Since returning from the COVID-19 Pandemic, many bands and artists alike have started to emerge from the shadows of lockdown and started to go back on tour. Some even making their first tour appearance in over half a decade and have extended there dates for well over a year. It’s safe to say, that touring is coming back in these last few years. 

A Countless number of artists have gone on tour in the last 2 years. Everyone from Metallica, Future and Metro Boomin, Bruce Springsteen, Harry Styles, and many more. But 2 artists have captivated this area of music more than anyone else both in the 2020s, and in history as a whole. Taylor Swift, and Coldplay. 

Taylor’s tour is a whole other can of worms that I’ll get into in another article, but for now, I want to focus on #2.Coldplay. 

Coldplay announced the Music of the Spheres World Tour on the 14th of October 2021, the day before the release of the album with an identical title. Similar to tours past, the concerts make extensive use of pyrotechnics and confetti. However, they were adapted to minimize the group’s carbon footprint. 

The carbon footprint of the group became a primary focus, as ideas were pitched to create the first ever rechargeable show battery in the world in partnership with BMW and planting a tree for every ticket sold.

When the tour was announced back in 2021, the band released a 12-step plan which was developed in two years with environmental experts and set out how Coldplay would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50% compared to their ‘A Head Full of Dreams Tour’. 

The tour would finally begin on March 22nd in San Jose, Costa Rica with back-to-back sold-out nights at Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica. These sold-out nights would become a trend where they would go 60 straight venues sold out. You read that right. That’s the entirety of their 2022 dates, 2023 dates, and all of their 2024 dates as of writing this (10/12) completely at capacity and sold out. 

Nobody, not only in recent memory or in history, has had a streak like that. Not even Taylor Swift! 

Recently, the band announced a second North American leg to the tour with performances all the way from Stanford California, Stretching to Toronto Canada, Foxborough Massachusetts, and all the way down to Miami Florida. As of yesterday (10/11), every single one of those dates is sold out. 

Within 10 days of each other in August, the band hit two milestones. Most attended tour (Aug 16th) and 2nd ever artist to gross over a billion dollars on a tour (Aug 26th). They have made music history, and nobody is talking about it!

Keep in mind, these are some of the artists that have been on tour in the last few years: Billie Eilish, Zach Bryan, Metallica, Justin Timberlake, Pitbull, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Travis Scott, Elton John (his final one btw!), Harry Styles, Beyonce, Pink, Bruce Springsteen, The Weekend, Sabrina Carpenter. Yet seemingly all of them have gotten more coverage and been in the spotlight more than Coldplay. 

Coldplay is breaking records, and nobody is talking about it. Why? 

For one thing, it isn’t the music. 12 of their songs have eclipsed 1 billion streams on Spotify. 4 of those 12 have eclipsed 2 billion streams, with ‘Yellow’, ‘Viva La Vida’, and ‘Something Just Like This’ leading the way for their discography. This isn’t even mentioning the release of their 10th studio album “Moon Music”. 

The show itself is divided into 4 parts (Planets, Moons, Stars, and Home) with Chris Martin saying the concert encompasses “a journey traveling outwards into the unknown to then come home having learned something new. This is represented both visually and with what songs fit into what act” 

The concerts in and of themselves are receiving critical acclaim. The San Francisco Chronicle said, “Coldplay’s show was a joyous, bright, cathartic post-pandemic triumph”. Marco Torres of the Houston Press called it “a beautiful dream, with balloons flying around, confetti bursting from air cannons and lasers shooting from the stage through the smoke”

Christopher Daniel from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution praised the band adding that Coldplay is set to become a “must-see legendary act”. Felipe Branco Cruz from Veja argued the band “reinvented the concept of arena rock” with their performance at the Rock in Rio festival. 

The final date of the tour is scheduled to end in lead singer Chris Martin’s home country of England in one of the most famous venues in the world; Wembley Stadium. 

As Coldplay’s record-breaking tour continues to soar to unprecedented heights, it’s confusing how the monumental success of one of the biggest bands in the world seems to be slipping under the radar. With staggering ticket sales, groundbreaking sustainability efforts, and a deeply loyal global fanbase, Coldplay is quietly rewriting the rules of live music. 

Yet, despite these achievements, their story isn’t making headlines. Maybe it’s time we start paying attention not just to the numbers, but to the way Coldplay has redefined what it means to be a modern rock band on tour. After all, history is being made and it’s about time we took notice.