Coldplay frontman Chris Martin ended the Global Citizen Festival India concert on a high note with his band on Saturday evening by singing “Vande Mataram” with the music maestro A R Rahman and also waved the national flag.
The band performed for over an hour at Mumbai’s MMRDA grounds. The singer is in the country as part of the Global Citizen India initiative 2016.
The British Rock band performed several memorable songs including Paradise, Viva La Vida, Yellow, Fix You.
Martin invited A R Rahman on stage and both sang “Maa tujhe salaam…Vande maatram”.
Martin later even waved the national flag. Initially, he also had small tricolour stuck in his back-pocket but later put it away.
Martin also enthralled everyone with his own version of song “Channa Mereya” from Karan Johar’s film “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”.
During his performance, Martin said, “Namaste friends, yeh hamari khushkismati hai ki itne khoobsurat desh mein aaye hain. (We are fortunate that we have come to such beautiful country).”
At the start, Martin was introduced by superstar Shah Rukh Khan, cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar and actress Frieda Pinto.
The Global Citizen Festival India 2016 turned out to be the biggest entertainment event of the year in B-town as several Bollywood celebrities and some international artists shared the stage at the MMRDA grounds.
Among the celebrities present at the gala were Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, Sonakshi Sinha, Parineeti Chopra, Monali Thakur, Arijit Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Arjun Rampal, Suzanne Khan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was earlier supposed to attend, could not make it to the event. He, however, joined via a video link that was beamed live.
Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra announced the opening of the festival. Singer Arijit Singh began the musical journey by crooning his latest blockbuster track “Ae Dil hai Mushkil” and other chartbusters.
Here are some reactions on the ‘Vande Mataram’ rendition: