To define as a concert what Coldplay is doing on their Music of the Spheres tour is stingy. Perhaps the most appropriate concept to explain it is that of 'immersive experience', that formula that gets the public to receive stimuli through the five senses and forget what happens anywhere else. Not only is the show enjoyed, but it is 'lived'. In this case, you don't need virtual reality glasses: just the xyloband light bracelets, the huge balloons bouncing off hands raised on the track, spatial visuals and choruses chanted by thousands of people at once. Almost 60,000 in each of the four nights that the British will perform in Barcelona, where they sold out in the course of a blink.

It is not a recital, it is an amusement park with music and even the most skeptical have to recognize that it is fun. For this tour the band has set out to cause as little impact on the environment as possible. Specifically, half that of his previous tour A Head Full of Dreams Tour (2016-1017). Some of the measures they have implemented are the use of low-consumption LED screens or reducing air travel. But they have also implemented others that include the public and turn their idea of environmentalism into a game. Part of the floor is kinetic and attendees can recharge a mobile battery that powers the stage with their dances or pedaling on energy bikes. It is a sustainable party and attendees gladly accept the invitation in all their concerts.

After the performances of the opening acts Hinds and Chvrches and almost half an hour after the announced time began the sidereal journey of Music For The Spheres. It opened with the well-known Flying Theme that John Powell composed for the soundtrack of E.T. as they advanced to the stage Why is this reference to Steven Spielberg's film? Perhaps because one of the slogans of the tour and the self-titled album is "Everyone is an alien somewhere". Those types of phrases halfway between the affirmation of self-help and the soft claim are what explain both the infatuation and the rejection of millions of people. But everyone can hum most of his songs.

Coldplay's performance began with Higher Power. Not even five minutes had passed and the stadium was already a superlative karaoke room. "You've got, yeah, you've got a higher/ You've got" Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" and the first explosions of confetti (recyclable). The audience generated enough electricity with their feet on the runway as to propel a spaceship. Some, possibly the most dedicated, had arrived at the venue at seven in the morning to take a place, but with Adventure of a Lifetime the forces were recharged. The luminous bracelets flickered like red, white, green and blue fireflies as they pushed the balloons with their hands raised.

The epic of sold-out stadiums is powerful and Martin is a skilled showman, so he directed the emotions as he intended. With a Castilian chattered quite dignified, he asked the audience to participate in an infallible chorus of "Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" that was heard many times tonight along with "Olé, olé, olé!". Deaf people were also able to enjoy their speeches in Spanish and Catalan in sign language, in addition to using vibrating backpacks to also have their own immersive experience (it is the only place on the tour where they offer this service).

At 22:00 the skins were already goosebumps with the first chords of one of their already total classics, The Scientist, included in their 2002 album A Rush of Blood to the Head, when they had not yet stopped being a version for all audiences of Radiohead. Before getting up from the piano, Chris Martin dedicated to the audience other words: "Good night, bona nit, we are going to play the best show of your lives" and a dedication to Tina Turner, who died a few hours before the concert.

The celebration that was mounted with Viva la vida was almost greater than expected and that expectations, at that point, could not be higher. The highest peak of sentimentality was reached when the singer took the stage to a fan named Sonia to dedicate O to her sick mother. But, without a doubt, the public definitely surrendered to Yellow, his incontestable anthem. The most listened to on Spotify (1,645,000,336 listens), the one that has cradled the most nostalgic hearts of its entire repertoire.

The singer interpreted the lyrics in sign language Infinity Sign, which was followed by the song they have made with the South Korean group BTS and that the specialized critics disdained but the public loves. No song has disappointed those who were there and at times Chris Martin's attitude came slightly close to that of a spinning teacher as in A Sky Full Of Stars.

In the encore, he took the stage to several members of the Gipsy Kings to perform the song Rolling in the River, in tribute to Tina Turner with flamenco airs and some more pieces of the rumbero group such as the well-known version of Caballo viejo also titled Bamboleo as well as another classic such as Volare. To top it off, two other songs knock down stadiums: Fix you and Biutyful with pyrotechnics, balloons, streamers and confetti for a party end at the height of the epic of a group that gave everything that was expected of it.

  • Concerts
  • Barcelona
  • music

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