Photo from @coldplay on Instagram
By Jacqueline Reynolds
On a summer night in 2016, I stood among a crowd of over 55,000 strangers in a sea of lights, sounds and colors. It was Coldplay’s “A Head Full of Dreams” tour, and the large stadium was vibrant. The British rock band is notorious for their energetic, passionate performances, and their music has connected people across countries, genres and generations. They ended the show with “A Sky Full of Stars.” Visuals of space and shooting stars spun across the large screens above the stage and thousands of little cutout stars fluttered from the ceiling, dancing across the crowd. There is something intimate about feeling so small and so full of life at the same time.
I took that moment for granted. Four years later, the COVID-19 pandemic has threatened music’s ability to give us more than just appealing songs, but human connections. The next time I experienced a performance of “A Sky Full of Stars,” there were no flashing lights, no eccentric visuals and those little cutout stars that fluttered from the ceiling were replaced with little colorful hearts swimming up the phone screens of over 5 million viewers. On March 16, 2020, Chris Martin, the lead singer and primary songwriter of Coldplay, performed a virtual concert from his home studio, and his 30 minute Instagram livestream revived those human connections, reassuring the world that music’s intimacy has not been lost.
Martin’s virtual performance kicked off “Together At Home,” an ongoing music series launched by Global Citizen and the World Health Organization to unite people around the world through free musical concerts during the pandemic. Dressed in a black beanie, casual sweater and constant smile, Martin popped into the small Instagram frame and greeted his audience with vulnerability. Even through my screen, I immediately felt his warmth. He admitted to feeling nervous and asked everyone to request songs and comment on “how you’re doing, and where you are, and what’s going on.”
I’ve always perceived Chris Martin as one of the most talented musicians. His unique voice and vocal range, ability to play multiple instruments and moving lyrics justify Coldplay’s great breadth of fame. In Martin’s virtual performance, it felt as though he stripped away this fame and exposed the raw authenticity of a man who loves music. He sang from memory and simultaneously played the piano or guitar (with his eyes closed most of the time). Martin laughed at his mistakes, corrected his voice cracks and challenged himself to hit various notes higher or lower than he was used to. The minor imperfections were fulfilling. They added humanity to the experience, making me forget that I was watching through a screen.
Martin performed short excerpts from the requested songs, maintaining a conversational tone with his invisible audience in a way that felt personalized. He played songs within Coldplay’s new and old albums, from “A Sky Full of Stars” and “Up & Up” to “Viva La Vida,” “Clocks” and “Yellow.” Each song was individualized both instrumentally and vocally. His voice grew higher and louder when matching the fast-paced rhythm of the guitar and shifted with the steady, low lyrics when accompanying the soft piano. Martin ended the livestream with “Fly On,” tilting his head as he played the piano chords. His eyes were closed the entire time, and his voice carried passion from one note to the next, capturing the intensity of human emotion.
Throughout the show, people continuously posted comments of their countries’ flags or heart emojis or words like “nostalgic,” “thank you for this blessing” and “music makes the world a better place.” The comments were not distractions. They were reminders of the crowd that’s out there — the millions of people who were given a little more life through a shared musical experience.
There is something intimate about feeling so small and so full of life at the same time. Through his music and authentic livestream, Chris Martin reminded the world of that feeling in a time when we needed it the most, a moment I will never take for granted.
Bulldog Beat 