British rockers Coldplay headlined the Global Citizen Festival on Saturday afternoon, making the most of their six-song setlist by inviting Ariana Grande up onto the stage and debuting a brand new song, allegedly from their forthcoming album A Head Full of Dreams.
The Global Citizen Festival, established as a fundraiser for initiatives to end extreme poverty by the 2030s, has been directed by the band’s lead singer, Chris Martin, since its conception in 2012. The band’s ventures in charity and humanitarian movements are well known; they are close to Oxfam, having been strong and vocal supporters of their Make Trade Fair campaign, and have made many headlines over the years for their consistent six-figure, and sometimes seven-figure, donations to charity.
Their performance at the festival was marred by a mishap, however, before the show began. Martin’s piano, which would have been used to perform hit songs “Paradise” and “Clocks”, had broke, forcing the band to replace the two songs on the set list with Parachutes classic “Yellow” instead. American pop star Ariana Grande was invited onto the stage to perform a collected acoustic duet of her song “Just a Little Bit of Your Heart”, with Martin.
The setlist was capped off with a very special surprise, a brand new song called “Amazing Day”, which some are, not surprisingly, entertaining the idea of it being our first look at the band’s forthcoming studio album, A Head Full of Dreams, which is rumored to be slated for release in late 2015 or early 2016. While more upbeat than their efforts on the “emotional treadmill” that was Ghost Stories, “Amazing Day” is just as mellow and laid back, though with more optimistic lyricism.
The Global Citizen Festival will run throughout the weekend; with Beyonce and Pearl Jam slated to perform tonight at the festival which is being held in Central Park. You can watch Coldplay’s performance of their new song “Amazing Day” below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDEe8q9rnQ8