Coldplay Concerts Were Built For Viral Moments Like This
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Coldplay Concerts Were Built For Viral Moments Like This 
WSJ Updated on: Jul 22, 2025 02:00 pm IST
The band was formed before social media, but its live shows have become a forum for using it well.
Astronomer CEO Andy Byron should have known better than to go to a Coldplay concert.
PREMIUMThat’s because the band, currently on its “Music of the Spheres” world tour, has been turning the camera on its fans for over a year, giving lead singer Chris Martin the opportunity to ad-lib goofy mini-songs about concertgoers.
Making fans the center of attention led to a wildly viral moment last week in Foxborough, Mass., when the camera trained its attention on Byron and Astronomer’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, snuggling in the crowd, only for them to wriggle and whirl out of the frame.
“Either they’re having an affair,” Martin said, “or they’re just very shy.”
Byron and Cabot did not respond to requests for comment. According to a statement from Astronomer, Byron has resigned from the company. “Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company wrote.
When artists play arenas, all eyes are typically glued to them for hours on end. But Coldplay has strengthened its bond with its audience by briefly inverting the dynamic during this portion of its concerts. “It makes fans feel like they are part of the show, rather than just attending the show,” says Josh Gale, a 47 year-old who saw the band for the fifth time this month in Toronto.
Coldplay released its debut album in 2000—long before the concept of going viral was commonplace. Despite the band’s veteran status, its ongoing tour has ignited two major viral moments this summer. After a clip of Martin looking distraught while performing the ballad “Sparks” hit TikTok on June 7, streams of the song surged, and it went on to crack the Hot 100 in the U.S. for the first time roughly 25 years after its release.
One video of the moment at Gillette Stadium has been viewed more than 120 million times on TikTok, and there are other similar clips in circulation. This attention appears to be correlated with increased interest in the band, which currently has five different songs on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs ranking in the U.S. Between Thursday and Sunday, three of them reached new chart peaks.
Martin did not address the incident directly at Coldplay’s next performance on July 19 in Wisconsin. Before turning the camera on fans yet again, though, he did offer a joking warning of sorts: “If you haven’t done your makeup, do your makeup now.” A spokesperson for Coldplay declined to comment.
The band started incorporating videos of fans into its shows in January 2024 at a show in Singapore, and the segment has been a staple ever since. “We’re gonna find some of you and say hello,” Martin told the audience at the time the camera was introduced. He asked the crew to dim the lights to provide a better view of his fans, who appeared on two large video screens opposite the singer.
Martin seems more comfortable with silly banter than some of his more buttoned-up rock star peers. When the camera debuted, as it settled on a couple in a crowd, the singer serenaded them: “Look at that beautiful couple, that lovely mister and miss/Do us all a favor, give each other a kiss.” After the smooch, the camera moved on to another fan, and Martin started again: “Look at that guy, he doesn’t look that taxed/Just sitting at the back so f—ing relaxed.”
When Coldplay’s frontman started a similar routine with Byron and Cabot at Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium last week, Blake Boyer, 18, captured it on video; he later posted a clip of the couple trying to evade the camera. Martin also wished one fan a happy birthday, congratulated another on a recent graduation and sang to people dressed in banana costumes, Boyer said in an interview. “What Coldplay does is unique,” he adds.
Although artists and record labels often spend lavishly on meticulously planned advertising campaigns on social media, music marketers say that the impromptu moments captured spontaneously by fans at live shows are increasingly likely to take over digital discourse.
In this climate, artists now think about two distinct audiences when they put together shows, according to Ric Lipson, partner at Stufish Entertainment Architects: the active fans, who shell out to be in the same space as their favorite artist, and the armchair fans, who experience the show through the video clips that ping pong across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
“The Instagram moment, as it is often called, has become more important,” says Lipson, who has helped design concerts for a range of stars, from Sabrina Carpenter to U2. “What are the seminal moments that people will want to see? What is the TikTok video going to be?”
These snippets from live shows spread widely precisely because they are not polished ad products—they might be unplanned, hilarious, or in last week’s case, jaw-droppingly awkward. Fan interaction sequences can be similarly potent: A video of Usher seductively feeding cherries to a woman at his concert went viral earlier this year.
“Live show clips are more specific, more focused and they haven’t been manufactured or paid for,” says Dan Roy Carter, a former TikTok executive who is now managing director of Carter Projects, a digital consultancy for labels and artists. “They have been captured by civilians and uploaded on the merits of being relevant, exciting or compelling.”
Boyer did not anticipate the explosive reaction to the video he shot at the Gillette Stadium show. He brought his grandmother to the concert because she’s a big fan of Coldplay’s hit “Viva La Vida,” describing it as “the one song she wanted to hear live before she dies.”
She loved the show: “She said this concert is No. 1 out of all the concerts she’s ever been to.”
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