ISLAMABAD: British rock band Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin recently won admiration on social media for inviting a Pakistani fan onstage during their Abu Dhabi concert and dedicating their popular song ‘Everglow’ to people suffering war in Palestine and other countries.
Coldplay performed at Abu Dhabi on Jan. 9, returning to the UAE to perform for the first time since their powerhouse show at Expo 2020 Dubai. While entertaining thousands of fans in the crowd, Martin spotted a female fan holding a sign that read, “I traveled 10,000 km for this.”
Inviting her onstage, he asked where she’d come from, to which the woman named Kinza replied: “Pakistan.”
Martin responded that he had traveled from Los Angeles where “everything was on fire,” adding that it was very strange to witness.
“So maybe we can sing this song for your brothers and sisters in Pakistan,” he said to loud cheers from thousands of fans. “And our brothers and sisters in Iran. Our brothers and sisters in the West Bank and Gaza. You can sing.”
He then proceeded to perform the band’s popular song Everglow, much to the delight of the attendees.
Coldplay remains one of the most influential pop-rock acts since the late ‘90s. With guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion filling out the lineup, the British musicians have long been fixtures on the charts with Hot 100 hits 2001’s “Yellow,” 2008’s “Viva La Vida,” and 2017’s “Something Just Like This.”
The band’s concert in Abu Dhabi was a visual and auditory spectacle, with fans wearing glowing wristbands that pulsed in sync with the music. There were bursts of confetti, large, illuminated planets suspended throughout the stadium where the concert was held, and balloons floating across the crowd during the band’s performance.
Coldplay are scheduled to perform in the UAE capital today, Jan. 14 as well.
In moving gesture, Coldplay’s Chris Martin invites Pakistani fan onstage at Abu Dhabi concert
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In moving gesture, Coldplay’s Chris Martin invites Pakistani fan onstage at Abu Dhabi concert
- Chris Martin dedicates band’s popular song ‘Everglow’ to people in West Bank, Gaza, Pakistan and Iran
- Coldplay, one of the most influential pop-rock acts since late ‘90s, is known for vibrant concerts, fan interactions
Incoming: The biggest movies due out before summer 2026
- From Baby Yoda’s big-screen debut to the return of Miranda Priestly, here are some of the biggest films heading our way in the next few months
‘Project Hail Mary’
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller, Lionel Boyce
Due out: March
MGM paid a reported $3 million to acquire the rights to this 2021 sci-fi novel by Andy Weir (author of “The Martian”), which has now been adapted for this blockbuster starring Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace. Grace wakes up on a spacecraft with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. He gradually works out that he’s the sole survivor of a crew sent to the Tau Ceti solar system hoping to find a way to fix the results of a “catastrophic event” on Earth. Fortunately, it turns out Grace is kind of a science genius. Equally fortunately, it turns out he may not have to save the world all on his own.
‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena
Due out: January
After its premiere at Fantastic Fest last year, Variety described Verbinski’s sci-fi action comedy as “an unapologetically irreverent, wildly inventive, end-is-nigh take on the time-loop movie” with a “hyper-referential script … full of inside jokes for gamers.” The guy stuck in that time loop is Rockwell’s man from the future, who’s on his 118th attempt to save the world from a rogue artificial intelligence. To do so, he needs to convince just the right mix of misfits from the late-night patrons of a diner in Los Angeles to undertake what could well be a suicide mission.
‘Wuthering Heights’
Director: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau
Due out: February
Fennell’s latest feature is billed as a “loose adaptation” of Emily Bronte’s 1847 Gothic classic —the story of the ill-fated passion shared between the well-to-do Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a young man of low social standing and uncertain ethnic origins, in the moorlands of Yorkshire in northern England. Warner Bros. are playing up the love-story side of Bronte’s layered and often troubling novel, setting a Valentine’s week release.
‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’
Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
Voice cast: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day
Due out: April
Critics were not especially kind to 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” but that certainly didn’t dissuade audiences, who made it the second-highest grossing film of that year, behind only “Barbie.” With the same team returning to helm and voice the movie (with the additions of Benny Safdie and Brie Larson to the cast), chances are that “Galaxy” will have much the same reaction from the two groups as the eponymous Brooklyn plumber and his brother Luigi head into outer space with Princess Peach and Toad to take on Bowser’s son, Bowser Jr (Safdie).
‘Michael’
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Miles Teller
Due out: April
The biggest biopic of the year will likely be this feature about one of the most culturally significant music stars in history, Michael Jackson — aka The King of Pop. It depicts his journey from child star in the Jackson 5 to global superstar in the Eighties, and reportedly does not whitewash the allegations of child sexual abuse that dogged the singer for years (with producer Graham King saying he wanted to “humanize but not sanitize” Jackson’s story) — although Michael’s own daughter, Paris, has described the script as “sugar-coated” and “dishonest.”
‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’
Director: David Frankel
Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt
Due out: May
With all the original stars returning (despite the reported initial reluctance of Streep and Hathaway to do so) along with the director and main producer, this sequel to the acclaimed 2006 comedy drama about aspiring journalist Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Hathaway), who lands a job as PA to an absolute nightmare of a fashion-magazine editor — Miranda Priestly (Streep) should be a guaranteed hit. If it sticks to the story of Lauren Weisberger’s “Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns,” then we’ll find that Andy, a decade on, is now herself the editor of a bridal magazine and planning her own wedding. But she’s still haunted by her experiences with Miranda.
‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Allen White
Due out: May
The latest feature from the “Star Wars” franchise builds on one of its most successful TV spinoffs, “The Mandalorian.” It sees bounty hunter Din Djarin (aka The Mandalorian) and his one-time target-turned-adoptive son Grogu — the Force-sensitive infant from the same species as the Jedi master Yoda — enlisted by the New Republic to help them combat the remaining Imperial warlords threatening the galaxy after the collapse of the Galactic Empire.
