically the anthem of my first year at uni. The music video is famous for its reverse-motion technique. And yes, it sounds unbelievable, but it is true: Chris Martin actually learned to sing the song in reverse to get that effect.
In an interview with MTV News, the promo’s director, Jamie Thraves, explained: “He got a tape of the song recorded backwards, and he listened to it over and over. He’s a very passionate guy, so he got really into it.” Reportedly, it took Martin over a month to learn how to sing the track in reverse.
Coldplay — A Sky Full Of Stars
The video was shot in just one day with hardly any planning, which perfectly matches the song’s vibe of freedom and pure happiness. The band kept it simple — wearing casual outfits and carrying their instruments while performing live as they walked. The crowd’s real reactions were captured and made it into the final cut. Like with Paradise, the video was directed by Mat Whitecross (who seems to have a knack for these spontaneous shoots).
Coldplay — Viva La Vida
I just can’t wait to hear this song live. What is it about? It is about when you have something great — power or status — and then it has gone. You find yourself reflecting on it with humility, realising it was all temporary. The song loosely draws inspiration from the story of Louis XVI and the French Revolution. The band was intrigued by the idea of a king who’s lost everything, looking back on his life with regret.
Check out Coldplay performing "Viva La Vida" in São Paulo.
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