BTS and Coldplay’s Collaboration “My Universe” Is Out Of This World
Separately, BTS and Coldplay are two of the biggest bands in the world. Together they make one hell of a powerful force, which they’ve unleashed in their new collaboration, single “My Universe” off Coldplay’s forthcoming album Music of the Spheres.
The song blends a classic Coldplay sound with BTS’s sublime vocals and powerful rapline. It’s a tribute to love across boundaries, Chris Martin said recently on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
“We really don’t believe in any boundaries or separation of anything really,” the Coldplay frontman said. “And so the song ‘My Universe’ is about someone being told they can’t love a certain other person, or can’t be with this race, or they can’t be gay – whatever it might be.”
Co-written by Martin and other Coldplay members Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, and Will Champion, along with BTS members J-Hope, RM, and Suga, plus Bill Rahko, Oscar Holter, and Max Martin, the song features lyrics in both English and Korean. Its release was accompanied by a lyric video featuring lyrics hand-written by members of both bands.
The collaboration comes after BTS have long expressed their admiration for and desire to work with Coldplay, tweeting about their love for the band as early as 2014, when BTS were a pretty new group themselves. Some of the BTS members attended a Coldplay concert when the British band were in South Korea in 2017, and spoke of the experience as inspiring. In interviews, BTS have repeatedly mentioned their wish to collaborate with the group.
Fast forward to this year, and BTS delivered a stunning cover of Coldplay’s iconic ballad “Fix You” on MTV Unplugged back in February, which Coldplay shared on Twitter, calling it “beautiful” in Korean. The interaction led many fans to get excited about the collaboration possibilities, and Chris Martin being spotted in Korea in April had rumours flying that it might actually happen.
We now know Martin really was there to work with BTS. In an interview with Howard Stern, he revealed that “My Universe” was originally written for BTS alone, but Coldplay loved it so much they wanted to be on the track with them and release it themselves. He added that the song’s subject matter of love against all odds made the collaboration even more meaningful.
“It’s about difficult love, and so it’s good that it’s two very different bands singing it,” Martin told Stern. Earlier, he expressed similar thoughts to Kelly Clarkson, saying “We thought it would be good to sing with BTS because maybe we’re not supposed to be together. And it turned out to be one of the most fun things ever. I went to Korea to be with them, it’s been amazing.”
In a mini-documentary Inside My Universe released on BTS’ Youtube channel BangtanTV, the two groups shared a behind-the-scenes look of how they worked together, particularly Martin’s time in South Korea and what went into recording the song.
And the content keeps coming: two remixes have also been released – an acoustic version and a “Supernova 7 Mix” – plus there’s also an official music video “coming soon”, just to keep fans on their toes.
Written by Jenna Guillaume, an entertainment journalist and author of YA rom-coms What I Like About Me and You Were Made For Me. Follow her at @jennaguillaume.
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