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The crowd gears up for the performances
Image: Instagram.com/coldplay
Parineeti Chopra's selfie with Chris Martin
Image: Instagram.com/parineetichopra
Demi Lovato goes for gold on stage
Image: Instagram.com/glblctznin
Malaika Arora Khan and Riteish Deshmukh strike a pose at practice
Image: Instagram.com/riteishd
Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra take the stage
Image: Instagram.com/arjunkapoor
Behind the scenes with Ranveer Singh, Anupam Kher, Arjun Kapoor and Varun Dhawan
Image: Instagram.com/anupamkher
Shraddha Kapoor belts out a song for her fans
Image: Instagram.com/vogueindia
If you’re anything like us, you may have visited the Global Citizen Festival (GCF) with a sense of trepidation. After all, mixing Bollywood and rock has seldom yielded favourable results. But in spite a generous smattering of Bollywood and politicians on call, fans of English rock band Coldplay were rewarded with a spectacular show high not just on music but frontman Chris Martin’s onstage histrionics, showers of confetti, fireworks and even some bouncing balloons.
While people started queuing outside at 8am, hours before gates opened, office-goers in BKC had a field day, enjoying the show from their terraces.
There were many firsts at the show—starting with a crowd of 80,000 people showing up, to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi turning to Bob Dylan’s lyrics for his video conferenced speech. Then, there was Amitabh Bachchan lending his famous baritone twice—once for the Shillong Chamber Choir and next with Farhan Akhtar. GCF, an initiative to catalyse India’s journey to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030, was one such affair that brought together everyone from CM Devendra Fadnavis and industrialist Ratan Tata to cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, who received the maximum cheer from the crowds.
Our highlights, however, were of the musical kind. AR Rahman’s set began with a drum and bass instrumental piece that shocked and awed audiences in equal measure, before he belted out popular hits like “Humma Humma” and “Tu Hi Re”. American rapper Jay Z stood tall performing his Indian collaboration with Punjabi MC on “Mundiya tu bachke rahi” before crowdpleasers like “99 problems,” “Run this town” and “Empire State of Mind” came in.
Actor Ranveer Singh mistook the concert for a Bollywood awards night, and negating his high drama show and an uninspiring (and most-likely a filler) set by The Electrovertz, the concert had few downers.
After hours of wait, headliners Coldplay took the stage around 8.45 pm to pull off a high-energy, two-hour long show (including their 30 minutes encore that went beyond the 10pm deadline). With Chris Martin showcasing his showmanship on the ramp as well as on the keys, the concert covered the band’s discography with early hits like “Yellow,” “Scientist” and “Fix you” down to chart toppers from their more recent albums Mylo Xyloto and A Head Full of Dreams. Much to the delight of his female fans, Martin even changed on stage. Winning audiences with his Hindi interludes (“Yeh hamari khush kismati hai ke hum is duniya mein aaye hai,” he said as he stepped on stage), Martin strutted around with the Indian flag at the close of the concert. The icing on top, though, was the encore performance with Rahman. Martin and Rahman’s duet “Ma Tujhe Salaam” was no short of magical.
Now the only thing left to see for fans is India is if Chris Martin will keep up to his promise of returning soon.
The post All that you missed at the Global Citizen Festival appeared first on VOGUE India.