Two weeks after Taylor Swift was forced to cancel a run of shows at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium after officials uncovered a planned terror plot, Coldplay‘s Chris Martin paid tribute to the singer by covering one of her most beloved songs during his band’s gig at the venue on Wednesday night (August 21).
Taking to the Music of the Spheres satellite stage on the floor of the 65,000-capacity stadium with opening act Maggie Rogers, Martin said, “If this is not good, please, please don’t put it on YouTube because I don’t want to get in trouble with Taylor.” He then asked the crowd to help him by singing along to an acoustic version of Swift’s “wonderful” 2008 Fearless classic “Love Story.”
“We sing this song with so much love for Taylor, with so much love for Swifties,” Martin said after finding two “genuine Swifties” to join him on stage to help with the tribute. “And we sing this song with love for young people who are brainwashed into doing stupid s–t and we send them our love too.”
Strumming an acoustic guitar, Martin sang the swoony Romeo & Juliet-inspired lyrics as the stadium crowd provided vocal support, with Rogers joining him on the second verse before taking over the dreamy chorus. She even briefly handed her mic over to the pair of excited fans for a bit of vocal assistance during the special moment that came on the same day that Swift addressed the “devastating” terror threat for the first time in a statement.
“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” Swift said of the foiled plot targeting the shows that were booked to take place on August 8-10. According to authorities, the main teenage plotter reportedly admitted that he’d planned to attack Swifties with knives and explosives outside the venue to inflict maximum casualties.
“But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” Swift added. “I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London. My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”
According to a fan video, Martin acknowledged the reason he chose to cover the song in the introduction, noting, “We haven’t mentioned that Vienna was in the news all over the world for all the wrong reasons. But what reached us was the beauty and the togetherness, and kindness of all of Taylor Swift’s fans. So we felt — of course Taylor is in America, she’s not here — but we’re here, so we have to do the best we can do. So, I don’t want to let you think that we don’t care about Swifties in our band.”
Swift wrapped up her five-show run at London’s Wembley Stadium on Tuesday, bringing and end to the European leg of her Eras Tour. Officials in Vienna said they’ve arrested three suspects in the case, the main 19-year-old suspect, who was reportedly radicalized online and had pledged fealty to the Islamic State, as well as an 18-year-old man who had also pledged allegiance to the terror group ISIS and a 17-year-old young man who was reportedly hired by a company providing services to the venue for the shows just a week prior.
Rogers shared a clip of the cover on her Instagram, writing, “From Vienna with love [three heart emoji] @coldplay @taylorswift.”
See a bit of the “Love Story” cover below.