The billion-dollar juggernaut that is Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour has finally arrived at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City Stadium.
The venue is a fitting choice, as the concert visuals and the accompanying self-titled album – along with last year’s follow-up, Moon Music – delve into themes of life in the galaxy. Thursday’s first of four shows breathed musical life into one of the city’s most cherished landmarks.
It also marked the first time the stadium has hosted a full-scale concert performance since George Michael and Alicia Keys took to the stage in 2008.
This time, everything is much bigger.
While all four previous visits to the UAE, beginning with 2009’s famous rain-soaked debut show at Emirates Palace, presented slimmed-down versions of their respective tours, this time Abu Dhabi got the real deal. This set-up includes a neon-lit circular main stage with an extended runway, as well as two satellite stages positioned deep in the arena.
Coldplay fans excited before Abu Dhabi concert - video
The visuals projected on to the stage and backdrops feature abstract animations, galactic landscapes, and slogans drawn from song lyrics. There are the wristbands – known to Coldplay's faithful fans as Xylobands after their 2011 Mylo Xyloto album – that light up to create cascading waves of purples and blues in time with the music.
Which brings us to the music. Despite all the technical wizardry and well-meaning sustainability ambitions of the tour, none of it would work without Coldplay’s indomitable 25-year catalogue of hits.
While it’s easy – and, in some cases, justifiable – to label some of their songs as overly sentimental, given the full treatment, tracks like the opener Higher Power and Adventure of a Lifetime transform into undeniable, bombastic anthems that are impossible to resist.
By the time Paradise arrived, with its swaying, singalong chorus, it became clear not only why Coldplay are the biggest band in the world, but also why Zayed Sports City Stadium finally feels like a venue worthy of their pedigree.
Coldplay perform at Zayed Sports City Stadium on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. All tickets are sold out. Doors open from 5pm.
