Coldplay decided to cover a Taylor Swift song during their Vienna performance, paying homage to the cancelled Eras Tour gigs.
The band performed at the Ernst Happel Stadium as part of their ‘Music of the Spheres’ world tour. The concert took place just weeks after Taylor Swift was forced to cancel her shows in the same venue due to a foiled terrorist plot.
To honour Swift and the legion of Austrian swifties who missed out on the Eras Tour shows, Coldplay and their supporting act Maggie Rogers performed a rendition of Swift’s 2008 hit ‘Love Story’.
“I don’t want to let you think that we don’t care about swifties in our band.”
In a video shared to X, Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin explains why the band decided to cover the iconic song: “We haven’t mentioned that Vienna was in the news all over the world for all the wrong reasons. But what reached us was the beauty and the togetherness, and kindness of all of Taylor Swift’s fans,”
“So we felt — of course, Taylor is in America, she’s not here — but we’re here, so we have to do the best we can do. So, I don’t want to let you think that we don’t care about swifties in our band.”
Maggie Rogers shared a clip of the cover to her Instagram with the caption “From Vienna with love @coldplay @taylorswift.”
You can watch the ‘Love Story’ cover by Chris Martin and Maggie Rogers here:
Vienna terrorist plot:
Swift was forced to cancel three nights worth of shows in Austria’s capital after a young man was arrested for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack in the region, focusing on the concert.
She broke her silence on the matter yesterday in a post made to Instagram: “Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows “
The main suspect, a 19-year-old Islamic state sympathiser, uploaded a video to social media swearing allegiance to the current Islamic state group leader and was allegedly plotting an attack at the Ernst Happel Stadium with two other young men.
Speaking on why she remained silent on the issue for so long, Swift wrote: “Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows.”
“In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to.”
The completely sold-out shows in Vienna were set to see around 195,000 fans over the three nights and a possible extra 60,000 non-ticket holders outside the venue.
