Coldplay, Shawn Mendes Sing ‘Fix You’ in Munich, Germany

It’s been nearly 20 years since Coldplay released “Fix You,” and the task of fixing you must be difficult because they’re still singing it. On Thursday, they called in help from Shawn Mendes to sing “Fix You” with them at Munich’s Olympiastadion. “Sing it loud,” Mendes told the crowd at one point.

The performance was big and grand and ameliorative in all the ways that Coldplay typically plays that song, with the added benefit of Mendes’ sheer joy in being onstage with the group. By the end of the song, Martin confidently bequeaths Mendes the honor of finishing the track with his voice alone. Although it’s a little messy in the quiet middle, when Mendes and Martin try to align their voices to the melody and tempo of the song, it turns into a sweet performance that the audience sings along with.

Mendes’ appearance was a surprise since he isn’t on tour; his last concert was in Winnipeg last month. He’ll be releasing a new album, though, Shawn, on Oct. 18 and recently released a new single from it, “Why, Why, Why.” Mendes has a few North American dates scheduled for that month, where he’ll play all of Shawn.

Meanwhile, Coldplay are also hawking a new album. Martin also revealed the track list for the group’s upcoming Moon Music album, due out Oct. 4, in an Instagram video. The clip shows him writing out each track by name. Track six is a rainbow emoji (which was noticeably difficult to draw with a thick black Sharpie, but you have to figure he was thinking of Prince when he wrote it.) The background music for the post — “We Pray,” a track that features Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna, and Tini — is a mix of heavy drums and poppy orchestral strings leading up to Martin saying the words, “And so we pray.”

That song will come out in full on Aug. 23. Tini’s version of the song will come out Sept. 6 and Elyanna’s will follow on Sept. 20.

Coldplay will continue their commitment to sustainability by pressing vinyl copies of the record with recycled plastic bottles. It takes nine to make an LP, proving that if they can’t fix you, they can at least do a little something about the environment.