Mumbai: The first of three Coldplay concerts in Navi Mumbai on Saturday evening was a spectacular hit as the band’s frontman Chris Martin captivated the audience at DY Patil with his energy, humour and Hindi in between belting out a series of popular songs.
Among some of the evening’s high points were Martin’s ‘Jai Shri Ram’ moment and a shoutout to Team India’s champion fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, reported PTI.
For over two hours, Martin had the capacity crowd of around 50,000 dancing to his tunes and charm as Coldplay kicked off its ‘Music of the Spheres World Tour’ in India.
In his first show in the country since 2016, Martin belted out chartbuster tracks like ‘Paradise’, ‘Viva La Vida’, ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Fix You’, and ‘A Sky Full of Stars’.
‘What does Jai Shri Ram mean?’
In between his mesmerising songs, Martin noticed a fan holding a placard stating ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ He uttered ‘Jai Shri Ram’, inviting thunderous cheers, applause, oohs and aahs from the crowd. He then said, “What does Jai Shri Ram mean? Must be something good.”
The singer’s innocent query heightened the excitement of the audience, and the crowd got more and more involved.
Jai Shree Ram 🚩#Coldplay pic.twitter.com/Hq2flLreWT
— Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Memes,🇮🇳 (@memenist_) January 19, 2025
Sensing the mood of the thousands – across all age groups with the majority being teenagers and young adults — Martin made a conscious effort to connect with the audience in their native tongue.
He began by saying in Marathi, ‘Tumhee saghre aaj chaan distat’ (You all look beautiful today).
He then switched to Hindi, ‘Aap sab ka bahut swagat hai humare show pe. Mumbai mein aakar hume bahut khushi ho rahi hai’ (You’re all very welcome to our show. We feel happy after coming to Mumbai).
“Sorry, my Hindi and Marathi are bad but I tried my best,” Martin said before going back to English.
He thanked Indian fans for giving him the chance to play in one of their “favourite places in the whole world.”
“This is our fourth visit to India, the second time playing, and the first time played our show, and we couldn’t have asked for a better audience. It’s amazing you welcome us,” Martin said.
The singer-songwriter made it a point to ensure that the crowd was well taken care of, asking about their well-being and hydration.
‘Jasprit Bumrah needs to bowl at me’
Towards the end of the concert, Martin said it was time to wrap up soon as it was time for Bumrah to play cricket at the stadium.
“We got to finish the show because Jasprit Bumrah wants to come and play cricket backstage. Thank you very much, everybody, good night. He says he needs to bowl at me,” he said, sending the crowd into a tizzy, craving for more.
“We love you Jasprit. So, we are going to ask him to wait for 15 minutes… we would like to play the song one more time, this time with four of us and the 60,000 of you all in the same breath,” Martin requested.
Chris Martin of Coldplay says, “Jasprit Bumrah is backstage and wants to play cricket with me.” pic.twitter.com/hVkow17qmL
— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) January 19, 2025
The British band has two more shows at DY Patil Stadium — on January 19 and 20. They will then perform at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, which has a capacity of over one lakh, on January 25 and 26.
