Coldplay’s Chris Martin responds to criticism over on-stage comments: “I’m never gonna stop that”
Chris Martin has responded to online criticism he has received for attempting to convey a series of peaceful messages at Coldplay concerts, saying, “A group of people are angry because I want to love all people.”
The Coldplay frontman has faced hostility on social media for various comments he has made to promote this idea, such as when he said after inviting two Israeli fans on-stage in London, “I’m very grateful that you’re here as humans, and I’m treating you as equal humans on Earth regardless of where you come from or don’t come from.”
Despite his intentions of spreading positivity and equality, Martin said he had experienced a sudden shift wherein any cause he has attempted to promote recently has been met with “negative” online attention. Subsequently, he has reflected on this in a recent interview with Hits Radio, explaining that he was “shaken” by these responses.
“Almost every time that I’ve said anything that we really believe in – in terms of equality, empathy, the things that I believe will help humans, more than criticism or aggression or genocide or terrorism – they’ve somehow become viral, negatively,” the frontman noted.
Reflecting on what this made him consider, Martin added: “A group of people are angry because I want to love all people. I’m not angry at those people that are angry at me but I was starting to get a bit like, ‘Do I have to stop saying that we welcome people from all [backgrounds]?’”
However, the singer emphasised how the experience would still not put him off communicating the message he wants to put out in the world. “No, I’m never gonna stop that,” Martin stated. “And if that upsets people, well I love those people too. So I can’t do anything. It’s not an empty platitude – it’s a considered position from a group of people that have met more humans in history.”
Despite Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour having been on the road for the past three years, Martin and the rest of the band show no signs of stopping yet as he separately teased in a social media post that there are “138 more shows to go.”
The interview was conducted backstage before Coldplay played the final of their 12 shows at Wembley Stadium. During the show, Martin encouraged the audience to raise their hands in the air before playing ‘Fix You’, and said, “You can send this to your brother or your sister. You can send it to the families of people who’ve been going through terrible stuff. You can send it to Charlie Kirk’s family. You can send it to anybody’s family. You can send it to people you disagree with but you send them love anyway”.
Martin added: “You can send it to peaceful people in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia, Azerbaijan and Sudan and Somalia, anywhere that you think might need love from London”.
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