By Daniel Paiz

June 10th, 2025, Broncos Stadium, Denver, Colorado —

Coldplay delivers wholesome joy during Denver’s Music of the Spheres World Tour stop. 198 shows during a world tour is pretty impressive, and to keep going is quite impressive as show #199 unfolds in Denver. Fans from across the country and from all over the world packed into this NFL venue despite meddling storm clouds.

Despite threats of lightning and raindrops meeting the stage, the headliners rocked out. Before such concerns of rain delay, several openers turned the crowd up.

Openers

The Dance Floor itself

Before either of the openers sang or played a note, three or four raised circular platforms were spread across the stadium floor at Empower Field at Mile High. These kinetic dance floors capture the energy generated from dancing fans. Once captured, that energy is used to fuel aspects of the live show.

What specifically is fueled by that captured kinetic energy is not stated, but it’s part of Coldplay’s efforts to reduce their carbon footprint on this tour. There are also bikes used to capture energy as well for the show. Before each performer, fans on the field level were encouraged to dance, jump, and pedal to quite literally fuel the show.

Elyanna

The 20-something Palestinian singer came out performing a myriad of sounds and lyrics, going back and forth between Arabic and English. From first glance, it’s hard to tell where this singer hails from. It wasn’t until nearing the end of her set that she spoke to the crowd about being Palestinian, gaining the biggest cheers of her set. The songs merged various genres together, giving hints of Pop, R&B, and more.

Fans initially didn’t know how to react, as there was a buzz of awkwardness in the stadium. The performance gave hints of potential cultural appropriation in part because of the wardrobe and hair choices, and the lack of mentioning Palestine. The crowd was unfamiliar with this artist it seemed. The singing was quite good, and it appears this opener has a voice that will carry her for quite some time.

Willow

Willow has been around for years now, and the crowd seemed to be a lot more familiar with her. The mixing of rock and funk and more amped the crowd up on the heels of Elyanna’s set. Willow had an interesting delivery, where there were hints of Thundercat in her set.

However, it wasn’t the bass or any other instrument that dropped such a hint, but rather Willow’s singing itself. Several times she sang like Thundercat plays. Odd at first, but it grows on you the more she did it.

After a successful set with very loud crowd approval, the stage was set for the openers…until it wasn’t. Clouds that had been meandering about all evening settled in around the stadium. It was unclear what would happen next.

The headliners maketh their way

The public address announcer advised several times that there was a thunderstorm watch in effect for the area in which Broncos stadium resides. Fans continued to ask staff what would happen next; of course, said staff knows as much as those fans when it comes to the weather. There is no outcome that can be guessed upon.

After 30 minutes of waiting and fans heading down the stairs and into the concourse, cheers erupted as the onstage screens advised music was coming. Ironically, the rain didn’t truly start until Coldplay began to play music, as not a drop fell during the previous 30 minutes.

Mother Nature might have been showing her approval for Coldplay’s effort to reduce their carbon footprint. The rain was gentle and didn’t fall long enough to impact the set any further. The English fellas dived into their set and lit up the stadium as fans had wristbands flashing all kinds of colors depending on what song was played.

Coldplay’s 2024 album Moon Music had several tracks grace the stage, as “ALL MY LOVE”, “GOOD FEELiNGS”, and “JUPiTER” amongst others were played. A bonus performance of the night was a slightly altered version of “WE PRAY”, as Elyanna, Willow, and Drago stepped in for portions originally delivered by Little Simz, Burna Boy, and Tini (Elyanna is on the original version also). That particular performance had an air of spontaneity and freshness to it that the other Moon Music songs didn’t have.

Every popular song from Coldplay’s storied two decades plus catalogue was played in between Moon Music tracks. “Paradise”, “Viva La Vida”, “Yellow” and “Something Just Like This” all dropped to overwhelming roars of crowd approval each time a beloved tune started. The crowd knew the words, the stadium was literally shaking, and lights aplenty made for quite an immersive experience.

“A Sky Full of Stars”, “Fix You”, and “Clocks” felt like the biggest moments of the night. Each performance was met with the crowd singing back to the band tenfold. There was this joy that one gets at concerts; however, it was a different feeling of joy. Perhaps it’s the state of the world and the endless news cycles of doom and gloom (which is necessary despite how draining it can be) that caused this reaction.

The thing is: there was a wholesomeness to this joy. Sure, Coldplay can occasionally get that eye-roll response from music fans too into their own tastes or expressions of tastes outside their own. But those slight moments of joy aren’t readily accessible lately. Coldplay appears to have learned how to bottle it for stadium-wide consumption. “Clocks” in particular felt like when time slows down enough to enjoy the here and now.

That’s special, especially when considering how cynical the world is today.