Coldplay released its new music video for “Champion Of The World” on Tuesday (February 24) of its most-recent album, Everyday Life.
In the video, lead singer Chris Martin heads back to elementary school but it wasn't to enjoy the thrills of childhood. Instead, the video is a poignant look at being bullied and knowing your worth despite it.
The song was released as a tribute to Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison who took his own life in 2018. “Scott had a song called ‘Los Angeles Be Kind,’ which I love,” Chris Martin previously said in a statement. “When I first heard it, I thought it was going to go one way; but it went another. Anyway ‘Champion of the World’ is the song that came from following the other path, and that’s why Scott is a co-writer on this song.”
In the video, Martin can be seen getting kicked and yelled at by fellow schoolmates as well as being screamed at by his parents. There's also a scene where he's nervously performing on a school stage in front of just one fellow — and bored looking — student.
As the video progresses, Martin rises above the hate (literally) and gets freed from it all. He's seen sitting on a rocketship flying high above the school ground and his neighborhood where viewers can see him succeeding as a singer and on the playground.
Martin sings in the outro: ”So I'm flying on my bicycle/ Heading upwards from the Earth/ I am jumping with no parachute/ Out into the universe/ I have E.T. on my bicycle/ Because giving up won't work/ Now I'm riding on my rocketship/ And I'm champion of the world.”
Photo: Getty Images